Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ali felt empty, he was alone.

He was surrounded by hatred and fear. Hatred for the betrayal he had inflicted upon M.A.T.A, nearly making Cyberaya in grave danger due to his "selfish" reasons. Fear for the damage he had once caused, both physically and internally. First, he dared attack his friends, causing them to be severely injured, then he betrayed M.A.T.A, who knows what he would do next? Murmurs echoed in the hallway, as the agents side-eyed him, as if saying:

You do not belong here, you traitor.

But the truth is, he was being controlled by I.R.I.S Override and he injured his friends, and the reason why he betrayed M.A.T.A was because he felt noticed, appreciated there. He did not just felt like an asset, he felt...human.

Ali looked up at the starry sky, and with all his emotions, he shouted: 

“I just wish that I could have one more chance, a restart at this!”


As Ali sat in his room, he saw the night sky twinkled, as if responding to his wish. For once, he chose to believe that maybe things might change for the better…

When Ali woke up the next day, the first thing he saw was how tidy his room was. He blinked, staring at the room in confusion. “I definitely did not clean up my room yesterday..." He thought as he got up and walked towards the closet to get ready for school. But when he opened the closet, he saw a sky blue collared shirt with a dark blue formal vest on the outside with his name and school logo engraved on it.

"What?" Ali said as he stared at the prefect uniform currently sitting in his closet, beads of perspiration trickled down his face, absolutely dumbfounded by this discovery. The last time he checked, he was definitely not a prefect. He could barely reach school on time, much more actually carry out prefect responsibilities. Just as he was about to start a whole room investigation to ensure that he was not the main star of a prank show before actually starting to panic, he looked at the time.

"7:25 A.M."

"NOT AGAINNNNNN!" Ali screamed as he instinctively grabbed the prefect uniform and changed into it, he could not be late again. He barely completed his morning routine, before hastily taking a backpack and left the house.

Before the clock hit 7:30 A.M., Ali ran into the classroom, panting as he did so. Surprisingly, he was rather fast so he managed to reach school on time. "A pat on the shoulder for that." Ali thought. He seriously could not believe himself, making so much effort to be early to school. He made it once again, but barely. Ali then thought about all the possible punishments he could get from his form teacher, Puan Munah. She was a very strict and fierce teacher, no one would want to test her patience. Except for Ali whom in the past, often accidentally angers her for flunking his classes, being late. Just thinking about the time she sliced a rock in half with just a cane sent shivers down his spine. 

Ali walked towards his seat, settling his backpack on the floor and settled down into his seat. He looked around. "Wait," Ali thought, "Wasn't I suppose to sit at the last row? He thought in confusion. But his mind told him this was the right seat. He then turned to his best friend and seatmate, Viktor Ong and greeted him, just like he had always done. "Hey bro!" Ali said, grinning. Viktor turned around, a look of confusion in his face before greeting him back with an awkward smile.

"What's wrong Viktor? You seem upset." Ali asked, looking confused. But before he could reply, a tall teacher with a shaggy hairstyle wearing a dull yellow collared shirt hopped into the classroom, carrying a cane.

Ali stared at the unknown teacher for a few seconds before gasping in shock.

"CIKGU BIDIN?!" He said, mouth agaped, and everyone turned around in confusion. Ali was glad that he did not say "Agent Karya", that would have been a disaster.

As he was about to question, he heard slight panting from the window. When he turned around, he saw Alicia staring into the classroom, her eyes seemingly fixated on Mia. Mia looked at her, nodded, and stood up.

"Cikgu!"

"Yes?" Cikgu Bidin turned around and looked at Mia with narrowed eyes.

"Uh...I don't understand the question on the board!"

The whole class went silent.

"What question? There IS no question there!" Cikgu Bidin retorted, staring at Mia with suspicion.

"Uhm...Exactly!" Mia said scratching her head. "It is precisely because of that!"

Just then, Ali looked behind and saw Alicia sneaking into the classroom. Their eyes meet and Alicia stared at him with fear. She then mouthed the words: "Pleaseeee don't tell the teacher on me..." 

Ali frowned and raised one of his eyebrow in confusion. After all it is almost impossible, no screw that, impossible for her to be late but now, he sees Alicia staring at him with desperation, eyes darting around to make sure Cikgu Bindi didn't suddenly appear behind her and punish her tardiness. Seeing this, he felt a sense of pity, but he wanted to use this chance to take revenge on her for telling on him so many times. Finally, he sighed and whispered to Alicia: "Alright, I will let you go this time..." Hearing this, Alicia eye's shined with both happiness and confusion. "But..." Hearing this, Alicia, on her way to her seat, slow-turned and stared at Ali as if saying: "I knew it..." She sat in her seat as she took out her tablet and saw the punishment.

