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Mazokusoft(R) Windows 27
(C)Copyright Mazokusoft Corp 2020 - 2027
C:\WINDOWS>cd \slayers
C:\SLAYERS>cd virtual
C:\SLAYERS\VIRTUAL>dir
Volume in drive C is CEE
Volume Serial Number is 186D-18F1
Directory of C:\SLAYERS\VIRTUAL
. 03-24-99 9:52p
.. 03-24-99 9:52p
IMPRO EXE 10,002 05-20-99 6:14p
FANFIC ZIP 584,874 05-20-99 11:17p
PRESENTS TXT 2,591 02-26-98 3:02a
-------- --- 2 02-26-98 3:02a
CHAPTER 1 64,305 05-22-99 1:09a
CHAPTER 10 14,690 03-2?-00 ??:???
CHAPTER 11 49,528 04-1?-00 ??:???
CHAPTER 12 71,220 05-01-00 00:00a
CHAPTER 2 25,542 11-16-99 13:50p
CHAPTER 3 17,961 12-09-99 19:34p
CHAPTER 4 16,227 12-23-99 22:57p
CHAPTER 4B 18,603 01-07-00 19:28p
CHAPTER 5 18,547 01-06-00 23:50p
CHAPTER 6 15,963 01-22-00 00:29a
CHAPTER 7 38,163 02-01-00 01:32a
CHAPTER 8 32,821 02-2?-00 ??:???
CHAPTER 9 18,881 03-0?-00 ??:???
-------- --- 2 02-26-99 03:02a
FILE_ID DIZ 411 05-01-00 00:00a
file(s) 1,090,355 bytes
2 dir(s) 8,999.79 MB free
C:\SLAYERS\VIRTUAL>type file_id
File not found - file_id
C:\SLAYERS\VIRTUAL>type file_id.diz
C:\SLAYERS\VIRTUAL>more chapter.12
Three towers in three different metropolitan counties reach for the ever vigilant, ever shining stars. In the closest, a hidden entity of one's and zero's watches his prey. In the second a corporate ruler, whose world is kept in darkness, clenches his fist and sends a silent command. In third, tallest tower, a conductor weaves his invisible baton, raising the orchestra into a gradual climax.
The wind stirs, a breeze blows, and a dust devil gathers and swirls about the empty parking lot of one of a standard cheap and cheesy roadside motel. It was a weak whirlwind, hardly strong enough to hold itself together.
Which is why when the self-proclaimed "Hacker of Justice" decided to invade the dust devil's personal space with her body, it quickly dispersed. Alight with giggles, Amelia continued to skip around in the parking of the cheap Motel placed strategically to catch the flow of couples looking for housing in the growing suburb.
"Hey, Lina, don't you think this is the perfect place for us to hide out?" Amelia bubbled. Lina stood by the people mover, leaning against the large vehicle. Poor Lina, she had a rather poor time of life as of late, so it is understandable that she was rather pooped.
"Amelia? Come back... You should be resting, not prancing about. You got SHOT, remember?"
"But I feel fine! I feel free!" the younger girl replied. She stretched her arms out just to justify her statement, but instantly regretted it. "I feel owie."
"Oh, good one," Lina murmured as she watched her apprentice return back over to the large van, wincing. "Honestly, I would be bed-ridden if I got shot, but you act like if you never were shot in the first place!" Funny Lina should say that...
"But I'm getting better, I-oooh!" The sugar level raised yet again and Amelia pranced off in the direction of Mr. Jonathan Ramirez, "Joey" to his friends. Taking souvenir pictures of happy new couples in their happy new homes was his trade, and he was damned good at it. He was one of the best, if you asked him. He was scooping out the Motel for such new couples. The people carrier did not interest him much, a newlywed would not drive such a... beast. However, he figured he could make a few extra bucks and since he used digital equipment, unlike all those photography purists, he could actually make a good profit not having to buy soul-expensive film.
"Hi, name's Joey, would you guys like your pic-Hey! Come back with my camera!" Amelia held the newly liberated camera gleefully as she bounced back over to the rest of the group.
"Everybody out! C'mon, I want to take your picture! Look happier, Lina, please! *Click!* Aww, you and Sylphiel look so cute together, Gourry! *Click!* Oh, mustn't forget myself! *Click! Click!* Zelgadis? Zelgadis! Come out, you!"
The cynical cyborg sat still in the front seat of the over-sized van, waiting for everyone to get back in. Suddenly the passenger side door opened with the power of misplaced justice and well being, the avatar of these virtues leaning her head in. Her victim turned to look, with the closest thing to a puzzled look his cyborg face would allow. That expression was forever captured on digital media, conveniently written onto a minidisk and ejected by Amelia before a metal hand crushed the camera.
A breeze stirred the trees and the grass; a sleek car drove up to the Motel and a man wearing a trench coat and visor-shades stepped out towards the office, and Joey watched his franchise crumble into so many little plastic and metal bits onto the carpet of the van.
--MORE--
It was early evening by now, the engine was idling, and Sylphiel was counting what money they had left after having to pay back Joey for his camera.
"Jeez, Zel, did you really have to crush his camera? I mean come on! Now we're close to broke!" Lina griped at the cyborg from the passenger seat.
Amelia sat in the back, plugged into her deck and uploading the pictures from the minidisk she saved from eminent and crunchy doom. Dumping all the other pictures of happy couples, she started arranging the new pictures around her construct in the form of posters. The one of Lina went next to her "desk" of "equipment" she used when hacking with Lina. The wider poster of Gourry and Sylphiel helped cover up a bare spot on a wall she just could not seem to fill. The fatal picture of Zelgadis she placed behind to her primary desktop, in the biggest poster yet. To finish it all off, she posted several copies of the pictures of her around her construct room in the form of wallet-sized pictures pasted here and there.
Satisfied with her work, she unjacked herself just in time to see Zelgadis start thrashing violently from the diver's seat. Confusion had the initiative in her mind, but at the rather insistent urging of Panic, it stepped down politely when the cyborg's tensing legs caused the gas pedal to depress and the van to lurch against the parking brakes.
"Zelgadis!" she screamed, clambering over Lina and Gourry who were all ready trying to pin down the flailing robotic arms. The robotic foot slipped off the gas pedal and the van stopped lurching. Sylphiel dived for the keys and turned the engine off. The metallic body lurched against the seat, throwing everyone off except for Amelia, who clung on to his shoulders, before going slack, every gear, servo, and hydraulic doo-hick in his body disengaging and taking a vacation.
"Zelgadis!" Amelia screamed again. Zelgadis' electronic eyes defocused then realigned themselves, focusing on her face. His speech processes started up with a buzz and his mouth quirked.
"Rezo... Trying to... shut down..." His words were coming out in the middle of a garbled mass, the pitch and oscillation of his voice was completely out of whack, hitting both ends of the scale, high and low.
"Reeezooh!" Static drowned out his last word then an electronic whine filled the cabin. As the noise slowly faded away into nothingness, Zelgadis' eyes defocused again and stayed that way.
"ZELGADIS!"
"Amelia..." Lina said softly.
"Zelgadis!" Amelia croaked, her voice failing her.
"Amelia," Lina said after a minute. Amelia continues to stare at Zelgadis' empty eyes.
"Lina?" the younger girl whispered, barely acknowledging her name.
