The command centre hummed.
Kyle looked up from his busy work to catch the last scene of Spongebob and managed to let out a weak chuckle. He had been working for the past twelve hours strait, surviving on nothing but caffeine drinks and sugary foods, had come no closer to repairing the teleportation module. This was sophisticated even by his standards and he eagerly wanted to learn every-thing about it and eventually be able to build his own and improve it.
The suit he had stolen on his escape was almost ready, the parts he has stolen from Corpmunitions had been fitted and he had adjusted the firing triggers to an easier trigger. Now he only had to throw his arms forward and squeeze a palm trigger at a certain pressure to control how much radiation he wanted to release. The suit was now plugged into a large battery that powered the command centre.
The suit would charge the battery and power the base when not in use, when Kyle wore the suit out and about the battery usually had enough power to survive without him. All in all he had become self sufficient.
Kyle chucked the soldering iron to the side and sighed. He would have to compare his module to another before he could figure out what was wrong. He rolled his chair to his suit and unplugged it from the battery. Slipping on each part he slowly readied himself for the outside. Finally he slipped a large coat over the top.
[Detection, person detected outside of door, designation Quick Fix]
Kyle gestuered for the the heavy metal door to be raised. As it slowly rose he slid his chair over to it and greeted the woman that entered,
"Is it time?" Quick Fix nodded,
"It is Kyle, Partisan has given me our orders, you are to follow them without flaw." Kyle chuckled,
"Patience, i've got one or two more codes to compile then we are good to go. Pull up a seat, Buggs is about to start. It's a classic, he takes a wrong turn at Albakerky and ends up bull fighting!"
Quick Fix seemed confused and started looking about the Command Centre,
"A, activate your mobile program and complile..." he looked at Quick Fix who was looking his servers up and down "...protocol 916 and wait for my signal!"
[Compliance, as you command]
The face on the screen faded and then reappeared on an open laptop by the door, the voice then spoke,
[Process completed, mobile version of software enabled, uplink to main server enabled and awaiting use]
Kyle rolled over to the moniter and began watching the episode, laughing ever so often.
Eventually Quick Fix's com beeped and she answered it quickly, the voice of Partisan echoed around the commnd centre,
Quick Fix, have you and Cyberspace left for the Arachnos Ministry of Interior building in Port Oakes yet?
Quick Fix looked at Kyle,
Not yet sir...Um Kyle says he needs to ..er finish something first." his reply was quick,
You tell him to get moving NOW! I will not tolerate his antics, and I want that Arbiter. You have much work to do.
Kyle tapped his own communicater and held back his laughter at the current scene,
Hey, Big P, settle down man. This is a classic episode, and is only a couple of minutes left. Im telling you that Bugs Bunny kills me every time.
Perhaps you should worry less about that rabbit killing you, and more about me instead. MOVE OUT NOW!!!
Both Kyle and Quick Fix shut down their coms as the command centre then echoed with A's deep voice,
[Personal Observation, purhapse it is wise if you follewed commands. Partisan is not one to be triffled with and the more time wasted the less time we can assure our own goals...]
Kyle threw a disaproving glance at the digital face. Quick Fix looked at him with a raises brow
"What did he mean?"
"God knows half the time..." he sighed "...alright let's do this thing!"
Kyle moved up to the laptop and shut the lid, unplugged it from the wall and slid it into a compartment upon his back, yet hidden by the coat. They slowly moved outside of the metal door that shut behind them.
There was silence for a moment, then A's face appeared on the screen. The other moniters began to sprawl code across their surface and A looked to be concentrating intently,
[Statement, my plan must not fail]
The large metal blast door slowly opened and Kyle entered before sitting heavily on his desk chair. He slid over to the main computer bank of his command centre and rumaged through one of this draws for a cd. Slapping it in the disk tray he loaded up one of his many Cartoons, flicking between them before finally resting on classic Transformers.
The other screens sprawled their usual codes, all apart from one that showed a badly made video of two metas attacking Arachnos soldiers. The video was an obvious fake, but properly distorted and degraded, it looked genuine enough and by the newspaper reports, had worked a treat.
----
Kyle had been hired a Mr. Darvek to find information hidden within the Crey Databases. Kyle knew Partisan would not be happy he was making other deals, but he'd keep this one off the book.
Kyle started up his systems and A's impressive face appeared on the screen,
[Start up completed, Good afternoon master, what do you command?]