"Tidy bookshelves in school library"

Alicia groaned internally. "Great. I knew he would not let me go that easily. That clean freak..." She thought as she took out a piece of paper and started scribbling on it...

As Cikgu Bidin was teaching, Ali did not listen. Rather, he was thinking about today’s weird course of events. "Something was not right." He thought. First, he woke up to an unusually tidy room, then found a prefect uniform in his closet and now Alicia being late? There is definitely something wrong. And he remembered clearly. Never once in his life had his form teacher ever been absent before, and Cikgu Bindi is way too fierce to be him.

Unless...

No, it cannot be, that is simply not possible. But then how did all this occur? The thought of it just made Ali’s brain hurt. Just then, he felt a piece of crumpled up paper flew towards him, and he instinctively dodged it. That piece of paper landed right into Cikgu Bindi’s face.

“WHO THREW THIS?!” Cikgu Bidin hollered. Steam could be seen coming out from his ears. Ali blurted out, “It was Alicia.” Hearing this, Alicia started sweating profusely. “No, no, you’ve got it all wrong!” Cikgu Bidin looked at Alicia with anger in his eyes and angrily threw a bunch of crumpled up papers back towards her. Startled, Alicia tumbled backwards and landed with a ‘thump’ onto the floor, while all the crumpled up papers follow suit somehow, and landed right beside her and on her face.

While all of this was happening, Ali witnessed this seen unfold with shock. After all, Alicia might hate him, but she definitely was not that childish to do this to him. Only he would do such a childish act—

Wait.

Only he would do such an act. Well other than Shuan and Syed, but they did not sit behind him. That meant that he was right.

This might be a world where everything is swapped.

Chapter Text

The thought of it made Ali’s head hurt.

“How did this happen?” He thought. Just then the bell rang, signalling the end of school. He hastily packed his bag and headed towards the library. He was hoping that the library somehow has the information he needs to find out what has caused him to enter another world. As he entered the library, he saw Alicia sitting at on of the study desks in the library playing video games instead of obeying the school rules and completing the punishment of cleaning the library assigned to her. “Yup, i am definitely in a swapped world because there is no way the actual Alicia would do this.” Ali thought to himself. With that thought in mind, he smirked.

”Hah! Since everything in this world is swapped, that means I am taller and have more authority than her. I could use this to my advantage and take revenge on her for snitching on me when I commit even the slightest mistake!” 

Ali walked towards her and patted her shoulder.

”AHHHHH!” Alicia shrieked, and she tumbled backwards, and landing with a ‘thud!’ 

Just then, the librarian appeared out of nowhere and roared: “SHHHHHH! KEEP QUIET THIS IS A LIBRARY!” Ali looked at the librarian and raised his eyebrows. “How ironic. Your telling us not to make noise in the library when you just shouted at us?” Ali thought in his head, but he still minded his manners and calmly apologised to the librarian. “Strange. I have never in my life apologised to someone with such calmness.” Ali thought, slightly confused. “Maybe it is just this world’s Ali’s composure or whatever.” Ali internally shrugged. Alicia then got up from the floor and hastily apologised to the librarian. “S-sorry! Won’t happen again!” Alicia stammered. The librarian snorted and headed back to the counter. Alicia then breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, the sharp pain from her recent fall suddenly shot up her body. “Aduh…” Alicia mumbled and turned her head towards the culprit that made her so startled that she fell out of her chair. 

“O-oh uhm, Ali.” Alicia stammered and backed away slightly when she saw Ali standing behind her, smirking. Ali then took out his tablet and flashed her the punishment he assigned to her today.

”Today, 8:00 A.M., I assigned you to tidy the library, but are you seriously slacking off? You should be glad I did not assign you to clean the toilet instead.” Ali sneered, and smirked when he saw Alicia’s eye twitched in annoyance. “Whatever…” Alicia grumbled in annoyance as she reluctantly walked towards the comic book section where an array of misplaced books awaits, snatched one of the books of the bookshelf, and shoved it into its correct spot. “Oh, looks like someone is frustrated. You will have to pay if you damage school property.” Ali said smugly as he leaned against one of the shelves. “Just doing my job, definitely no biases involved.” Ali thought, completely forgetting his main objective on why he even came to the library in the first place. Alicia said nothing, she just continued tidying the messy bookshelves with much more force than necessary. Ali looked at the cylinder pillar/bookshelf in the library and suddenly a thought came to mind.