"Amelia," Lina repeated, louder this time. "Amelia he's gone. Come on." She reached over and gently placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, pulling gently. Amelia came away from Zelgadis' form slowly, letting her hands slide off his shoulders and swing loosely to her sides. Then she quickly turned and embraced Lina. The original Slayerz duo made their way to the seats at the middle of the van.
No one said anything. Gourry sat on the passenger side and Sylphiel hovered just behind him, staring quietly at Zelgadis, who was currently indisposed. Amelia stared at the table surface, the healthy color her face had born just earlier that day was once again replaced with the shallow face she bore just after getting shot. Lina watched her face, noting the emotions reflected in the watery pools of Amelia's eyes.
"Amelia," she said softly. At first the girl did nothing, finally after a moment she looked up at Lina. "Amelia, let's get you to a bed. You've had a rough couple of days, we all have."
A face appeared in the passenger window, much to the discomfort of the occupants of the people mover. It was a man, hopefully, with visor shades, a short crop of red hair, a sharp chin and a thin nose. He appeared to be peering around the large, spacious, and oh so homey van with very little apparent care.
"Hey, what are you looking at you visor wearing... jerk!?" growled Lina, rather miffed at the whole premise of his presence. "Don't you think it's rather late to be wearing shades?
"..." the visor bearing face replied nonchalantly. The man looked down as he opened his coat and dug out two cards, handing them to Gourry.
"'Fenian Antagonist,'" Gourry read from the first card, "'World's Best Harbinger, Torch and Soliloquist.'
"I am The Harbinger."
"And then this one says, 'Dr. Fred Alzeitzer. Angsty Android? Broken 'Bot? You Break 'Em, I Fix 'Em.' Are these those trading cards that little kids go nuts about?"
The man looked at Gourry, one eyebrow carefully raised over the edge of the visor just so. Bonk! went Lina's hand on Gourry's head. "No, moron, they're business cards!"
"Follow on back," the man said coldly then walked back to his car. All the eyes in the van followed him as he lifted the door open, climbed into the card and pulled the door shut.
The sound of the super cool car's roaring engine faded away just as quickly as everyone's comprehension of what exactly just happened.
"Let me see those please, Gourry," Sylphiel said as she reached to take the cards from the blonde. "Oh my! These lead us back into Atlass City!"
"Well, what are waiting for? The Slayerz will not let a friend down when they are in trouble!" Amelia vocalized, standing up from her seat and flexing a mighty but cute arm. "... right Lina?"
"..." Lina responded, looking at anything but the others, utilizing the new speech making skills she learned from The Harbinger. Haunting images from her brief visit into the RIT's network flashing in her mind. "We just ran away from there. I do-I mean, we really shouldn't go back there... RIT's men will be out looking for us and..."
Lina looked up at Amelia only to find the girl giving her THAT look.
"Ah, no, please Amelia. I don't want to go back there, I..." She couldn't stand it anymore; she had to look away again.
"Lina," Sylphiel murmured.
"Ohhh, fine!" Lina blurted out. "What the hell, let's go back. Let's go save Zel, -despite- the fact that he's betrayed us and got almost all of us SHOT! Let's go back and stick our ketchup covered heads back into the lion's mouth!"
"Yes! That's the Slayerz way!" Amelia cheered, flexing that mighty and cute arm again, this time though she came back down from her high horse wincing.
"Amelia! Lay down here before you hurt yourself... worse."
"Uhm, Lina?" Sylphiel interjected. "Can't you just do that waving of your hands thing and heal her?" Lina gave her a puzzled look briefly before catching on.
"Oh! Right!" Here she placed her hands over Amelia's all ready sleeping form, murmuring quietly to herself the init string for the command used to restore corrupt packets caused by other hacker's attacks. "Recovery!" In the real world though, it should have caused a white light to encase her hands and heal any wounds she placed the hand over. Instead there was a faint glow that quickly fizzled out.
"Wow, that was a neat trick, Lina." Gourry enthused, wrongly. Now he needed a little bit of healing himself for the new bump on his head, thanks to Lina's fists of anti-stupid-comments.
"I must be tired..." Lina said after a moment's thought. And she was tired; this was rather obvious as just then her face split into a wide yawn. "Hey, Gourry, drive us to the location on the cards. Sylphiel? Can you help him navigate?"
"Yes, of course... you sleep now. We'll wake you when we get there." Lina nodded then laid down next to her accomplice in crime and soon fell asleep.
"Man... Why do we have to go back to that city just to fix Zel?" Gourry whined as he moved the heavy form out of the driver's seat and dragged him to the back. "Why don't we just call 'Triple-A' or something?"
Sylphiel would have smacked him. She would have, if she were that type.
--MORE--
Would you believe that the life of Mr. K.R. Barrem, security man extraordinaire, was a rather boring one? Well, he was after all, guarding a large sewer pipe. In fact, it was so boring that he used vague terms such as "large" to describe the pipe, when in all honesty it demanded such phrases such as "Humongous" and "Oh my god, that's a f'n' big pipe!"
No one ever used this large pipe. It is what is left of the Atlass City Aqueduct system originally planned back when the city still had a population under 500,000. Ah, back in the day. The plan was scraped when another source was found to be cheaper and provide more water to the quickly expanding city. Though by that point, the large pipeway had all ready been laid beside the city, with small branches leading off too various processing stations planned around the city.
Those branches were closed off now though, but the tunnel-proper remained open for a sole intent. To house the hive of scum and villainy that is the Atlass City Underside. Which, coincidently, is where the cards clutched in Sylphiel's fist lead.
Back to Mr. Barren though, he had the pleasure of watching a large, six wheeled people carrier careen off the service road and down into the dry causeway that led to the opening of the aqueduct. Visible through the windshield, a blonde man sat in the driver's seat, madly getting the over-sized van back into control. Next to him in the passenger seat sat a stylishly dressed damsel in distress, clutching to anything she could hold on to. She appeared to be screaming something at the driver, but he couldn't tell.
"GOURRY! Please watch where you are going!" Sylphiel screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Ah! I'm sorry, but just listen to the sound of that engine!" He cranked the engine again and swung the van into a sidespin that ended a few yards away from the guarded aqueduct opening. It was a miracle the monster didn't tip over, thought Sylphiel briefly before remembering to breathe.
A rapping at the driver-side window heralded the arrival of the guard. Gourry just gave him a blank stare, but Mr. Barren was polite enough to signal to him to roll down the window. Gourry proved functional enough to do this task.
"Well now, a nice little stunt you did there. Pity Hollywood is all the way on the other side of the country. Pity you also can't do that here, and I'm afraid on the part of the Atlass City PD I'm going to have to give you a fine for trespassing." He looked official enough, wearing an Atlass City Police uniform, complete with a badge, a ticket book and an attitude.
"Uhm, excuse me, but we were directed to come to this place," Sylphiel offer meekly from her seat. She reached over and offered one of the cards, slightly rumpled now, to Barren.
"Well, what do we have here?" he inquired and snatched a card from her hand. He considered it briefly, flipped it over once or twice, scrutinized it under his flashlight and even went as far as to bite off a corner and taste it. "Hmm, I'll be damned. This is a completely different matter indeed."
He reached into a jacket pocket and withdrew a small black box. As he held it up towards the large black opening of the tunnel he pressed a large recessed button and a small LED lit up on the box. The sound of a grate rising could be heard echoing from the dark void inside the tunnel.
"Move along," said Barren as he took a couple steps back and waved his arm. "Move along." It was a good thing he stepped back too. The tires squealed and the van lurched then swung around to face the tunnel then darted inside.