"Activate Zombies 1-9 and i want you to target the Crey main database. I need a big enough distraction!"
[Complience, starting process]
A's face faded from view and was replaced by commands, data, images and videos. Eventually A reapeared
[Completed, Crey network runners are occupied]
Kyle began to type furiously and before long he was looking at numerious files and reports.
"Spruk...Sprunk...Sprunk, AH HA! Here we are...David...DARVEK also known as Sprunk. That's interesting, ability to...produce any chemical at will. Died during the Rikti Invasion. Experiment number 5729, located...Crey's Folley, warehouse J9!"
Kyle slapped the desk triumphantly
"That's a cool thirty thousand in the ba..." some-thing then caught his eye
"...Crey are trying to duplicate this power? Well we can't have that can we? We don't need any more Meta's runnina 'bout!"
Kyle once again began to type furiously and one by one data files on Sprunk began to disapear. Eventually he severed the connection and lent back in his chair contemplating if he should pass on the information or not. Eventually his cartoons got the better of his interest...
The device let out a shower of sparks.
He had not anticipated the complexity of such a devise. Figuring out how to put it together and what was needed wasnt the problem; it was the magical element he was to add that confused him.
Acquiring the parts had not been difficult. Recent jobs had opened up new avenues for certain the purchase of rare objects. Big P didnt agree with his methods of protection but his reputation was growing and people were now trying any means to find him.
Magic had always been a concern; it was the only thing he didnt understanding. He had been told that the crystal would guard him from Scrying and tracking via a magical means, all he had to do was keep it charged with a form of energy. He had worked tirelessly to create a holding vessel that would slowly wash the crystal with mild radiation from his suit. It would guard him in the centre, but on the field he was vulnerable.
He finished soldering the last part and placed the iron down. He picked up the small crystal and looked into it, within was a swirl of colours and shapes, constantly moving and disappearing. He placed the crystal in the hold and closed the coverings, he then activated the device. A sickly green washed over the crystal and it began to glow brightly. He picked it up and laughed triumphantly. He had no real idea if it worked but at least it was a piece of mind for him. He put the devise in a storage bin by the door and left it to do its things. He sat heavily by his workstation and began to work on his next project.
The room was filled with loud unsociable music. Since the concert Kyle's computer constantly belted out The Last Word. Last night had been a strange one. He knew Dee Dee Diablo was a mutant but for some reason he couldnt bring himself to hate her or the rest of the band as he did other mutants. He knew one day they would probably be taken out by Humanity First but he loved their music and some-what respected them for it. However mingling with other mutants proved taxing. Freddy Jones, formerly Laugh Riot, was one that made his blood boil. A former villain now completely pardoned, why, because he was a Meta who could fight against the invading Rikti! Where was the justice? A normal man could not fight against the Rikti, a normal man would have to do his time, survive in prison and would never be given the chance to get the pardon Freddy was so easily handed. He kept up a charade throughout the night but his blood boiled inside. One person did however cause him some genuine feelings of confusion about his dislike for the Meta community. One Nathalie Brissaud, the keyboardist of The Last Word. He wasnt sure if she was a mutant but he talked to her throughout the night and genuinely enjoyed her company. He decided it was best not mention it to Partisan.
A's face gazed about the room, performing several tasks to keep Kyles control over certain systems around Paragon & The Isles strong. He looked down towards Kyle who was working on the broken teleport module of the suit. He had been working on it ever since he escaped from the Zig, yet he still could not understand what he was doing wrong. He replaced all the capacitors and wires, he reprogrammed the memory module and he even tested the circuit boards tracks to see if any broken or crossing over. He desperately wanted it working again. He was soldering one last section when suddenly a green LED started to glow. Kyles eye grew wide as the module started to show its first signs of life since it was damaged. He closed up the module and ran outside leaving A to his tasks.
He stood upon the roof of the building and reattached the module to his suit and waited for a moment to let it reconfigure. He closed his eyes and activated the trigger and he could feel the rush of air as the teleporter kicked in
His eyes shot open, some-thing was wrong. The teleporter had activated but he was still in the same location. He did not feel the usual duality that came with a jump, the feeling of being in two places at once, the feel of your body being pulled forward and the sudden stop of arrival. Instead there was a gush of air as it started up
then nothing. He looked about and to his surprise he discovered it had worked, but not in the way he had expected. Sitting just behind him was a man in what appeared to be a drivers seat. Within his hands was the remains of a steering wheel. His face was drawn with sheer terror.