”Does MATA exist in this world?” Ali thought as he stared at the pillar/bookshelf. Since it is a swap world, if it does exist, he should be able to enter MATA since in the original world, Alicia had known MATA since she was little, and was an unregistered agent, so she was able to access MATA’s HQ even before Ali obtained IRIS. Ali silently walked towards the bookshelf that stored the book that was actually a secret passcode to open the elevator down to MATA HQ. He opened the book and pressed his palm at a specific page in the book. Suddenly, the cylinder pillar/bookshelf split into half with a ‘fshhh’ and revealed an elevator with a wooden interior. “Hmm so MATA does exist in this world.” Ali mumbled. He stared at the elevator, and thought about the way they all looked at him. General Rama, the other MATA agents. They looked at him as if he had offended their entire bloodline. General Rama eyes was flaming with hatred. While other agents have both fear and hatred in their eyes. He could not really blame them. After all, he betrayed MATA due to selfish reasons. He said he just wanted to help the proverty, but that was just a cover up reason for his selfishness. “Because I never felt like a worthy person at MATA.” These were his true thoughts. A selfish, disgusting reason that put both the people living in the Cyberaya slums and the ones living in main land Cyberaya. 

He could have helped those in the slums through other ways, but he chose a traitors path due to egocentrical thoughts.

After quite a while, Ali sighed and stepped into the elevator. The elevator closed with a small ‘thud’ as it whisks Ali away to one of MATA’s underground HQ.

-Viewer perspective-

While that was happening, Alicia continued her ‘tidy the library’ punishment, taking and shoving books into its respective shelves while grumbling about how annoying ‘head prefect Ali’ was. Suddenly, a small glitch appeared on one of the books, changing its title completely. Oblivious to what had happened, Alicia simply just took the book, looked at it briefly before placing it on one of the shelf with brute force. The book then glitched, and completely disappeared from view.

-Ali’s perspective-

While in the elevator, his uniform got changed into his current world’s agent uniform with advanced nanotechnology, which has a colour scheme of yellow, green and some blue—which means in this world, he was in Neuro pillar, a pillar that is known for its excellent strategies during missions, remarkable intelligence and precise aim. The Ali that is currently residing in this universe’s Ali was the complete opposite. Reckless and sloppy plans, definitely not the most intelligent agent, and extremely horrendous aim. Ali stared at his suit in extreme reluctance and awe. He was in awe because he was amazed by his swapped version’s success, and extreme reluctance because of his pillar. Since now he was his swapped versions body and soul, he was not sure whether he could be able to be as good as this worlds 'Ali'. After a beat, he sighed and walked into the MATA briefing room.

The room was relatively bright, and technological equipment was everywhere. He looked around, expecting to see Agent Jenny and a few other agents. "That traitor..." Ali thought as he frowned. Agent Jenny, originally a MATA agent under the Tekno pillar, was a 'role model's that agents should learn from. She was kind, supportive and especially hopeful about Ali's potential with IRIS.

Until they discovered that she was the mole all along, the one who betrayed MATA.

But what Ali saw made his jaw dropped to the ground. He saw Agent Rizwan, wearing a white trenchcoat with red linings, which symbolizes the Tekno pillar. He was seen hastily tapping on his tablet. Ali then knew: In this world, Rizwan is the mole. Why did it had to be him? Why Jenny be swapped for someone else? He thought. He had always looked up to Agent Rizwan in the original world, where he was a top Invinso pillar agent and Ali's mentor. Until he betrayed MATA. But he just cannot bring himself to mercilessly fight him. Just then, the TV screen in the briefing room flickered, and instead of General Rama's fierce expression like he was expecting, he saw a familiar face. Someone related to him.

His father, supposedly Dr. Ghazali, now probably General Ghazali

"WHAT?!" Ali said, dumbfounded. The whole room turned towards him, looking at him like he had gone crazy. "Sorry. I...did not have enough sleep last night." Ali said calmly. But internally, he his mind was in a frenzy. He had expected someone else, literally anyone who will be swapped with General Rama in this universe, but he absolutely did not thought that his own father would be swapped with the General of MATA in this world. 