"I need a new job," muttered the guard before hitting the button on the controller again and returning to his post.
--MORE--
"Am I dead?" wondered Lina out loud.
"No, that was just Gourry's driving," responded Sylphiel as she peered down at Lina. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," mumbled Lina as she sat upright and glanced out the nearest window. "Where are we?"
"We appear to be heading down a tunnel..."
"Duh."
"Oh, well, uhm... I'm not quite so sure where we are going, honestly." Sylphiel admitted as she took a seat across from Lina.
"Zzzz," commented Amelia. Lina glanced over at the sleeping girl and shook her head slightly.
"Still asleep... I guess that's all right."
"Yes," Sylphiel said and nodded. "Looks like her color is returning too. That's good."
An uneasy silence fell over the van, with two sets of eyes watching Amelia, another set of electronic eyes still staring up at the ceiling, and the last set of open eyes peering down the tunnel.
"What's that?" Gourry pondered as he started to brake. The van was approaching what appeared to be a fortification made out of metal plates, spanning from side to side and top to bottom of the tunnel.
"Yes!" Lina cried as she made her way to the passenger seat and Sylphiel stood behind the driver seat. "Pull over there, Gourry, looks like there's an opening."
A guard wondered out of a small side tunnel and headed over to the car. The business cards were flashed again, this time without the taste-test, and a large panel of the fortification swung inwards, allowing the large van inside.
On the other side of the barrier, the tunnel was completely different. Large halogen lights beamed down light, illuminating the many half-hazard shacks, tents, and other miscellaneous buildings. Fires and space heaters were scattered helter-skelter, providing warmth for those working outside of the buildings. Wires were strung across hanging loops and over raceways, linking all the buildings together in a large jumbled network.
"My, someone's been watching a lot of movies," commented Lina, sticking her head out the window to take a look around as they slowly passed towards a massive courtyard. "But you work with what you got, I guess."
"Looks dirty," Sylphiel noted. "I mean, look at all that graffiti." Scrawled all over the walls, barrels, equipment, and even a poor shmoe who didn't wake up in time was various gang tags, but the most prominent was the tag of a snake, curled between and around three skyscrapers.
"Nice people. Gourry, stop here. Looks like the welcome wagon is here to greet us." Outside a collection of guards and a ringleader, a man in boots, jeans, a white shirt, a leather jacket, a grinning countenance carefully sculpted into a look of trust and black, and spiky hair were approaching the vehicle. The ringleader had his arms held wide open, palms outwards.
"He reminds me of my cousin, a lawyer," Gourry noted.
"A shark in any case," Lina said and opened the door and hopped out. Gourry let out a quick exclamation and but the brakes on full, stopping the vehicle. "Hey, Lina!" he called out the window, "Couldn't you wait until I had stopped fully?!"
Lina just quickly flashed him a quick 'V' with her fingers and turned back to the welcome group, putting on her best game face.
"Ah, Miss Lina Berkowitz. Welcome to the hole of the Snakes in the Grass," the man greeted. "My name is Leon Pendetta. And, by your surprised expression, you are wondering why how I know your name. Let's say you're a celebrity by now." He gestured to a guard behind him, who stepped up and snapped open a rolled poster he held in his hand.
FBI's Most Wanted: Lina Berkowitz.
--MORE--
The infirmary of The Snakes in the Grass was perhaps the cleanest building in the entire base. Despite the quite rugged and dirty exterior, the inside was virtually spotless, the equipment was modern and functional, and the air even had that good old anesthesia smell. Dr. Clara Aleron ran a tight ship, so to speak. In the smaller reception room, a guard was having his hands treated for burns. In the larger treatment room, the good doctor was taking a look at Amelia's gun shot wounds.
"Mmm, looks like you had an interesting night recently," she clucked as she redressed the wounds. "Well, young lady, you heal very fast. However, I want you off your feet as much as you can for the next week or so. After that, take it easy, for your sake." The doctor stood away from her patient, straightened out her white coat and patted down her ebony hair, checking the security of the bun on the back of her head.
Amelia nodded once, cutely. "You have the word of Ame-urgh!" Lina held her hand over Amelia's mouth for a bit longer until she could feel the power pose fade away.
"Now Amelia, you heard the doctor, you should rest." The girl nodded her head and Lina removed her hand then helped her over to some chairs.
"As for your other friend," Clara motioned to the still form of Zelgadis on another examination table, "there is little I can do for him. I work with humans only. However, I have let Doctor Fred know you are here with a... client, and he should be here shortly."
"Hey, doc?" Lina asked just as the woman was turning away to leave. She looked at Lina for a moment before returning to the first examination table and leaning against it. "Could you explain where we are?"
"You are in the base of the Snakes in the Grass, one of two underground technology sects that live here in the old Atlass City Aqueduct. The Snakes lean towards more weaponry technology, smuggling in and out weapons and weapons systems to those who want to buy, in and out of Atlass City. Their opponents, the Moles in the Dirt, specialize in more computer technology. They are hackers and programmers, who design, crack and distribute software and computer parts in and out of Atlass." Clara paused for a moment, as if in thought, peering down at Lina with hazel eyes. "Does that answer your question sufficiently?"
"...Ah, yes."
"Good. Now if you will excuse me, I have another patient to tend to." She stood up and walked into the reception room.
"Why do I get the feeling we have gotten ourselves involved in a gang war?" Lina asked no one in particular.
"Probably because we have," Sylphiel responded anyway.
"But Lina, this is for Zelgadis, remember? The Slayerz-- We, will do anything to help him!" Amelia gave one those really cute looks that give people cavities.
"Grrgh," was Lina's response as her will crumbled under the power of The Look. "Look, we get Zel repaired, we pay them whatever they need, and then we got out of here, agreed? I don't like this, at all." She leaned back in her chair and crosses her arms over her chest.
"Y-yes." Satisfied that Amelia had consented, Lina turned to Sylphiel.
"How much money do we have left?" she inquired. The taller woman turned away from watching Gourry to face Lina.
"Well, as far as I can tell, we only have about two hundred dollars left over after having to pay for that guy's camera. And I don't think our credit or checking cards are going to be working now that we are wanted."
Lina soaked that in for a moment before letting out a sigh and cupping her head in her hands. She could feel that headache coming on now. It was almost a comfort to know something of before still remained the same. Even if it was that old un-ignorable pressure behind her eyes that haunted her so much.
"I had an account in my mother's maiden name made," she said after some time. "I was going to use it to keep my life's savings safe. I have very little in it, only a few hundred... I doubt that's enough to cover the expense it will take to repair Zel."
All eyes turned to look at the frozen cyborg, which is why no one noticed Gourry experiment with the silly gas. Their eyes didn't stay there long, for suddenly the back door to the room opened and in walked the living incarnation of the mad doctor stereotype. Balding, crazed gleaming eyes, scruffy looking white beard to his belly, a lab coat which hadn't seen the scrubbing power of laundry detergent in years and scuffed brown casual shoes.
"Weeeell!" he half said, half squealed as he moved right over to Zelgadis. "What do we a have here? Wow! A top piece of the line robot we have here! Almost completely humanoid! Ah! He even has hair, though I can't say I agree on the style. Hmm... How about I give you half a million for him?"
Money signs flashed before Lina's eyes for a moment, but they quickly faded when Amelia got to her feet. "How dare you! That is our friend you are talking about! We came here to get him better, not to sell him to a nasty looking man such as yourself!"
