It had only been a few months, a few months since everything had gone wrong for Hacker, and he'd been banished to the Northern Frontier half drained of power. He'd luckily taken precautions, set up a hanger and ship parts so it wasn't completely hopeless, and now he could finally return to Radopolis to gather the rest of his things as well as any important inventions, a few shirts, his favorite mug, and other such items.
By this time, Coop was either powered off from the magnitite, or in some hospital, and their little tyke was most likely in some group home or with his aunts. It was better this way. Hacker had decided that if he was going to start his new life, his old one had to die. Slider had been a slight temptation to bring with as an assistant, but he was still a child, and so needy, so those thoughts had been quickly squashed.
Pulling up to the garage, everything was quiet, calm, and locked up, just as Hacker expected it to be. He parked and got out of the small coupe he'd built. By the end of the week, it would be back to scrap, but for now, it worked. Groaning as he stretched, Hacker headed to the door, punching in the code and watching as the door slowly raised. He grumbled to himself that he should've hired some bots to carry his things out, but then again, some of the more delicate or classified blueprints he wanted to oversee himself, so it was better this way.
His first stop was his old workbench he used to share with Coop. The space was normally cluttered with parts and papers. Instead, it was practically pristine. Hacker's frown deepened as he gazed at the clean space. Was the magnitite not enough? Did Coop survive? Had Doctor Marbles come by to destroy any works in progress? Hacker ground his teeth at the thought before moving into the actual house itself.
The building was small, the door from the garage landing him in the living room that lead to an open kitchen with a small dining table and three chairs. He instead took a sharp left around the side of the house, a skinny hallway that led to two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a closet. How'd he'd ever been content in such a space was beyond him. No longer were the days he'd continue trying to fool himself into thinking he could be happy in such a place. He was a prince of Cyberspace, and it was about time he was treated as such, including his-
Hacker let out a sputtering noise as he opened his closet to see, well, nothing. His entire side with extra shirts, pants, boots, hats, anything was gone. Coop's still hanging neatly on his side of the closet. So that must have been it. The Radster pulled through. Hacker was surprised his stuff wasn't on the front lawn, his ex partner could be dramatic like that. It was still a pain however, and Hacker angrily slammed the closet door closed.
Now on a mission, he stomped angrily from room to room, looking for a singular piece of evidence that he'd ever existed in this wretched house. Even photos had a neat slice through most of them, cutting him out of the frame, or were gone entirely. His favorite blanket was not on the couch, even the documents about his creation and graduation were gone from the sleek folder kept tucked away in the garage. It was when Hacker went to angrily check to see if his favorite mugs were still around that a flicker of something in the backyard caught his attention through the window.
It was a fire. And a big one at that. Rushing outside, Hacker threw open the door, Cyberfluid draining from his face as he stared at the scene before him. In a rather large self dug pit sat a very large pile of papers, machinery, clothing, and other items that Hacker was recognizing with horror as his belongings that were burning away in a gigantic bonfire. Standing in front of it all and holding his favorite mug, was a very angry looking eight year old Slider, sporting a black eye and fat lip.
The two stared at each other, Hacker struggling between being enraged and being downright dumbfounded, while Slider looked ready to fight his creator. Lifting the hand that held the mug, Slider bared his teeth as he slammed his hand down, throwing the mug to the ground and shattering in on impact. The message was clear. There was no repairing this. Hacker scoffed at the Child before pausing to give a final look at him. "You were never that useful to begin with." He muttered before stomping back to his coupe to leave, ignoring the look of hurt on Slider's face before that look of unforgivable hatred came back. Hacker knew that look, he'd seen it on his own face when trying to take over Control Central. But that was alright. After all, everything in his old life had to die so that he could rise up in his new one like a phoenix from the ashes, including the death of any sort of relationship between him and his youngest creation.