"HEY, WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU CAN COME IN?!" Dr. Ghazali or rather General Ghazali hollered at Ali, who winced as his voice echoed across the room. “DIDN'T I ALREADY SAID SO MANY TIMES, YOU ARE FORBIDDEN FROM GOING TO MISSIONS?" General Ghazali continued to scream at Ali, and his ears starts ringing. He felt like he was going to become deaf. 

"General, do calm down a bit." Agent Rizwan said, as he gestured to some stats on his tablet.

”Ali has extreme potential in terms of being an agent. Even if you absolutely disagree on letting him going on missions, you cannot deny that his skills are beyond his age. I suggest letting him go on some missions as he could definitely help speed up mission progress-”

”SHUT!”

General Ghazali’s voice echoed across the room, and by the time the echoing settled down, it has almost been one minute.

”He is NOT going on missions and that is final. Agent Ali, you are DISMISSED.”

Despite every thought in his soul told him not to protest before something bad happens, but before he could stop himself, he opened his mouth. “But ayah-”

”Don’t you ‘Ayah’ me, DISMISSED.”

Ali frowned. He now somehow understood how his world’s Alicia felt, feeling looked down upon like that, especially after what had happened to him shortly before he betrayed MATA. Ali let out a disappointed sigh and was about to leave when the whole room suddenly began to glitch and before he knew it, the whole room suddenly turned dark, and a glitchy looking monster who looks extremely disfigured suddenly spawned out of thin air and lunged at Ali. Ali shrieked and automatically grabbed the slingshot hanging on his waist with his clammy hands. However, before he could shoot the monster with his horrible aim, the room suddenly lit back up, but he saw Agent Rizwan doing the exact same thing he was doing before the screen lit up with General Ghazali about to brief today’s mission before turning to Ali and uttering the same sentence before that monster appeared.

Ali, this time, turning to leave the place before General Ghazali finished his sentence and hastily headed home. When he reached home, he ran up to his room and locked the door. He then laid on the messy bed that stood out from rest of the tidy, spotless room. And before he knew it, he fell asleep…

In his dreams however, he heard a voice that sounded like it was reaching out to him.

“Save this broken timeline, for your wish for another chance to be fulfilled.”

When Ali woke up, he was drenched in cold sweat. “What was that…” He mumbled. Ali felt confused about what had happened. What did the voice meant when it said broken timeline? What is so broken about this timeline? Just then, he saw the clock beside him glitch. One moment it was 7:00 A.M., then it showed 6:28 A.M., and for a second, Ali saw a disfigured, glitchy like hand stick out.

”Ah. So that was what that voice meant.” Ali thought as he his expression turned anxious.

With all the weird phenomenons happening, Ali was not surprised anymore.

Chapter Text

0403, ONE OF MATA’S BASE_ _


Mysterious duo infiltrates MATA and destroyed some of MATA’s properties_

A supposedly new MATA recruit entered the room where MATA stored one of their abandoned projects: PROJECT IRIS (Infinity Retinal Intelligent System)

PROJECT IRIS was stolen from MATA by a mysterious bald man and a black and purple hair woman.

-Alicia’s perspective-

It was another sunny morning in the city of Cyberaya. The clouds seemed to be forming many different cute shapes and the birds were chirping what sounded like a simple tune. It seemed to be a happy and blissful morning, but to Alicia, it was not. Her curtains fully covered any form of light from entering her bedroom, and the alarm clock on her bedside kept ringing non-stop and the things in her room were in astray, the bedroom looks more like a pigsty than a room. Alicia used the pillows on her bed to cover her ears while reaching out with her hands in an attempt to stop the ringing. By the time she made the ringing stop while her head still buried in a pile of pillows, she heard a voice that belonged to none other than Dr. Rama.

“Alicia? ALICIA! ARE YOU STILL ASLEEP?”

That sound was enough to wake Alicia from her slumber. She hastily grabbed the phone and placing it near her ear. “Uh…Sorry Papa, I am awake now-”

“DEY IT IS 7:00 A.M, AND YOU ARE STILL IN BED? DON’T YOU HAVE SCHOOL TODAY?” Dr. Rama’s voice echoed across the room, and the petrified Alicia hopped out of bed. “YES PAPA I KNOW AND I AM HEADING TO SCHOOL NOW!” Alicia blabbered before pressing the ‘close call’ button. Alicia dashed towards her closet and took out a wrinkly looking school uniform and wore it while tying her short hair into two messy twin tail before dashing out of the house with extreme urgency. She then whipped out a modified skateboard from her backpack and skated towards the direction of her school while attempting to stay balanced on the skateboard.