W-What happened?
Kyle shook his head and walked away leaving the main frozen in fear while as in the distance the sound of a car crashing into a wall could be heard
The soft sound of clicking filled the air.
Kyle had been watching a new Corporation member for a few days now and concern was growing. Techbot Alpha as he was known was a high tech robot with a sophisticatd AI program, self learning, moral-core and an advanced tactical planning system. He had several robotic constructs with an AI as sophisticated as his own, and each where scowering the net for any tracks Kyle had not covered. A for some reason had taken a personal interest in Alpha, constantly monitering his entry and exit from the greater web. As long as his trusty AI could keep this new threat at arms length then he did not need to worry. To be discovered now would not only ruin his plans but Partisan's also.
His mind turned to his attempt to frame Unending Scream. It was taking leaps and bounds, and soon, even Mr Sebastian would not trust his prized hacker. He had managed to use Scream's machine as a Zombie and with it, he hack several of the Corps allies, leaving a cyber trail as long as his arm. Every-thing now pointed to Scream. Things were going his way...
The modual shot sparked upward as he let out a yelp.
Every-thing he tried just caused the teleportation modual to behave eratically. He was quickly becoming fed up. He grabbed the modual out of frustration,
"WHY WON'T YOU FRAGGING WORK!" and with as much stregth as he could muster, he chucked it across the room. He buried his head in his hands as the sound of the modual hit the wall with a crack. There was a moments quiet when suddenly the air began to be pulled away and blue light began to fill the room then quickly fade. Kyle's head lifted and slowly looked over at the device as the air returned. The modual was gone!
Suddenly before him the air exploded and he was thrown backwards off his chair, landing on the flat of his back. Once again blue light filled the room and faded and the air returned to normal.
Kyle lay on the floor for a long moment, stunnded and winded. He soon began to recover and slowly poked his head over the rim of the desk. There sat the modual, humming slightly and it's LED was a static green. He stood fully and slowly returned the casing and reattached the modual to his suit as quickly as he could.
---
He stood on the roof of the building looking over at the rooftop of another,
"If there is a god of technology...you better be on my side right now!"
and without another word he charged forward and lept from the roof. Shutting his eyes he triggerd the modual. Air began to be sucked towards Kyle and soon his body felt the duality that came with a jump, the feeling of being in two places at once, the pull and sudden stop and then the flash of light. His whole world exploded around him and within second his feet hit the gravel of the roof.
He slowly opened his eyes and looked around...
The room was filled with a bright blue light.
Rows upon rows of computer screens displayed images of people, places and events around the Isles and Paragon. Some screens sprawled code endlessly across its surface while others were an endless mess of windows and programs. Only two screens were for personal use. One sat playing cartoons, some from as early as the 80s back to back; an endless reel of violence and humour, the other was of the game Counter Strike, sitting in observation mode watching the avatars running around gaining headshots and the likes. Yet one screen in the middle of the collection remained blank and unused.
Behind the glow sat a young man. He watched the screens intently waiting for a singular piece of information to appear. He rolled his desk chair from one end of the row to the next, occasionally furiously typing at one of the many keyboards. He rolled his chair backwards until he stopped at the wall at the back of the room. He span on the chair to face his many computers wiring and humming away as they hacked the world around them. He slid a flat disk into an open port and rolled back to his desk, thinking nothing more of it. Slowly the blank monitor turned its self on. Slowly a digital face appeared, its eyes shut. Slowly the image opened them and looked about the room until its eyes settled on the young man,
[Process completed, several systems are now set up as Zombie-bots. Explanation, we now have several machines under our control for when the time is needed. Reassurance, the protocols are hidden away. While they were looking for us they became complacent in checking what was being done to their systems. Explanation, the protocol will remain dormant until needed.]
The young man smiled,
Excellent work! That should be enough for now.
[Question, what do we do now?]
Now we lay low and wait for Big Ps to give us the word. Weve shown people their systems are not as safe as they thought they were, theres going to be chaos in the digital world and were going to ride this to the top!
The face faded from the screen and once more it went to black. The young man rolled over to the screen displaying the cartoons and placed a pair of headphones over his ears. On the desk sat several complicated components and pieces of technology. He picked up a soldering iron and began working on a small devise, stopping ever so often to laugh at the misfortunes of Wiley E. Coyote.