1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 "Jak... get over here?" Silver stared at the black screen, a single green four pixel dot flashed in the top left corner "Any idea what's happening?" "Ummm, dude, I don't use the computer for anything other than porn, the hell should I know what's happening" "I was just about to check mail, and then it just blanks out like that" "Well, I think the answer's obvious" JaKi smirked, "You broke it. The big cheese's gonna kill you. Nice knowing you." "Shut up, I just-" > HELLO, SILVER. The two boys almost jumped, the text had scrolled onscreen while they were arguing, followed by a sharp beep. > IS THE FREAK BOY BEHIND YOU? "Very funny, Silv, and that's freak -man- to you, and dude, green text on black screen? That's lame, even for you," "It wasn't me, I swear," > YOU DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME, YOU NEED MY HELP "Move aside, amateur", JaKi said, shoving Silver off the keyboard, "Let me handle this, I'm good at this whole instant messaging stuff" >> HUH? > THEY'RE GETTING CLOSER, THEY'RE STARTING TO FIGURE OUT WHERE YOU ARE, YOU'RE NOT SAFE MUCH LONGER, REBELS, THEY'VE ALREADY GOTTEN TO MY PLACE "We can take them, can't we, oh fearless leader?" "And for all we know this is Etrius talking" >> SURE THING THERE > YOU EITHER TRUST ME AND LIVE, OR IGNORE ME AND YOU GO BACK TO THEIR LABS, IT'S YOUR CHOICE >> WHO R U? > SYNC Silver had heard of Sync, they all had. Sync was the legendary chaser, the only person to have ever gotten into the Etrius databanks, he was a local hero. Because of Sync, the lucarative market of Unit detectors was created, using data he stole off the 'banks. Without Sync, Full Circle and ClubSquaredCube wouldn't exist anymore. But anyone could say they're Sync, and it's not like fools haven't tried it before. Still, not many people knew about the labs outside of Etrius themselves. Silver took the keyboard back >> PROVE IT Everything went to hell. The computer began to beep loudly while and noise began to blare out of the speakers. The disc drives on the computer began to open and close, the lights turned on and off, and the security monitors were all going nuts. Silver made out screams could be heard outside in the dance hall even through the twenty-centimetre door. The scrolling marquee designed to display the current song flickered and began to scroll. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW SILVER? ARE YOU HAPPY NOW SILVER? "Okay, I'm moderately freaked now," Jaki yelled over the chaos, "make it stop, please?" >> OKAY, OKAY, WE BELIEVE YOU, NOW STOP THAT > GOOD, NOW WILL YOU COOPERATE? >> YES, JUST STOP IT > I'LL CONTACT YOU AGAIN SHORTLY, GOODBYE The chaos stopped, and the computer flashed and rebooted. The back door opened and moment later Chisuzu popped her head in. "What the hell did you idiots do to my dance floor?!" "Told ya' she's gonna be pissed" Mark didn't trust him. There's just something that bothered him about a guy who everyone talks about but no one knows. There'd been hundreds of guys on the street who had claimed to be 'close personal friends' of this Sync, but no one knows anything about him, just that he made that legendary chase into the Etrius databanks. Mark didn't like the situation any more than he liked Sync. A trio of PDAs and wireless headsets had arrived for them through express post that afternoon (with no return address, of course), detailing what was going on. Apparently Etrius had some sort of informant or something in the Circle, or at least in the Club, or at least some way of getting inside information. Sync doesn't like this because it seems he's being tailed too. So now he needs someone to do the muscle work of getting rid of the data, or at least screwing it up, because for whatever reason he can't access the computer this is all being fed into, that's where Full Circle comes in "We're not mercenaries here, man," JaKi half yelled half whined, "we can't just go risking our own butts over at Etrius just so chaser-boy here can keep running his scams for a few more days. This is dangerous, we're going right into their headquarters just because some guy we don't even know, who I remind you might be working for them, asks us to? He didn't even say please!" "We have to do this, I mean, we're in trouble too if Sync's right. I'm not sure if you guys have