Alicia skated past her neighbour Uncle Danish rather clumsily, causing her to knock him over. Alicia saw the chaos she had done and mouthed an apology to her neighbour, but it was too soft. By the time Uncle Danish got up, Alicia was no longer in sight. He cursed her and mumbled something about kids these days not having manners before continuing his morning routine.

While Alicia skated through an alley way which was the shortest route to her school, she saw two boys snickering and pointing towards a chubby lucking boy with curly hair. Alicia immediately recognised them as Boy and Sasi, the nefarious duo who always picks on others weaker than them, especially Alicia herself. The chubby boy was Syed, a classmate of Alicia’s. He always failed his classes but means little to no harm to anybody. Heck he might even be very simple-minded, which made him a target for bullying. Alicia’s heart just could not ignore the scene of Syed’s ice cream being snatched away from him and the two bullies mocking him, despite her head telling her to just ignore and walk away. So she found a nearby empty crushed can and threw it at them.

The can clumsily landed on Sasi’s head.

”HEY WHO THREW THAT?” Sasi hollered, turning around. When he saw Alicia cheering for a spilt second that she managed to hit him, he saw red. “YOU… SO BRAVE NOW HUH!” Sasi screamed, now dashing towards Alicia who seemed absolutely horrified by what she just did because now she was the one being targeted. She quickly skated away with a slight wobble. “Not so brave now huh?” Sasi growled, cracking his knuckles while chasing after her. Boy sighed and mumbled about ‘not wanting to chase her for such trivial issues’ before chasing after the now hollering Sasi.

Alicia knew she would not be able to escape for long, and looked for a place to hide at. She saw a big box that would fit her nicely, and quickly hid in it. Shortly after, she heard footsteps, before it faded away. Alicia, just to be sure, lifted the box up slightly to ensure that the bullies had left, before finally exhaling a sigh of relief and dashed towards school.

Meanwhile, the mysterious bald man appeared once again, wearing a black turtleneck with sleeves donned with sunglasses. He approached a makeshift stall by the roadside. “Abang Bear.” He said, lowering his sunglasses. Abang Bear quickly shushed him and whispered, “You have anything to give someone?” He nodded in agreement and Abang Bear took out a green box with Nasi Lemak and opened its cover, revealing a huge compartment for storing items. The man took out a circular object, the size of a compact mirror, and placed it on the counter. This was IRIS, the device that was stolen from MATA, was on the table, the screen emitting a faint blue. 

“So…What’s the code for this…?” Abang Bear asked as he sealed the box shut.

The bald man lowered down his sunglasses again, stared at Abang Bear, and said:

”Tempoyak Udang.”


”Look after it Bear.” The bald man reminded as he turned to leave. “Okayyy, Don’t worry about it, I will take care of it like it is my own life.” The bald man then saw a cat that appeared out of nowhere, sniffing the box. Thinking that the cat is here to steal food, the enraged Abang bear shooed the cat away and it complied, running away hastily.

As Alicia skated out of the dark and dirty alleyway, she tumbled down the stairs while still on her skateboard and saw a cat running towards her. She screamed as she grabbed the skateboard’s board and leaped over it and saw a makeshift store downhill where Abang Bear was seated, she then remembered that during the weekends, Dr. Rama said something about lunch money in her backpack. And so, she skated towards it. But she was so fast to the point she nearly collided into the store. Good thing she reacted fast and stuck her foot out to stop herself before it was too late. “Hey watch it kid!” He shrieked, his hands still stuck out, trembling with fear. “Sorry…” Alicia mumbled sheepishly, scratching her cheek with embarrassment. “Anyways, can I buy Nasi Lemak?” Alicia asked while inspecting her newly bought yo-yo. “Any side dishes?” Abang Bear asked in return. “Hmm…Chicken…Oh add a sunny side up, switch the sambal with…Tempoyak! Do you have Tempoyak Udang?”

”Thats the code to that object!” Abang Bear thought as his mouth went agape. “What did you say kid?” He questioned, his eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Tempoyak Udang!” Alicia repeated again. Hearing this, Abang Bear quickly reached for the green box he stored IRIS in, and gave it to Alicia.

”Here! Your order.” Abang Bear said, smiling ear to ear.

”Sweet! Thanks. How much?” Alicia asked as she reached into her bag to find her wallet.

”Don’t worry, it’s on me! Now take it.” Abang bear placed the green box on Alicia’s hand. Alicia’s expression turned from confusion to joy. “Thank you so much uncle!” She beamed. Just then, shrill ringing could be heard. Alicia fumbled for her phone and checked the time.

