01/15. digitalized.
[ virtual video ]
[November 11 still looks like himself, but he stands against no backdrop save the rush of numbers and spark of circuits. He's wearing his shades, and words scroll rapidly by them.]It's my deepest regret to inform you all that there's been a security breach. Government has assigned me to track it down and stop the unauthorized ( Read more... )
[November 11 still looks like himself, but he stands against no backdrop save the rush of numbers and spark of circuits. He's wearing his shades, and words scroll rapidly by them.]It's my deepest regret to inform you all that there's been a security breach. Government has assigned me to track it down and stop the unauthorized ( Read more... )
Data stream: interrupted. Attempting reconnection with host in 10... 9... 8... 7...
[ A disembodied voice speaks, alerting the onlookers to the suspicious activity. The visual representations freeze-- a glitch, or is it?-- before resuming with more intensity as those binary codes stream by even more rapidly than before. ]
6... 5... 4...
[ And the circuitry almost wriggles-- writhes, really-- before attempting to connect right into the hand that holds them... ]
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But he does frown, his mouth twitching downwards, as he snaps his hand back. Glowing lines trace through his palm, the same color as the sakura petals simulated around him. ]
Aren't you showy.
To the garden environment, then. I'm always willing to follow a good lead, even if it is rather obvious.
[ Cradling his corrupted hand to his chest, he vanishes in a blur of pixels. ]
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[ The binary in the background slows into a crawl, a more pleasant and relaxed pace, still glowing a patient emerald green while the virtual petals glitch out of the cyberspace. However, the binary codes do flash that red again-- before entirely fading out into the blackness of the cyberspace. A background programme is beginning to operate-- ]
Initialize search: host location and identify open port. Remaining time: 60 seconds.
[ The blackness is interrupted by the binary once more-- in varying colours and sizes. Eventually, it fades into a placid scene in a garden-- a pond, reflecting moonlight, wildflowers growing by the banks, overlooked protectively by one huge tree. A tree that still is in bloom, a tree that practically snows down beautiful white-pink blossoms. The disembodied voice, however, has not yet taken a holographic form. ]
Remaining time: 50 seconds.
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I do believe that will be enough.
[ He reaches out with his uncorrupted hand, a swift, darting gesture leaving no time for anything to latch on, to freeze the entire garden into a tableau around him--and hopefully the search program with it. ]
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Host location: identified. Error 0x1645: there is no signal received from host location point.
[ The voice speaks again, losing its dissonant echoing quality, becoming more solid, more present. ]
Initializing: direct connection. Remaining time: unknown.
[ And the voice sounds even more solid and formed, as pixels begin to gather behind the regulation programme-- this 'November', the data tells-- eventually reconstituting the image of this man, completely outfitted in black save for that flash of white from a dress shirt, glasses obscuring his own eyes. ]
You really shouldn't interrupt play time.
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--too obvious. He can't take his attention off it, but at the same time, he can't let it consume his attention. He lifts his damaged hand--unwilling to risk the good one--to try to freeze the tree into place.
Fortunately (whether for him or the tree), he's distracted right then. He goes still himself, not turning at first. ]
Might I correct you? I'm not interrupting play time.
[ He does turn now, reaching out with both hands (one already threaded through with the virus's influence) to try to seize the image by the shoulders. ]
I'm ending it.
Time to sleep instead.
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Error 0x1534: unreceptive host signal. Attempting ping sequence....
[ And the image again fades in, and he smiles at November, his own features pleasant. Perhaps it was simply because, behind November, a binary stream had begun to take the visual representation of vines writhing over to his unprotected ankles. ]
Unfortunately, I am not ready to hibernate.
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A pleasure to see you again--
--I would say, but it really isn't. You've worn out your welcome.
[ And he stepped deftly aside--
--not quite fast enough. His right ankle was still within reach of the vines. ]
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In either case, he smiled back to November, watching the scene passively before lighting a cigarette. Alpha simulations still acted much like their originals, really, and this alpha simulation-turned-trojan was no different. ]
Connection to host: successful. Initializing file transfers....
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You're very good at this, aren't you? No wonder they sent me--
[ He also thought they may have done it to get rid of him, because he wasn't sure how he was going to get out of this one. It wasn't easy to terminate a contractor program, you see; they were too clever and too powerful to easily lure to their destruction. But that cleverness and that power wasn't always desirable to have running around.
Well.
He was by nature a selfish program, but not on the level of the one he was fighting. That was a point of pride: that, in the end, he was more dedicated to his duty than to the ugly simplicity of pure survival. ]
The host isn't inclined to be a polite one, I'm afraid. Especially if you won't do, yourself.
[ He reached down with his corrupted hand to freeze the vines in place; then, before they could revive under the power of this rogue simulation, he froze the ( ... )
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Error 0x5254: malicious coding. Attempting reboot sequence....
[ And his image faded once more, the string of binary left behind fading back into the background-- which, too, faded much like its owner. The background processes were soon left invisible behind black, for what seemed an absolute eternity, before that park with the moonlit pond and that tree faded back in, woven back into existence by binary strings.
However, he had not yet reappeared. ]
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No good. He couldn't move normally, as humans would. The glitches now permeating him had scrambled that part of his programming.
He shrugged slightly, gave a smile that was almost apologetic--although it was only an apology to himself, if to anyone. ]
I suppose...I'll be paying for this one in a different way to normal.
[ He flashed out of existence for a split-second, leaving behind the mess of distorted pixels where his right side had been. When he reappeared, it was only half of him--ragged at the edges--and he was standing directly in front of the tree.
He reached out with his remaining hand to safely freeze the tree's data. ]
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Firewall protection: enabled. Outside program interference disabled.
[ It was then that one of those branches stretched out, elongated itself, reaching for that one hand that had attempted to freeze it. His image again faded in, this time in front of November, smiling once more and mostly free of that glowing corruption in his hand. ]
Your data is too corrupted for that, isn't it?
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And yours?
[ He did not attempt to break free of the branch grasping his hand. He couldn't, anyway; he no longer had the processing power to move significantly.
There was only one more trick up his sleeve. He wasn't ready to reveal it just yet. Or perhaps he was reluctant. ]
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But are you really sure you'd like all of your data erased?
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I'd very much not like it. Well, I suppose there's the possibility of backups--
[ He didn't sound optimistic. ]
Oh, yes.
[ As if as an afterthought: ]
Self-destruct.
[ Circuitry shot through what was left of his digital body, baring the inhuman programming beneath the man's smiling face. Binary, at first; then something else, indescribable--
--the effects of the quantum Gate that had given him his power, the energy of which he now harnessed to close off the illicit data flow at its roots.
His voice, faint, slightly distorted. ]
A pleasure meeting you.
[ And gone in a flash of purifying cybernetic light, to be deposited in reality back in the apartment, merely unconscious from what was only a virtual death, after all. ]
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