The wild doctor considered this for a moment. "Your friend is he then? He has artificial intelligence! One million!" Lina spasmed like if she was hit with electricity.
"No he doesn't! He has a human brain in there and human feelings! He was wrongly placed inside that metal body by his evil uncle and then was sent to get a deadly virus from us but we didn't let him so then he chased us down and tried to take it forcefully from Lina's head but then we ran away and he came to us acting as our friend but then he betrayed us and I got shot and it made him feel bad so he called off the shooting and I forgive him for that, it's okay now, so then he helped us escape from these weirdoes who were fighting over a corporation and joined our side, the side of Justice! for sure, but then we were at a Motel and he broke down now we want you to make him better!" Practically half the air in the room was needed to refill Amelia's lungs after that little rant. She sat back down, Sylphiel fanning air towards her.
"Hmm, a cyborg, how interesting," mused the doctor for a moment. "All right! I will help you by fixing your friend here. It is not exactly something I have had practice with, but I'm a genius, I can do anything!" He cackled at his own incredible intellect for a quick moment before stopping abruptly. "Since you won't sell him to me, the price to repair him will be two million doll-"
--MORE--
I fainted... I know I did.
"Lina? Lina, wake up!"
Now someone is calling name... I just want to sleep a little longer.
"Lina! WAKE UP!"
Oh fine...
"What, what?" moaned Lina as she sat up. Funny, the floor of the infirmary wasn't this soft... oh, a bed.
"You fainted!" said Amelia, detaching herself from her fallen friend.
"No, really? I couldn't tell," responded Lina as she clutched her head. Yup, the headache was back, not as strong as it had been previous times, but it was there nonetheless as a nice dull pain. Hello, old friend. "Where am I now?"
"We got rooms for us to stay in for the night. They're not too bad!" The younger girl crawled away from Lina to allow her to see her surroundings. Truth be told, the room she was in was rather decent. Bland, with a whitewash walls and no windows, but it was clean and there were not any critters hiding around ready to bite one's toes.
"I see... What time is it?"
"Seven o'clock in the morning; rise and shine time! We've been given jobs!"
Lina winced at the enthusiasm, forcing herself to speak through gritted teeth. "Jobs?"
"Yes! Mr. Pendetta gave us all jobs we can do for the Snakes in return for them fixing Zelgadis. Isn't that great?!"
"Yea, lovely." Lina glanced around and found a glass of water and two aspirin sitting on a nightstand next to her. A mildly surprising yet very welcomed pair of aspirin. Forgoing the water she dry swallowed the pills then looked back at Amelia. "What are we to do, then?"
"Well..." began Amelia.
--MORE--
"As I was saying before!" Amelia began again. She had been rudely interrupted by Lina's growling stomach, and that led to them getting food. At first the team though getting food down here would be a dilemma, but as it turned out the Snakes practically owned and managed one of the Burger Lords topside. So this meant fast, greasy food to eat and give your stomach a work out.
Now normally Lina wouldn't be caught dead eating this stuff. Which is why when she found out that was practically the only thing the Snakes ate here, she... "Persuaded" the delivery boy to stop by at a sandwich place next door. The delivery boy was very bright and responsive, and also had a great sense in life preservation. Which led to a nice three meat combo with just the right touch of greens and pepper.
"Go on, Amelia," Sylphiel encouraged after wiping her mouth off with a napkin. The group had assembled in a conference room of sorts. Most the chairs were empty ammo crates and the tabletop had a map of Atlass City, a couple years old, sitting on top with a bunch of sharp colored pins all over.
"Yes, right. Well Mr. Pendetta said that he would supply rooms, food, and supplies for all of us if we did a couple of jobs for him. And, he also hinted at that one of the jobs, the one we have to do I think Lina, that the job would pay for the Doctor to repair Zelgadis."
"Please don't call him a doctor, Amelia. It's just like calling your dad a CEO." This stopped the girl in mid rant but Lina just waved her on. "What are the jobs?"
"Uh, right. Well, you and I, Lina, are going on a hacker run against the Snake's opponents, the Moles in the Dirt. Gourry is going to make a round with their top deliveryman for important packages, that weird man we saw in the Motel parking lot. And Sylphiel is to help one of their hackers fix the security system here. It's been wonky, or something like that. That's the phrasing Mr. Pendetta used."
"Uh, excuse me, but didn't Miss Aleron say that the Snakes were primarily interested in weapons systems and not in hacking?" Sylphiel asked uncertainly.
"Nah, they probably just hired the guy you'll be working with, just like they have effectively hired us. Well," Lina paused to inhale the last piece of her sandwich, "let's get to it, gang."
"Right! For Zelgadis' sake!" Amelia cheered, power posing.
--MORE--
Lina and Amelia stood before a particularly... artistic, shack towards the center of the mile long base of the Snakes. The building was the unfortunate canvas for many different artists. Witty tags such as, "Roland wuz here," "I'm Too Sexy for this Paint," "How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck if a Woodchuck Could Chu-" The rest of the words had faded into the swirling mass, apparently the artist ran out of spray paint. On top, with wide, dripping red paint was the words, "NO MORE TAGGING ON THIS WALL! - Signed Snake Management."
The door had an interesting tag sprayed on it, though no seemed eager to write over with their own. This message said, "Welcome to the Wind Tunnel. Beware of Draft." Heedless of these words, Lina grabbed the handle, turned and swung the door open. The outburst of air nearly blew her over. The air was hot, but it was a dry heat. The hum of a dozen mainframes greeted her ears and the tingling sensation of power fields caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand.
"Intense," Amelia murmured and slid past Lina into the room. The older girl put her weight into it and managed to close the door. As she turned around she found Mr. Pendetta there to greet her and her prot�g�.
"Welcome to Antiquity," he said with his trademark wide spread arms. "As you can see, these are pretty old late millennium Cray's, but they serve our purpose quite nicely.
Lina nodded her head as she looked around. "Yea, you'd only need like five of them to get the power of a single DracoNix desktop."
"What more could you need?" asked Leon through gritted teeth.
"Well plenty, actually, but never mind; where do we hook in at?" Lina responded easily.
"I brought my deck!" bounced Amelia and she went over to a vacant desk and seat and set up her portable there.
"You can use this deck, Miss Lina," Mr. Pendetta said, handing Lina a laptop bag. With a sigh she took it and went over to the seat next to Amelia and set up. "You'll find your instructions inside the construct. Good luck, Miss Berkowitz."
"Yea, yea, yea," muttered Lina as she fitted her headband on her head and hit the initialize button on the deck.
--MORE--
"Hey, you're that Harbinger guy, right?"
"..." was the tall man's response to Gourry's inquiry. "Get in the car."
"Okay... Hey pretty comfy." He swung down the door and glanced around. From the outside the car looked like an ordinary Delorian. Now Gourry might be dim witted sometimes, and he might have seen some of those movies from the twentieth century, but he knew for a fact that it was impossible to travel in time. He'd tried it was a kid with his sled, and after hitting the tree so many times he couldn't remember, ("That's because you hit your head, dummy!" Lina had replied when Gourry explained to her that particular anecdote) he ruled the theory incorrect.
But time travel or no, the car was still pretty damn cool looking. Especially after they revamped the engine, took out the back seat and placed an armored parcel carrier with a loading and unloading slot where the rear window had been, and also placed light armor all around the car. It was a now a mean, lean, delivering machine.
"Buckle up," warned the driver before punching the gas. Gourry made an impressive impersonation of a banshee as the car screamed out of the tunnel.