noticed, but Etrius seems to be waiting for us wherever we go lately. Remember last week? We were attacked at their warehouse, it was like they knew we were coming," JaKi fell silent, if there was one thing Silver could do it was lead. "As I was saying, Sync has this planned out, he wants Lawrence, Mark and I to infiltrate one of Etrius' buildings, we're going to have to sneak in and plug in these PDAs into three of their computers, we're not sure which one is responsible for the data, and she's going to work her magic or something." "I don't like it," JaKi muttered. Corner of Filament and Carol streets. It looked like a normal office building, albeit an old one, but that's how Etrius works, they don't put big signs announcing their buildings to everyone. According to Sync, there's a back entrance which is pretty much unprotected except for a sweeping camera, which they got past with ease, it's the sort of thing Mark was used to even before he became an underground freedom fighter. The inside was a totally different story, it was brightly lit, with narrow hallways and dozens of doors. Mark peeked in one of them, but it looked like the room was perfectly empty. > SIXTH FLOOR, TAKE THE STAIRS, TURN RIGHT Each of the boys had taken a PDA with them, silver for Silver, orange for Lawrence, and blue for Mark. While they were required for the mission, as Sync needed to port into the computers, they doubled as Sync's preferred method of communication, they talked back to him with their headsets. > OKAY BOYS, FIRST LEFT AT THE INTERSECTION, SILVER YOU GO RIGHT "You sure this is a good idea?" Mark didn't like the idea of splitting up, especially in a place that looked for all purposes and intents like a maze. A mini-map of the building's floorplan popped up, with their positions and the positions of the computers highlighted, complete with routes. Mark was right, it was a maze. > HAPPY? "Whatever, you're the boss. Silver, you gonna be okay?" "Oh come on, I'm more worried about you guys, I'll be fine, now hurry up before bossman gets mad" and with that he turned around and waved goodbye. > LEFT, STRAIGHT, FIRST DOOR ON LEFT Mark and Lawrence opened the door to five Units waiting, blocking their path, the first form of resistance they met other than several security cameras. > OH, LOOK OUT FOR UNITS "Nice one, Boss" > NOT MY FAULT Lawrence motioned to the left two Units and held up two fingers, with a slight head gesture. Mark was supposed to take the left two. And with that Lawrence was off in a flash. He was an orange blur; Lawrence was amazing to watch in a fight, he moved almost faster than the human eye could see, despite all the weapons and gadgets he kept in his seemingly infinite amount of pockets he had on his pants. He moved silently and plunged a dagger deep into the top of the first unit before Mark even realized what was happening. Lawrence sometimes taught Mark and the rest some of his skills, but they never were able to keep up. A sharp pain spiked up Mark's arm, one of the units had grazed him in the forearm with a heat weapon, singeing his jacket. He lunged forward, his weapon behind him. He weaved right to avoid a second shot, bringing his weapon of choice up over his head and down on the Unit, sending it slamming into the ground. While he wasn't nearly as fast as Lawrence, it always seemed to him that moments of time would slow when he really needed it to, it's how he was always seemed to be able to avoid certain death, and it always helped when he was still picking pockets. The second one was a bit more pertinent, it bobbed about Mark, firing short stun shots at Mark's limbs, numbing them and annoying the hell out of Mark. He swung a few times to no avail, it kept ducking just as he swung. It fired again, numbing Mark's left arm; these Units really just support for the ones armed with more dangerous weaponry, but it didn't stop them from being extremely bothersome. Mark swung again in vain, but somehow he gave it a solid blunt hit actually quite accidentally, with his backswing. It sent it sailing right into the path of Lawrence, who promptly sliced it in half with his wakiziki. Lawrenced sheathed his weapon and held out his hand. "Thanks man, I guess I'm getting a bit rusty, eh?" > I'M NOT IMPRESSED, SQUEEGEE "Sod off" > DOES YOUR FRIEND TALK? "No, not really, why, you wanted to have a little