Some days this job is really weird
There's a category four hurricane in the south Atlantic that she's keeping an eye on for the JLA, they're probably going to be needed for the rescue efforts once the thing makes landfall. There's also a rather anomalous set of financial transactions running between Gotham, Bludhaven, and Switzerland that she's tracking down. Then there are the routine data requests: addresses, directions, known associate lists, suppliers. All in all, Barbara's glad that she doesn't have her own team in the field this morning.
It is when things are going about as routinely as they ever do that things tend to get... weird, and this is no exception. It starts with a small red box flashing in the top corner of her screen and cascades from there.
"Warning: unauthorized system access. Warning: primary firewall bypassed. Warning: first wave countermeasures ineffective. Warning..." They keep piling up on top of each other, but Babs is already moving at maximum speed. The keyboard in front of her clatters as she races to keep up with the hacking attempt.
But whatever's trying to get into her system is smart. It's some sort of self-adapting algorithm and it seems to anticipate what she's going to use to respond to it, and it seems to be gaining ground.
Just as suddenly as it began, the attack stops. Whatever the invading code was supposed to do, it has apparently done it. Barbara immediately begins looking to see what it got when her holoprojectors reconfigure themselves and the Oracle mask floats in front of her.
"Hello, Barbara. First, let me say that while we've done some weird things, I'm pretty sure this constitutes the weirdest. I'm... you. From an alternate universe. Take a look at the code, you'll recognize our signature. I also know that our most recurring nightmare is... well, the fact that I brought that up should be proof enough."
"Anyway, the universe I'm in seems to be a few years behind yours temporally. I've heard rumors of a Crisis, and of Spoiler's death, but they haven't happened for me, yet. I'm going to need files. You know the ones and you know why."
"I'm going to do what you would do in my place. Find the sender of this message. He can be trusted to courier data back and forth between us."
There's a long pause and the mask flickers away before the voice continues softly, "With your help I can do what you couldn't."
Barbara sits for an entire minute in her chair in the darkness and the silence before nodding firmly to herself. "Computer: routing trace on this message for point of origin."
She taps a key on the console in front of her, "Zinda. Prep the Aerie One." She glances at the display, "We're going to San Fransisco."
It is when things are going about as routinely as they ever do that things tend to get... weird, and this is no exception. It starts with a small red box flashing in the top corner of her screen and cascades from there.
"Warning: unauthorized system access. Warning: primary firewall bypassed. Warning: first wave countermeasures ineffective. Warning..." They keep piling up on top of each other, but Babs is already moving at maximum speed. The keyboard in front of her clatters as she races to keep up with the hacking attempt.
But whatever's trying to get into her system is smart. It's some sort of self-adapting algorithm and it seems to anticipate what she's going to use to respond to it, and it seems to be gaining ground.
Just as suddenly as it began, the attack stops. Whatever the invading code was supposed to do, it has apparently done it. Barbara immediately begins looking to see what it got when her holoprojectors reconfigure themselves and the Oracle mask floats in front of her.
"Hello, Barbara. First, let me say that while we've done some weird things, I'm pretty sure this constitutes the weirdest. I'm... you. From an alternate universe. Take a look at the code, you'll recognize our signature. I also know that our most recurring nightmare is... well, the fact that I brought that up should be proof enough."
"Anyway, the universe I'm in seems to be a few years behind yours temporally. I've heard rumors of a Crisis, and of Spoiler's death, but they haven't happened for me, yet. I'm going to need files. You know the ones and you know why."
"I'm going to do what you would do in my place. Find the sender of this message. He can be trusted to courier data back and forth between us."
There's a long pause and the mask flickers away before the voice continues softly, "With your help I can do what you couldn't."
Barbara sits for an entire minute in her chair in the darkness and the silence before nodding firmly to herself. "Computer: routing trace on this message for point of origin."
She taps a key on the console in front of her, "Zinda. Prep the Aerie One." She glances at the display, "We're going to San Fransisco."