--MORE--
The security central for the Snakes in the Grass was located towards the tunnel end of the base. Nestled in one of the larger of the feed pipes coming out of the aqueduct, it was barely eight feet in diameter. Little alcoves were dug into the sides for the miscellaneous equipment, and boards where placed on the bottom to provide a flat floor and a run space underneath for the tangled mass of wires that run up the pipe to the equipment.
Unconsciously stooping, Sylphiel peered through the poorly lit tunnel. "Uhm, excuse me? Hello?" Her voice replied in a faint echo, then nothing. After a moment she called out again and this time she could hear faint footsteps coming down towards her.
"Yeah, be there in a sec," a gruff voice said. A figure passed underneath one of the dim lights and she could barely make out a man in a brown jump suit with long brown hair. His face remained hidden in the shadow-- that is of course until he peered out from the tunnel into the moderately lit aqueduct. "Ah, they sent me a woman did they?"
His face appeared to have been made with a chisel, sharp expressions and rough edges. He could be considered handsome, in that ruffian, Han Solo kind of way.
"Yes, they did..." Sylphiel said, straightening up a little.
The man offered her his best gentleman grin, which involved a lot of teeth. "The name's Garret," he said as he offered her a hand.
"Sylphiel," she responded and takes his hand. "Lead on, Garret."
He nodded and lead her up the tunnel, which Sylphiel noticed did incline slightly, to where she could see lit LEDs on what she assumed would be the equipment. "Here we are, just give your eyes a moment to adjust to the light."
She waited, and when her eyes became adjusted enough to see clearly she was slightly surprised at what she saw. "A multiplatform, multireality compiler! I was expecting... I don't know, a network terminal or something of the sort."
Garret chuckled and nodded. "The Snakes are very into weapons systems, so I imagine they picked out this little baby from one of their shipments. And when you hook up, take a look at some of the equipment they have hooked up to it, too. Shoo, it's enough to make you get on your knees and beg for buttermilk."
"Uh... yea," Sylphiel responded, trying to hide her puzzled expression by focusing on the equipment. Men... "So what are we to do, then?" she asked as she got out her 'node headband.
"Well, some of the equip' isn't communicating with the terminal here, so we get to debug the system and make them operational. So that means we are probably going to be having some of the nodes go up and down, so don't be surprised if something jumps live on you while you're in there."
"There's only one connection here for a user. If I'm going to be hooked in, what are you doing?"
"I'm your hands and eyes here in the real world. That system has a nice little routine that allows you communicate with the outside world while you're plugged in. No, excuse me I lied. Those cameras there are supposed to be your eyes while you're plugged in, but they are part of what needs to be debugged. This system was built to be used in combat situations, after all. Don't want someone coming up on you with a knife."
"Yes, of course," she replied, certainly not settled by that prospect.
"Ahh, but don't worry! I'm here, right?! So let's get to work!"
"Uh, yes, let's."
--MORE--
The cyber plane stretched out as far as the metaphoric eye could see. This was her place. This was Lina Inverse's stomping grounds. First things first, though.
Reaching over and grabbing a card on the desk in the construct, she held it up to read. To her left the sound of someone rezzing in alerted her to Amelia's logging onto her deck. She noted the standard "travel apparel" Amelia's avatar bore when doing hacking jobs, but there was a new addition.
A cute little button with a, "Save Zelgadis' Life!" logo and a small picture of Zel was pinned over her breast.
"Aren't we taking this a little far, Amelia??" Any response the girl could have given was cut off as the card began to speak in a poorly constructed waveform.
"Good evening Miss Berkowitz. Good evening Miss wil Tesla Sailoon."
"It's not even afternoon yet," muttered Lina.
"Undoubtedly you are wondering what your job is to be," the recording continued undaunted. "Before I tell you, let me brief you on the current standings of the Atlass Underside."
"Yea, yea! Blah, blah, blah! Where's the fast-forward on this stupid thing?" Lina growled as she poked at the card.
"Uh... Lina..." Amelia said, knowing better than to try and stop her, but still unwilling to see the card destroyed.
By the time Lina gave up, the message had all ready finished with the history lesson. It seems Mr. Pendetta had been blissfully short and to the point. "Now, on the job. We have reason to believe that the Moles have intercepted a shipment or two of ours, to arm themselves. I don't know how much of the weapons market you follow, Miss Berkowitz, but good weapons such as the ones we lost are not easy, nor cheap to reacquire.
"Now we value our costumers, and our goods. It cost us a pretty penny in actual expenses and in lost future income. So we seek a reimbursement for our lost moneys. The Moles are unwilling to volunteer such a venture, so we shall do it forcefully. That is what you are here for, Miss Berkowitz."
"It would have been easier just to say you wanted me to go steal some of their money, you blockhead," grumbled Lina at the voice.
"Good luck, Miss Berkowitz. Miss wil Tesla Sailoon."
"How does he know my last name, Lina?"
"I dunno, it's not important, really. Many ways to find out."
"By the way, this message will destruct in... Well now." The virtual card fizzled and derezzed out of the virtual world with a puff of pixilated smoke. Cheap effects.
"Okay, Amelia. Let's go." Lina said, dusting off her hands and started to march to the doorway that led to the outside network.
"Uh, but Lina, how will we find our way there? I think we missed that part." Amelia pondered, coming up behind her teacher.
"Don't worry, the solution will present itself, I am sure of it."
They approached the door; Lina twisted the knob and pulled open the door revealing nothing but the black stillness. The two hackers exchanged looks, nodded, then stepped inside in harmony...
--MORE--
And he stepped out of the car, his boots clicking on the pavement with just the right amount of echo on the empty tarmac. The Harbinger stood up straight and glanced around him, the neon lights of the franchise station glinting off his mirrored visor shades.
"..." he soliloquized in a fashion completely unlike a Shakespearean character.
"Momma-moo murgle," babbled Gourry from the passenger seat. The Big H walked around the car and unlatched then lifted the passenger side door with the toe of his boot then moved to the parcel box. With deft fingers he quickly had typed the password five times before the computer finally accepted and spat out the package they were sent to deliver.
The parcel was tucked into the trench coat and The Harbinger glanced over to see Gourry climbing shakily out of the passenger seat. With out even saying an "Adieu," he started marching towards the painfully illuminated building. The sound of quickly approaching, scuffing feet heralded the approach of Gourry.
"So, what are we doing here anyway?" he asked of the man, but you know what, he didn't actually get a reply that was in the form of y'know, actual words. "Mmm, silent type. My mom had always said those who didn't say much either were people who though actions spoke louder than words or were refraining themselves from speaking because man, once you got them speaking they just would not shut their mouth."
Gourry beamed. He thought his statement was witty. Apparently though, the twenty or so faceless armed men who were suddenly between them and the building didn't think so. I mean after all, they all had automatic weapons, armed and trained on their targets. The Harbinger and Gourry both exchanged quick glances, just before diving in either direction for cover and then the car. 'Cause you know what? The guys were armed with guns, and The Harbinger and Gourry had naught of such kind of armament. Death sucks.
What ensued thusly... could only be described as a car chase.
--MORE--
Garret watched Sylphiel sit frozen in front of the console. Hell, she's plenty attractive, he thought to himself. And a damned good programmer, too. He glanced over her shoulder at the 2D console that allowed him to get a vague idea of what she was doing. However, it only showed him what she wanted it to show him. She was easily going through and restoring all the connections at the application layers, only asking him to take a look at a problem if she thought the trouble might be part of the physical layers.