”OH NO! I AM LATE AGAIN!” Alicia shrieked before hastily skating towards her school. “I can’t believe they are recruiting young kids…” Abang Bear mumbled. A mysterious figure suddenly appeared from the shadows, wearing a black leather jacket with a black shirt underneath.

”May I buy the ‘Tempoyak Udang’?” The figure extended his hand out and asked, staring at Abang Bear with those resting dark eyes.

”Your kid just got it for you, just now.” Abang bear gestured to the pathway ahead of him. 

The figure stared at him in confusion. “What kid? I am suppose to collect it myself.” The moment Abang Bear heard that statement, his jaw dropped, and he gulped. “Oopsies… I might have passed the order to that kid…” Abang Bear said, sweat trickling down his face. The figure’s eyes narrowed.

Looks like retrieving IRIS will be harder than he thought.

When Alicia reached school, class had already started. Cikgu Bidin was busy conducting lessons with the class. Alicia gulped and ducked behind a wall. It seemed like entering the class without getting caught is harder than she thought. Cikgu Bidin had eagle-like eyes, and almost nothing escapes his attention. A shiver went down her spine just thinking about him calling her papa. She did not want to trouble him. He was already busy enough. Alicia then thought about her last resort:

Mia.


Alicia gently knocked onto the window nearest to Mia, and gestured her to distract the teacher so she could sneak inside. Mia nodded and stood up. 

“Cikgu, I don’t understand the question!” Mia shouted, her hand still raised and a forced smile on her face in fear if the teacher saw through her scheme. Cikgu Bidin looked confused when Mia said that. His head turned towards the board. Cikgu Bidin then turned around to face Mia, telling her that there was no question on the board while narrowing his eyes in suspicion. Mia saw his reaction and started panicking. What am I supposed to say now? She thought. Her brain did not give her an answer, so she just said whatever that popped up in her mind.

”Uh…Exactly! That’s why I am asking!” Mia said, letting out an awkward laugh. Alicia took Cikgu Bidin’s attention on Mia to tip-toe into the classroom. She looked left and right to ensure no one was looking before doing an exaggerated forward roll towards her seat.

“What do you think you’re doing?” 

Alicia froze. That voice was way too familiar. A voice that meant trouble.

She looked up, preparing for that smug looking creature to show up and indeed, he did.

They locked eyes and Alicia could only plead to Head Prefect Ali to not tell on her, although she knew it was going to be futile.

But surprisingly, he just kneeled down to her level and whispered to her: “Alright, I will let you go this time.” Hearing this, Alicia gasped softly, staring at Ali in both shock and happiness. As she approached her seat however, she saw him tapping a few buttons on his tablet. She stared at him, unsurprised. When she whipped out her tablet and pressed the ‘on’ switch, she saw the punishment issued to her. 

“Tidy bookshelves in library”

Alicia mentally grunted when she saw that. She knew he always came with a catch. She sighed angrily as she ripped out a piece of paper from her notebook and started writing something on it, which she threw at Ali but it ended up hitting the teacher instead. She ended up being knocked out when Cikgu Bidin threw a bunch of crumpled papers back in return, which shocked her. Not only that, after class, Cikgu Bindi also told the class to stay back just to humiliate Alicia by showing her test paper, which looked like someone had used it as a tissue to wipe of their nose bleed. “What a horrible day…” Alicia thought.

During recess, as the bullies were searching for Alicia, she hid in the girls bathroom to eat the Tempoyak Udang she brought this morning with her best friend, Mia. She was busy tapping away on her tablet, playing Detective Jebat like always. Alicia sighed as she curled up on the floor. “Why am I always being targeted. Like I just want to help others, is there anything wrong about that? I just wished I avoided helping that kid, then I wouldn’t be in this messy situation.” Alicia mumbled as she turned to look at the toilet door. Mia, still busy tapping on the screen, comforted Alicia and said: "Bravery is not obtain when you battle and win, but it is when you continue to fight for good intentions even when obstacles come." Her eyes did not even left the tablet screen once. Alicia stared at Mia with great admiration for her wisdom. Smiling faintly, Alicia was about to say a ‘thank you’ when she heard Mia squealed.

”Get 5 Courage Shields to complete this round. Okay, I can do this, let’s go!” 

Alicia just stared at Mia in disbelief, mouth dangled open. So much for thinking she was comforting me, she thought.

