Arc Interlude: Counter-Strike
That night went very well. Mom's supervisor was impressed and she'll be getting her promotion. I'm pretty proud of her, and just glad I didn't have to live with the consequences of Felix's actions on this one. A day or two had passed since then, and things had settled. There were still occasional moments where something was off (one particularly interesting moment was a lamppost on our street corner suddenly vanished, but the light emitted from the lamp remained as it was), but nothing as big as a mass corruption or major things being thrown around. I finally had time to settle in with the Wacom and get some animation practice in. It's a ton of work to do right. Can't imagine how much work goes into big-name stuff. Guess this is why Disney is sticking with CG for its films?
I also got the time to explain the situation with Franklin and Nathan, as well as Alex. Nathan was more concerned with how this happens, and when I presented the idea that Francisco has access, he didn't quite believe me. “He's loud and kind of a dick, yes, but I don't think he has the smarts for that.”
“That's where Twitch comes in.”
“I have not seen him in months, but let's just say they are working together. What are they trying to do? Just mess with people? There's gotta be more.”
“They're trying to prove Felix is using this for evil.”
“There's no way. Felix cries when someone crushes a moth in front of him, he could never terrorize an entire town with this tech.”
“and how does terrorizing a town on your own prove other people are looking to do the same?” Franklin asked.
“I dunno. Maybe they're just trying to figure out what all they can do, and then they can stage their assault,” I replied.
“Well, I should probably be going,” Nathan said, “The biggest draw with the laptop is its battery life. It's nice to get out every now and then, but I can't do it for that long. At least, not work outside.”
“Yeah, I didn't get a laptop for that reason. You might as well be tethered in place anyways,” I said.
“Oh, it's useful. But only when you have a power outlet.”
“I can ask Felix if he can get you one out here.”
“Oh, really? That'd be awesome, yeah. Well, I'm headed home.”
“See ya.”
As I began to walk home, I noticed a couple familiar faces. Francisco and Twitch were just outside the college library, talking to each other. I ducked beneath a hedge to listen in.
“We could just change the password, right?”
That was Francisco, for sure.
“No, it has to be from the main terminal.”
Twitch sounded just a bit different than what I remembered. He was in classes for maybe three months and then vanished. Haven't seen him since. I peered through the hedge. Dull blue hair, white jacket, but his face... he looked 20 years older than I last remember. But that at the very least confirms that he's still around. “Couldn't we just replicate the terminal?” Francisco asked.
“It's a singleton, Francisco. Any new ones after the first get deleted.”
“Then can't we get a computer to read like it's his terminal?”
“Again, no. Every item has a 16-digit string made up of eight bytes of hexadecimals. They're unique to every item, no two items can use the same string, Francisco. And that's exactly what the terminal checks.”
“Well, I can get us to the terminal. Just tell me where it is.”
“I don't know. This place has changed so much, I'm losing track. This used to be a fountain, Francisco.”
“I'll figure it out.”
“Alright, let me just see if I can't do a global wipe. I don't want to do them too much, they can really damage people if they get hit with too many. T—this stuff is all holdovers, I recognize the file extensions.”
I quickly backed up and hurried off towards the capitol. I reached the steps and could still remember what I heard clear as day, so that was a good sign. I stepped into the capitol, and went down into the workshop by the library door. Felix was nowhere to be seen, so I tore off a piece of paper for his dot matrix printer, and left him a note. “Hey, Felix, Francisco is considering busting in and getting to your te--”
The door to the lower level workshop suddenly opened, and Felix stuffed his old phone away. “Hey, Ash. What're you up to? Y'know, you didn't need to barge in.”
“Felix, I caught Francisco and Twitch talking about breaking in to get to your terminal.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” I replied.
I realized I didn't have proof, but there was no real way I could have gotten any without getting caught in whatever a “global wipe” involved.
“Do you have any concrete evidence?”
Shit. “No, but I really didn't have time. It sounds like they tried to wipe the memories of everyone who stuck around, I left as soon as I heard that.”
“Ah, well at least that's confirmed. I'll have to keep the workshop door closed. Let me just go get my hat from downstairs and I'll give you something that should help us.”
He stepped downstairs, and I tried to peek at what was actually down there. It was still a workbench, but there was a pad of post-it notes and his hat on the desk. He grabbed the hat, and then stuck a gun that was under it away. He then grabbed a note and a pen, and headed back up. “If you ever need to get back in the workshop, dial this number on the phone at the front desk.”
He handed me a piece of paper with the number 63946346489 written across it. That number seemed really familiar, but I couldn't tell exactly why. Maybe deja vu. “Oh, and I'm going to need any Modifiers that you have. That patch I was working on a day or two ago should be ready to run, now. I ran into some problems during that little... incident.”
I kinda didn't want to trust that sentence, but really, my life and everyone else's is in his hands. I headed home, grabbed the Modifier, looked around in case he left another one over here the other day, and found a second device that looked like a Modifier. I detached the screen from the Modifier, attached it to this, and scanned something. A lot more stuff came up, a lot of really technical stuff, but I couldn't interact with any of the numbers. Again, it felt vaguely familiar, but I couldn't explain why. I attached the screen back in the Modifier, and took both to Felix.
I walked up to the desk, sighed, picked up the phone receiver, and dialed that number. After I pressed the last nine, there was a click. “You can now hang up,” said a voice on the other end. I put the phone down and the bookshelf behind the desk had slid open, just like I had seen maybe a dozen times. That's neat.
I headed down the steps and handed the Modifier over to Felix. “Is this just something to check the specs on something?” I asked about the second gun.
“So that's where my Scanner went!” he cried.
“Why was it over at my house?” I asked.
“I dunno. I lost it last year. Well, it's not much anymore, but this was useful in setting up the town from the inside! Now, as for the Modifier...”
Felix plugged it into the terminal via some thick black cable. “Ash, how many friends do you have?”
“Uh... three in New Infinity, maybe seven in total. Why?”
“Alright, let me just go grab something real fast...”
Felix stepped into the lower workshop and came back up a minute later with three more guns and screens. “One for Franklin, one for Nathan, and one for... what was his name?”
“George? I haven't spoken to him in a while but I know he looks up to Franklin like an older brother. Why, were you just going to give them each a Modifier?”
“Now I will, yeah. If there really are people hacking the town from the inside, it's only fair we have a team who counter-hacks the town as well. Ash, welcome to the gang. Gosh, what should the gang name be?”
“Felix, this is--”
“Wait, you're all gamers, right? How about... High Scores?”
“Felix, nobody has cared about their score in years.”
“Really?”
“How about Counter-Strike? That's a game, and it's what we're doing.”
“What type of game is that, Ash?”
“A bullshit one, but the joke works.”
“Alright, that settles that! Well, here's their Modifiers. Hope it goes well!”
I hoped so, too.
ns 15.158.61.36da2