It was a pity he was going to have to do what he was going to do.
"Okay, Sylphiel, I found a bad connection and I'm rerouting it. Hopefully it'll connect this time." He brushed himself past the woman and pulled out a crate hidden in the darkness, pulling it out towards the entrance of the smaller tunnel.
"O-K-A-Y," the console spelled out in the dedicated response window. She was ready for it. Garret opened the crate and removed the parts. Stand, actuators, ammo drum, barrel loop and the gas-driven firing chamber. The portable turret was easy to assemble, and after he'd taken the time to study the instructions of course.
"Plugging it in," he said and hooked an unused connection into the turret, at the same time pulling the plug on the microphone that allowed Sylphiel to hear what was going on. That is why she didn't hear the turret whirr to life and run a quick test spin of its three barrels.
"W-H-A-T H-A-P-P-E-N-E-D-?" Sylphiel asked over the console.
"Nothing, don't worry about it. We must have shorted out the mike somehow when plugged in the new part. It should have come up in Sector Seven. Did it?" Garret typed out on the console keyboard.
"Y-E-S."
"Good girl," the man mumbled to himself and continued to wait.
--MORE--
"Dum dee dum dee dum dum dee dee-dee-dee!" merrily hummed the music program in the waiting lounge of the Burger Lord virtual restaurant. Where you can have your fast food preordered, yet they'll still manage to get the order completely wrong, for your convenience.
"Lina? Why did you stop here? I thought you hated these kind of fast food places."
Lina Inverse, her avatar at least, shrugged in response to her apprentice's inquiry. "You know, it's just one of those feelings. Woman's intuition."
...
"You know, it isn't quite the same without Gourry here to make a stupid comment, isn't it?" Lina noted after mentioned stupid comment failed to be made. This time is was Amelia's turn to shrug.
...
More waiting, more pathetic muzak piped through a 120kbs stream. Err, or it was, until Lina blew up the program with a well-controlled fireball. Other avatars cheered, a few held up signs, one sniffed mournfully. He was the runt of the litter, anyway.
"Amelia, start up a packet sniffer, please? Just for kicks." Lina decided to count the little holes in the ceiling tile while Amelia performed the necessary task.
"Nothing much here, Lina. A few idle daemons sitting around doing nothing and taking up bandwidth, the data for these other avatars of course, an ASCII stream to the order daemon..." Amelia reported in a hush, direct client-to-client connection.
"ASCII? Hell, send it over here, I need to brush up on my ASCII code." The appropriate bits were redirected her way and viewed to her in a subtle overlay box in the corner of her vision. "Hum... looks like an order for food doesn't it?"
"Yea, it does," Amelia said, nodding. "Fries, triple decker, ah, I still remember how to make those, Lina! Seems like a long time ago since we were working..."
"Thank God for that... Whom is it signed by?" She peered at the text, her avatar appearing to squint at the light fixture of the room. "Check me here, 'Mr. D. Mole?'"
"Yes, that's what I get too. People are funny on the Internet, aren't they Lina!" Amelia chirped, beaming at the world in general.
"'D. Rodent,'" pondered Lina, hunching over and rubbing her chin. "Somehow I feel tempted to order coffee right now, I don't know why. What could 'D. Rodent' stand for?"
"The Rodent? You know, like Joe'D'Barber and that kind of stuff. It's common for nick's and such." the younger girl replied, assuming that lecturing tone.
"Yea, that might be it. Or it might actually stand for something... Diary? Down?"
"Dyslexic?" Amelia offered, oh so helpfully.
"Uh, yea..." Lina said, her mind word crunching, trying to come up with something that might fit. She found several word combinations that might make sense, but nothing really clicked. Until... "Dirty."
"Yea, you always said these places were full of s-"
"No, Amelia! Dirty Mole! A mole is a kind of rodent, right?" Her apprentice nodded her head, cute like. Lina jumped out of her seat and stood before her apprentice, peering down at her. "Amelia! How does a mole get dirty?"
"Uhm, oh jeez, I hate pop quizzes. A mole gets dirty because it's... burrowing under the di-oooh! Lina! You are a genius!"
"The Moles Under the Dirt! I know, aren't I?" Lina cackled mercilessly, but stopped when Amelia stood and grabbed her wrist.
"Lina, the reply packet is being sent out! We should hurry!"
"Of course! After that packet!" She posed and then started to leave; however, she paused to drop off a chunky packet in the lounge. "Okay, I've always wanted to do this... Ready here, Amelia. Let's go!"
Amelia followed, a puzzled expression written over her avatar's face. (Times New Roman, 14pt bold) They derezzed their avatars, which effectively converted themselves down to the binary root of the Internet for easy packet travel. After picking up on the order's reply packets' trail, they soared over the gigabyte lines in hot pursuit.
After they were a good distance from the Burger Lord network, Lina reversed her POV so she could see behind her. She activated a remote command, effectively pulling out a black box with an antennae and a big red button, and pressing it with a vicious jab. The King of Grease Network become like oh so much deep-fried onion rings. Yummy goodness.
"Lina..." Amelia mumbled, nervously as she watched her friend cackle evilly over their DCC connection.
--MORE--
The car crashed into a pool. The Harbinger's nice, armored car crashed into a pool. Fortunately though, the pool was drained, but still. Both coughing, both covered in dust, The Harbinger and Gourry exited the car and assessed their situation.
"This is bad, isn't it?" Gourry asked in vain. Feh, like he was going to get a response from The Harbinger.
"We're in deep sh-" Whoa! He spoke!
"FREEZE!" That wasn't the Harbinger, that wasn't Gourry either, that was the leader of the group of gun toting weirdoes. "Put your hands up!"
Gourry and The Harbinger exchanged looks again. This time though, expecting this, the leader instantly opened fire, his finger firmly depressing the trigger and his lungs crying out some unintelligible war cry.
Which fell off in confusion as a single round fired out of the gun and bounced harmlessly off the car's armored hide. The gun make a loud *CLICK* and the hammer locked in the back and empty position. "What the? Uh-oh... uh... open fire!" He shouted, looking over his shoulder at the rest of his men.
There wasn't a rain of bullets like he was expecting. All his troops glanced at him and shrugged, their guns were empty too.
Gourry and the Harbinger exchanged glances for the third time this night. Gourry pulled out his racquet; the Harbinger flung his trench coat and pulled out the hidden flamethrower he always carried around. Y'know, for kicks. He did not call himself a torch for kicks.
What ensued could only be described as a barbecue.
--MORE--
"How is everything doing, Sylphiel?"
"O-K-A-Y!"
Actually Sylphiel was a little bit worried. First of all, the ID tag on the new node they brought up a few minutes ago said, "Hammertoe Development: Exp. Rail MT." She wasn't an expert at weapons system, but something about that name just didn't make her feel very at ease.
Additionally, it was the only node on Sector Five. Well aside from the cameras and the equipment she was working with. So did that mean that node was somewhere near her? That sent shivers down her spine.
"Cold?" Garret typed on the keyboard.
"N-O, I'M F-I-N-E, T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U."
"Always so polite," Garret murmured to himself. This waiting was starting to kill him.
--MORE--
"Come out, come out where ever you are!" the geek taunted. This guy was good. Lina and Amelia had traced the packet all way back to the Moles in the Dirt's headquarters. It's amazing what you have to go through just to get to a place that's twenty or so miles away from you down a long tunnel. The packet went as far as Houston before finally winging around back to Atlass City.