After school, Alicia headed towards the library. Not to tidy the bookshelves, but to enjoy the air-conditioning it provides. When Alicia entered the library, she sighed as a gush of cold wind hit her face, a perfect contrast to the humid weather outside. She went to sit down at a table nearby, took out her tablet and started playing her favourite game: Detective Jebat. 

As Alicia was engrossed in her gameplay, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She shrieked as she leaned too far back into the chair and tumbled onto the floor. Suddenly, the librarian appeared out of nowhere and placed a finger to his lips. “SHHHHH KEEP QUIET THIS IS A LIBRARY!” She hollered and Alicia winced. She hastily apologised to the librarian as she heard a voice beside her speaking with a calm composure. Although she felt weird, she decided not to say anything. Just then, a sharp pain shot through her body. “Aduh…’ she mumbled as she turned around only to meet face to face with Ali. She internally shrieked at this encounter while mumbling a greeting, eyes darting away and stepping backwards. “What does he want this time?” She groaned mentally. Ali smirked as he took out the tablet and showed her the punishment issued to her a few hours ago. 

“Today, 8.00 A.M., I assigned you to tidy the library, but are you seriously slacking off?” He then went on to yap about how she should be grateful he did not assigned her to clean the toilet instead which made Alicia’s eye twitched with annoyance. Knowing that he would most definitely not let her go if she starts fighting back, she just mumbled a ‘whatever’ and started to sort the books with more force than neccessary.

Ali remarked at how much force Alicia was using, saying that she would had to pay if she destroyed or ripped any of the pages as he leaned against the bookshelf. “No shit, Sherlock.” She thought. Although she was using less strength now, she was still shoving books into the bookshelf. 

After tidying the bookshelves, she turned around, only to see a dark, empty room with nothing in existence. Not only that, she also started floating mid-air, before flopping back onto the floor. "Huh...weird." Alicia mumbled, scratching her head and looking around, only to see herself back in the library. When she turned around to leave the library, she saw one of her relative, Uncle Rajesh, ran towards her in his janitor uniform, holding a phone. "ICHA!" He cheered as he grabbed her shoulder and started shaking it. 

“Uncle Rajesh? What are you doing here?” Alicia asked, tilting her head in confusion. “Oh, just uh…here to clean the library!” He said. Alicia looked down and saw a faint beeping on Uncle Rajesh’s phone. “Hmmm you don’t seem like you’re here to clean the library…” Alicia said, looking at the phone. Uncle Rajesh hesitated for a long time, before sighing as whispered to Alicia, “Have you taken what is not yours?” “What? No?” Alicia answered, confused at Uncle Rajesh’s statement. “Why would I do that?” Alicia said. The room grew more and more tense as Alicia started reading out in cold sweat, confused and scared about what is happening. Uncle Rajesh pointed towards a bulked bald man and a black and purple haired woman who just walked into the library, holding some sort of tracker. “Leave.now. I will deal with them.” Uncle Rajesh said as turned towards the duo and started walking towards them. Alicia immediately took her school bag and hastily tried to leave, but the black and purple haired woman blocked the path and sneered, “You are not going anywhere, kid.” Alicia gulped. A chill went down her spine just hearing the woman’s voice. Just then, Uncle Rajesh appeared and punched her hard in the face. “MOVE ICHA, I’LL TAKE CARE OF THEM!” He said as the bald man suddenly pounced on him and he blocked him with all his might. Alicia hurriedly dashed out of the door before the woman could get her hands on her.

Alicia whipped out her skateboard and bolted out of the school gates towards the direction of her house as fast as she could. Her legs kicked the floor with ample force, pushing herself to go faster with the skateboard while the bulked man was hot on her heels. She used the dirty alleyway again, kicking down cans of rubbish in an attempt to slow down the pursuer as she struggled to keep herself balanced. But then the bald man suddenly stopped. And Alicia, with the survival instincts of a toaster, stopped skating and turned back to look at the man. But then he threw what seemed like a stylus towards her direction. Before she had time to react, the ‘stylus pen’ looking weapon struck her. The last thing Alicia felt was a wave of electricity flowing through her body, before the world turned pitch black. 

Chapter Text

When Alicia awoke again, she was in a rusty construction site. She rubbed her blurry eyes and tried to stand up but realised she could not. She turned around and realised that she had been tied up. Due to her panic, she tried to scream for help but stopped when a burly woman figure shadowed over her. 

“Ah. It seems that you’re awake,” She said as she kneeled over to grab Alicia’s backpack and poured all its contents out. 