chit-chat with him? Good luck" > LEFT, GO THROUGH THE DOOR No nasty surprises this time, just another intersection > LAWRENCE, THIS IS YOUR STOP, LEFT. MARK GO STRAIGHT Mark paused, he still didn't like the idea of splitting up, but there was no use arguing, and Lawrence didn't seem to mind. "Take care of yourself, okay, big guy? Don't do anything stupid" Lawrence nodded solemly and went off, leaving Mark with his PDA and squeegee. > THE NINJA WILL BE FINE, KEEP MOVING "How's Silver doing?" > HE'S FINE, STOP WORRYING AND TURN RIGHT "So, who are you anyways?" > A FRIEND, MAYBE YOU'LL FIND OUT WHEN THIS IS ALL OVER "Okay... Why are you so interested in us anyways?" > I LIKE YOU GUYS, YOU HAVE MOXIE. RIGHT, THROUGH THE DOOR "Sure. Whatever, sure, don't tell me. So you do this stuff often?" > NO "Talkitive aren't you" > "SOD OFF" Mark laughed, "okay, okay, I'll stop bugging you, but one more thing... what do you get out of this?"" > I WANT WHAT YOU WANT "I want to go home" > LEFT A human guard waited at room 6-26. Etrius, for all their technology and money and power, really wasn't that great at hiring guards; he was an ageing, balding man maybe in his forties, and he looked like he was half-asleep already as it was. Mark almost felt bad for him when he knocked the guy out, hitting him in the back of his neck with the butt of his squeegee, just like Lawrence taught him. Mark opened the card reader and plugged the PDA in, as Sync directed, and heard a slight hum and click as the door slid open. The room was empty except the large mainframe-looking computer against the back wall. Mark ported the PDA in and let Sync handle the rest. "So how was your trip?" "Ran into a few Units, a none on the way down though. They're going to be paying a bit of a repair bill on some of their rooms though, how 'bout you guys?" "Well, Lawrence and I ran into a group of five on the way in, and I took down another three before getting back to you guys" Lawrence just held up four fingers. "Oh, and this old guy right outside the room" "Yeah, same. Hey, did that all seem too easy to you guys?" Mark wondered as he opened the door to the back room. "That's because I'm good, boys" There was a girl sitting in the room, maybe around fourteen or fifteen, sitting in front of the computer. She was wearing a bulky blue jacket with a pair of goggles hanging at her neck, obscuring her mouth; they were connected to a large pair of industrial looking headphones. Antennae poked out of her headphones and out of her backpack, and wires snaked out of her sleeve and bag towards their computer. She regarded them cooly. "I'm Sync, nice to meet you" "So, what'd you get out of all that?" "Well, two of the computers were trash, though I did find out a lot more than I ever needed to know about busses and the manufacturing of stereo equipment. But it looks like our fears are confirmed, there is in fact a mole somewhere either in the club or in the group itself" The group looked at each other; Silver, JaKi, Pheen, Ruby, Mark, Chisuzu all exchanged glances, Lawrence and MCMC were stoic as usual. "Relax. It looks like the spy was somehow sending it to their computers directly, so I've scrambled the lines now, as well as messed around with all the information already sent. Because of your help I have a way in now, it'll be easy for me to spot if they pick up any new information. Besides, just in case, I've taken the liberty of bugging all the lines in this place" "Hey, who said you can do that to our place?", Chisuzu cried; her and MCMC owned the place and while they didn't really run a tight shift or anything, the thirteen year old was quite protective of her business and home. The MC was smiling as usual, and didn't seem to mind at all. "It's for your own protection, squirt, just trust me on this one. I want to help you guys, and I still need to take some revenge on those guys. Look, you saw how I coordinated that little break-in, you guys can use my help. I managed to get most of my stuff out before they got to my place, you guys are free to use it to play games or something, I don't know" "Sweet!" exclaimed JaKi, Silver hit him "Just no porn, I've gone through your computer, freak boy. I don't have a place to live, and it wouldn't hurt you guys to have a tactician, on your side" "Sure," Silver beamed, holding out his hand, "now can I check my mail?"