"I was amazed to managed to find and trace my order," the Mole hacker had admitted when he jumped Lina and Amelia. "Obviously you aren't ordinary girls. But you're in my tunnels now, and the mole always knows his way around best."
"Jeez, why do we always get the weird ones?" groaned Lina as she and Amelia hid their packets, trying to regroup. "Well, I think this guy is mostly hot air. You want to take care of him, Amelia, while I go and find what we need?"
"No problem! Leave it to me, Lina!" Amelia said, standing up from their cover. "Diem Wind!" The resulting blast forced the geek away.
"Thank you, Amelia!" Lina cheered and bolted out the virtual lounge, heading for the door marked, "Employees Only."
"You won't escape me!" the geek shouted and fired a blast of code after Lina. However, a quick flick of the wrist from Lina and the door closed behind her, effectively closing the connection and the attack floundered against the closed port.
"Now you must feel the justice of the Slayerz! Villains such as yourself have no right in attacking innocent girls just out and about surfing!"
"Uh, right," the hacker replied and launched his attack on Amelia.
Meanwhile, in the corridors of the network Lina ran a network maintenance program at a switch she encountered. Checking the activity, she quickly took a right turn and headed down the backbone towards the center of activity in the network: Their central database.
It didn't take her very long to find the locked door with lettering, "STAY OUT ON PAIN OF TORTURE" on it. Amusingly enough, all that was there to secure it was a password entry, represented by a keypad lock next to the door.
"Easy enough. G-O-D." she said as she typed in one of the Famous Three passwords. The light flicked from green to red and the door slid open. "Feh, they put too much faith in their own luser capabilities." She stepped through the portal...
And was nearly blinded by the sheer amount of gold was displayed in the room. "Score!" She quickly got to work scooping the money in an account folder Mr. Pendetta had left her with. It filled up quite nicely, and she closed it and locked it. Glittering caught her eye and she looked up to realize that there was still a tidy sum left in the room.
"Well," she said, grinning and opening another account folder, this one her secret account. "I guess a little extra something for the assassins couldn't hurt."
Just as she was scooping the last of the money into her account, the room shook with a broadcast storm.
"Megiddo Flare!" Amelia chanted. The virus daemons around her fizzled out of existence as their code was wiped clean by the countermeasure.
"Damn you! That was my last attack I had left!" The mole hacker ducked behind a pillar and tried to think of something. On a whim, he sent a finger to Amelia's deck. The reply was very well constructed and hidden, making it appear as if she were just merely browsing from a college campus. Nothing he could exploit there...
"Surrender, villain!" the young hacker taunted, readying a counter measure incase he decided to attack suddenly. The Mole popped his head around the pillar to glance at her. Something caught his eye... He noticed the pin on her breast. He noticed the pin that had the picture of Zelgadis on it. He quickly took a snapshot of the pin and scanned the picture on the pin. The guy looked like a Goth, so the hacker quickly reskinned his avatar with Goth clothes and the guy's face.
Zelgadis stepped out from behind the pillar. This, obviously, threw Amelia for a loop. "Zelgadis?! I was fighting you?" The Goth nodded and started approaching her silently. "But why? No, how?! You should still be broken inside the Snake base."
The hacker twitched. The Snakes, so that's who sent these people. Well, that was an interesting slip. Let's see if she continues to remain prone. Behind his back he readied an attack that would rid him of her, and leave her synapses burned for a while.
Amelia was too confused to detect the attack, let alone even attack. Which is why when Zelgadis raised his hand above his head, the attack program on high power and ready to strike, all she could do is watch with watery eyes.
"You betray us again, Zelgadis?" she whispered softly, unable to react.
Lina Inverse had no such qualms about nuking Zelgadis though, so when she opened the door to see the Goth about to strike the dazed Amelia, she easily brought down a fireball on his sorry ass. With an impressive explosion, the hacker disappeared, his deck spraying errors left and right like confetti at a parade.
"Amelia, c'mon, get up." Lina said, grabbing her apprentice by the elbow and lifting her up.
"But, Zelgadis?" the younger girl replied, confusion still written on her face. (Helvetica, 12pt italic)
"That wasn't Zelgadis," Lina said with a sigh. "The hacker got his picture off your button here." She tapped the button for emphasis.
"Oh... of course! Did you get it?" Lina nodded and showed the girl the bulging package.
"Yea, I got it, let's go."
The two logged off from the Mole's network and stopped at the ISP for the geek-underground bases' connection. Lina turned herself around, pointed a finger towards the base and muttered a command init.
"DRAGON SLAVE!"
That was going to take weeks of coding to fix, Lina noted as they retraced their steps back to the Snake's network, covering up their tracks. But that was the point.
--MORE--
The Harbinger's car limped back into the Snakes in the Grass base, the armor was bent, the tires were deflated and the windshield was cracked. But inside, two buddies were exchanging tales of tennis and good barbeque grills.
Inside the building known as the Wind Tunnel, two accomplices were getting congratulated on a hack well done.
In the infirmary, the crazed doctor nodded to the more attractive doctor. "We're ready here. Link him up to the network so we can monitor his boot up."
And inside the security tunnel, a command was given: "Sylphiel, run command 386, please."
The lights all over the base went out and all the defenses shut off. The grid in front of Sylphiel went completely blank except for that one node on Sector Five. She just made the Snakes in the Grass vulnerable to attack.
"The Moles are attacking!" came the call that echoed off the aqueduct walls. Everybody stopped in their tracks and glanced down the tunnel, the far end invisible in the dark. Then the darkness disappeared as an explosion lit up from the far gate, or at least where the far gate used to be. Let the turmoil begin.
"What the hell is going on here?!" demanded Lina as she leaned out of the doorway. Everyone outside was too busy trying to find a weapon to answer her though. Turning back around, she found Mr. Pendetta hiding underneath one of the tables. "Worthless," she cursed under her breath and waved at Amelia. "Let's go!"
"Right!" Amelia cheered, grabbing her deck bag and following Lina out.
They ran towards where the vehicles were and soon found Gourry and the Harbinger fending off Moles who had stormed in through the rear of the Aqueduct.
"Gourry!" The blonde tennis instructor come swordsman sliced a Mole's automatic weapon in half then turned around to find the source of who called his name. Upon seeing Lina, he grinned and offered her a goofy wave.
"Hi, Lina!"
"Gourry, go find Sylphiel! Amelia and I will get Zelgadis and we're getting out of here!"
"Okay!" Gourry responded then turned towards the Harbinger. He nodded his head, no need for words. He turned back to the foes and made several of them resemble overcooked chicken. Gourry took off at a dash.
--MORE--
Sylphiel was cut off from the outside world and something was up. This she didn't like. Something the command 386 did wasn't allowing her to disconnect, either. So she was effectively stuck inside the defensive grid. First thing's first, she thought to herself and began focusing on the cameras. She quickly found that were perfectly operational just not activated.
A red light lit up on both the panning-able cameras above Sylphiel's head, but Garret was too focused on what was going on outside to notice. She panned one of the cameras to look down the entrance. There she saw Garret squatting down behind a turret with a pistol held high in his hand. The turret must be that one active node left.
As she watched, she saw it track people who ran by, but not yet opening to fire. She wondered if it would fire on just anyone. That, she figured, or Garret would. It was obvious to her now that Garret was definitely not on the side of the Snakes, and that he had manipulated her to make it possible for the enemy to attack. Well she was going to fix that right there. First off though, she was going to disable his turret.