Seeing this, Alicia took a double take as she struggled to break free from the rope that tied her hand against the unstable pole. “H-hey! You can’t just dig through my things without my permission, that’s an invasion of privacy!” Alicia grunted, wrists red from all the struggling and pulling. 

“Awwww, look at you, so cute when you’re angry~” The woman cooed, squishing and pulling Alicia’s cheeks. The building was so silent you could hear a pin drop. 

Finally, the woman spoke. “I heard that MATA is recruiting young agents and considering how you manage to get that device… I assume you are an agent as well.” 

She stopped and looked at Alicia for a short while before continuing. “In fact, you are quite a young agent, you look like you are 9 years old.” She snickered.

What the actual heck does this woman mean by agent? Alicia thought angrily as she stared at the woman who just turned her backpack upside down with its items scattered around the floor. “First of all, I do NOT know what you mean by “you are an agent” and second of all, WHY DOES EVERYBODY THINK I AM 9 YEARS OLD? I AM 12 NOT 9!” The woman immediately burst into laughter. Wiping her tears away, her face turned into one of threat as she turned to the bald man.

”THIS KID CAN’T COOPERATE WITH ME, MY PATIENCE IS RUNNING THIN. YOU TAKE OVER.” 

Just as she said that, a ginormous figure loomed in front of Alicia. He then bent down and whispered to her ear.

“Are you seriously going to keep pretending? That you are not involved with MATA?” He growled and grabbed the box that contained the “Tempoyak Udang” and dumped its contents onto the floor. Instead of Nasi Lemak that Alicia expected to hit the floor, a circular object slipped out of the box and clattered onto the floor. 

“This is IRIS. It stands for Infinity, Retinal, Intelligent, System.”

The silence that came after was so loud. Alicia was dumbfounded for a second before looking at the man with an unimpressed expression. “Seriously? I’m a preteen, not a child you don’t have to hype me up for whatever show acting grounds you just dragged me into. If you want me to act, give me more context and get to the point.” 

Hearing this, the bald man mumbled ‘brat’ before reaching out to punch her before he felt a hand on his shoulder.

”You want brat? I’ll give you a better brat!”

Uncle Rajesh had came to save the day! Infuriated, the bald man turned around and took out his shot stix to stun Uncle Rajesh, but he dodged it with practiced ease. While the woman, the bald man and Uncle Rajesh were fighting, he yelled:

”Alicia! Grab IRIS now!” Alicia obeyed and clumsily shook free from the ropes that tied her towards the pillar and dashed towards the box-like computer and ripped IRIS out of its scanner. Seeing that, the woman ran towards Alicia, trying to grab IRIS out of her hand when Uncle Rajesh punched her and told Alicia to activate IRIS with great urgency in his voice. Alicia took one look at its blue screen before holding it out in a dramatic way. “Uh…Activate!” She shrieked. After a few seconds, nothing happened. Everyone just stared at her with their mouths wide open, gawking at her sheer stupidity. “Uh…why isn’t this turning on…?” Alicia said as she turned the device back towards her and looked at it, her thumb brushing across its high tech looking screen. 

Without warning, IRIS emitted a blue light, scanning Alicia’s whole body before projecting a visor onto her face.

Synchronizing…

”What the?” Alicia mumbled in both excitement and disbelief as lines of code appeared right before her before changing into a what seemed like instructions on how to dodge the enemy.

Dodge the enemy

Just then, a fist came flying towards her. The bald man, who was labeled as a threat and an unidentified source, then came charging towards Alicia before stopping and swiftly throwing the shock stix towards her. Alicia, with IRIS’s warning, barely managed to avoid getting electrocuted. The woman jumped up and slammed the ground, sending a bunch of shock waves towards Alicia’s direction. Losing balance, she stumbled backwards before reaching the edge of the building and fell off due to not being able to regain balance in time. 

“Alicia!” Uncle Rajesh screamed when he saw his niece  ‘fall into her demise.’  Smirking, the woman was about to take advantage of the situation and finish him once and for all when they heard a small voice.

”Yes Uncle??” Alicia strained, trying to hold onto a rope with all her might so that she does not fall off.  

Chapter Text

Ok…
Ehem
I uhh…I was thinking of rewriting this fic due to scattered lore.

So the fic might take even longer to update due to me needing to fix plot holes here and there

I am once again very sorry for the lack of updates (my school holidays are soon so hopefully I can get out of writers block and update this 💔)