--MORE--
Lina and Amelia burst into the infirmary with a dramatic flare. What welcomed them inside was a thrashing Zelgadis, all ready having broken the restraints the doctors had placed on him. Behind him the two doctors were typing madly at two consoles.
"Now what?!" Lina exclaimed with exasperation. Amelia rushed over to Zelgadis side and tried pushing his shoulders down. She would have better luck trying to stop a bus.
"He's being attacked from the outside!" cried the mad doctor Alzeitzer.
"What?! Cut the line!" Lina shouted as she ran over and joined Amelia.
"We can't!" replied doctor Aleron. "Not from the outside."
"Lina!" cried Amelia, looking up at the older girl.
"We're going in," Lina replied grimly. She quickly grabbed a chair to sit down. She pulled out her headband and hooked into a port in Zelgadis' temple, then slipped it over her head.
"Lina, you don't have a deck!" Amelia said, setting up her own deck.
"Fuck it." Lina closed her eyes, and when she opened them again a grim scene was portrayed in front of her. Strapped to an examination table was Zelgadis. He was writhing and thrashing in pain as electricity arched all around him, the source was a tall man in robes standing behind the table. A man with blind eyes.
"How nice of you to join us, Miss Berkowitz," R.P. Rezo greeted gravely.
--MORE--
Outside a Snake ran towards the security tunnel. "This way!" he shouted over his shoulder at Gourry who was following a yard away. They made a beeline towards the opening of the turret and the snake quickly ducked in. What was left of him came back out in a spray of blood and hot brass. Gourry stopped dead on a dime, less the same thing happen to him.
Sylphiel's mind recoiled. She saw the whole thing happen from her position with the cameras, and it was not a pretty sight. Focus, she told herself, focus. If you can get the turret offline then no one else can get killed.
"Sylphiel!" Gourry shouted into the tunnel. He had his back pressed against the side of the tunnel so as to stay out of the turret's view. "Sylphiel can you hear me?!"
His only reply was a round shot from Garret's gun. "Go away, Snake, or else my turret and I will you full of holes!" he snarled over the din of the ongoing battle.
"But I'm not a Snake!" was the tennis instructor's shouted response. He picked up a piece of debris nearby and flung it front of the tunnel entrance. It was ripped to shreds by the hail of bullets from the turret.
"Ha!" Garret cried, his voice cracking with just a twinge of madness. "And it's got a lot more where that came fro-Hey!" The motor on the turret gave out with a strained whine and the status lights flickered then went dead. "You piece of junk! What's wrong?! You!" he cried turning around to look at the still form of Sylphiel. Then he looked up at the cameras, noting the red lights now active.
Through the camera lenses Sylphiel saw Garret turn towards her and glance at the camera. She saw madness in those eyes as he raised the gun towards her prone form. She closed her eyes, the lights in the cameras went out and she tried to scream.
--MORE--
"Freeze Arrow!" Lina cried and cast the ice code, canceling out Rezo's attack on her.
"I am continually amazed at how well you progress, Miss Berkowitz," the blind man said. He had abandoned frying Zelgadis' circuits to deal with the intruder.
"Stop calling me that! My name is-"
"Lina!" Amelia shouted as she logged on.
"Amelia!" Lina cried in surprise and joy.
"Hmm, so your friend joins you. I think I will have fun wi-" Rezo was cut off short by an attack bouncing off of his metaphorical chest.
"Wrong, Rezo. I'm the one you get to fight. Amelia, get Zelgadis on his feet then you two kill the hard line!"
"Right, Lina!" Amelia cheered and immediately went over to Zelgadis' form and started using every restorative code she knew on his firmware.
"Okay, Rezo," Lina said, cracking her knuckles and getting ready for a hard battle.
"Still so foolish, Miss Berkowitz."
It was like a dance, the way they dodged and weaved through Zelgadis' mainframe. Attack and counterattack. Lunge and dodge. Both were trying to get at the other's connection, to break them away from Zelgadis. If Lina lost, Rezo would probably fry both her and Amelia's mind then disable Zelgadis for good. This was not an option.
"Fireball!" Lina cried, launching her most basic attack at the CEO, expecting to dodge away. But instead he stood there and took it. His avatar's robes lit up in fire in a most spectacular fashion. He raised a single hand, palm outwards to Lina and struck her with a hack. Her whole being recoiled and she found herself immobilized, able to watch but not to do much else.
"Well now," Rezo chuckled as he approached Lina. "Maybe now I can get in your head." He started to reach for her head when suddenly he found he was missing a hand. "What the?"
He turned around to find a ghostly apparition floating near him. The transparent shape solidified into Halshiform, dressed in white and pissed.
"Lina's mind is mine!" he boomed at the other CEO. "She is the one I need for my research! No one shall get in the way of my obtaining it. Not even you, R.P. Rezo." With that, they began to clash in a struggle to earn the prize in Lina's mind.
"Lina!" Amelia called. "I've done it! He's waking up!"
"Cut the line! Cut the line, NOW!" cried Lina in response, her body still not able to move.
Zelgadis sat up on the table, the restraints snapping easily without Rezo backing them out. He stared at the two powerful men battling for Lina with impassive robotic eyes.
"GET OUT!" he suddenly boomed. Everything froze then, and Halshiform and Rezo derezzed with flashes.
--MORE--
Sylphiel was just a simple programmer. She didn't want to be running away for her life. She didn't want madmen with guns and super powerful turrets shooting up her friends. She just wanted to live a nice house with a strong man who could cradle her in his arms... Just kind of like how she was being cradled now, just a little less bumpy, thank you.
Opening her eyes, as in her actual physical eyes, she found herself racing through the middle of the battle between the Snakes and the Moles. However, she wasn't using her legs. Looking up she saw the face of Gourry, and he was carrying her as he ran towards their van.
She closed her eyes again. How he saved her didn't matter. What happened to Garret didn't matter. As long as she was safe, that was all that mattered.
--MORE--
"There, that'll do it," Amelia said, striking the last nail that sealed up Rezo's connection to Zelgadis.
"Thank you Amelia, Lina. Now it's time we left." He closed his eyes and everything froze again then went black.
The equivalent of, "The path '//zelgadis/' is not available. Abort, Retry, Fail?" appeared in front of Lina's eyes before she opened them to see Amelia glomping happily onto Zelgadis in the real world.
"Come on kiddies," she said, her mouth quirked in a grin. "Let's get out of here."
"Thank you, doctors!" Amelia bubbled and waved to the two doctors as the group packed up their stuff and joined the fray outside.
"Think they'll make it?" asked Doctor Alzeitzer as he and Doctor Aleron watched them go.
"You never know, Fred. Coffee?" replied Clara. They closed the door to the madness outside.
A steel-blue people carrier careened wildly out of the aqueduct mouth. Ramping off the side of the causeway and landing on all four wheels on the service wheel, the vehicle dashed to the distance, away from Atlass City, hopefully for good.
C:\SLAYERS\VIRTUAL\>
@X0F SLAYERS VIRTUAL CYBERPUNK ELSE [12/??]
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@X09 .---------------------------------.
@X09 | this episode by ian crawford |
@X09 | cracked by stefan gagne |
@X09 | indie distro by improfanfic |
@X09 `---------------------------------'
@X0E컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴�
@X0B
@X0E[wIN95/98/NT/DOS]컴컴컴컴컴컴컴[Mar 2000]