As we went through the desert V had to hold onto me with her hands as well because I wasn’t slowing down, I rode up doons we flew through the air kicking up sand behind us like a fountain. Wind lashing my face. I couldn’t speak with the wind in my face. the moon shining across the sky.
V was laughing manically. Holding so tight to my shoulders that it started to hurt, but I didn’t care I was having just as much fun. For another two hours we rode like this until I saw up ahead a flatter section so I slowed so we wouldn’t go up and slam into a flat plane like a pancake.
V: “come on speed up what’s wrong.”
Seare: “were hitting a flat section we have to not slam into it while pointed downward.”
I stopped the bike in the flat section all directions were sandy hills and flat planes of sand.
Seare: “you never told me where were going? What direction do we go from here?”
V’s cyber eyes glowed as she pulled up a map. She sent it to me, we had been going in the wrong direction for like ten minutes.
V: “couldn’t stop the joyride! Man, your good with a bike, where’d you learn?”
Seare: “there is this realistic DB of a bike racer that I loved watching, so I learned off that and practiced.”
That was a lie it wasn’t a db, it was watching a Tv show called the long way round with Ewan McGregor, and Charley Boorman, they drove 19,000 miles from London to New York. After watching that I got a motorcycle and learned to ride and do tricks.
After another two hours of driving still crazy fast but more straight forward instead of cool tricks we arrived.
A gas station in the middle of nowhere, we stopped a good distance away there was a few large monstrous trucks with gigantic wheels. My short height making so I would need a stool to reach the bars to stand on to enter.
V: “I already texted them and they are willing to take you on after a test.”
Seare: “what’s the test.”
Test. I love tests times to prove your superior knowledge in a subject, as long as its not a fake test where it’s made wrong.
V: “no idea.”
Ok, pop quiz then.
Seare: “did you give them my name?”
V: “no, they like people to introduce themselves.”
Seare: “let’s go.”
I parked the bike and downloaded the blackout code to it, so it would need me to turn on.
As we entered V put her head down, and walked behind me slightly? I whispered in her ear.
Seare: “what’s wrong?”
V: “we don’t want to set them off. they have some cyberpsychos on the pay roll. I want to go unnoticed.”
That will just make them mess with you.
Seare: “looking weak is the only tell that lets people can use to know they are stronger than you. anyone could be cybernetically enhanced to kill people. There are few tells for who isn’t able to kill everyone if their annoyed with their cybernetics and acting like that could mean two things. One it’s on purpose to assassinate someone, but with how well you are doing it doesn’t seem like acting, the second reason is that your sacred which is bad to tell people.”
She looked at me disbelievingly.
Seare: “just giving advice.”
I continued walking, was we passed someone I nodded at him, and he nodded back. I we continued past him and V told me which way we were going.
We walked into a room with two guards and a big man sitting at a desk. I looked to V she nodded at him. I walked up to the couch and waited.
Seare: “I’m black hat glad to meet you.”
I had been wearing a black hat and I liked that name because it also means in the hacking community on earth as, a computer hacker who violates laws or ethical standards for nefarious purposes. I had texted V with my eyes to call me Black hat while were here. He looked me over and turned to his assistant.
Boss: “He’s younger than we were told.”
Keeping my corporate smile. I draw his attention back to me.
Seare: ”just short.”
He waved his hand at the couch, and I sat. V stayed standing against the wall by the door, she got me here, but I was on my own when I came to business here.
Boss: “I’m Saul, your only here because Palmer vowed for V over there, we still don’t know what to expect from you. so far, I agreed to house V until the danger for her passed but what about you is worth it?”
Ok, so V is fine, I almost let out a sigh of relief, I could always camp out in the desert I trust my survival skill. But I would like to not be alone for what might be a week waiting out in the desert.
Saul: “I heard you’re a good hacker from V, but I have no proof? Got anything?”
I smiled normally not the flat one.
Seare: “do I have permission to hack you? or one of your friends?”
He also smiled.
Saul: “how about Codey the man next to V, he also has a cyberdeck and will protect himself.”
I looked at him, and started the hack. These weren’t the normal codes and walls I saw on the car I hacked, it was rapidly changing as he tried to hide his system and well as adding barriers of puzzles, after touching the first barrier I felt code jump into my system garbage that heated my system slightly.
But he was to slow the puzzles were fun and he couldn’t hide every move his system jumped to after ten seconds I was in I then uploaded blackout to his leg systems, his Cyberlegs went out and he fell to the floor. As his legs shut off, I turned back to Saul who was eyeing me with more worry.
I turned off my code in him so his legs could turn back on. He got up slowly eyeing me with fear.
It was so easy to code with my head, ever second, I could type three lines of code the walls he put up. I used one line to ping his location one line to understand the walls and one line of code to put it in a text document to delete it. my ten years of coding coming in handy on reading it so fast. With the low life expectance and the never getting a longer education than me I just had more knowledge than a person from the desert could have.
My breach was different from what other used they tried to slip through the wall leaving it behind, no I found them entered them then deleted them entirely my code erasing the pencil walls with an eraser.
I felt it inside I leveled breach two more times once for hacking someone and the other for understanding more, one perk to be chosen later.
He tried to hack me back, and my smile stopped I uploaded blackout to his cyberdeck he clutched his deck.
Seare: “you can have it back when I leave.”
I turned back to Saul.
Saul: “huh, we will need to talk for a minute alone, what was your name again?”
Seare: “black hat.”
Me and V went into the lounge and waited. Me looking over my code, and saw my weaknesses I had no self-protection, he slipped in with ease less than a second because I had no firewall, second, I didn’t have and attack code just blackout, which was a work of art, amazing large upload size sadly but could be turned down for smaller sections. My neck was hot but as I pushed my fingers up against it, healing it in seconds. I could probably heal it while using it.
I need to make an attack code is my second problem is the harder one, make a firewall was easy I needed a lot of them when making games. But an attack what would that be like, but I had an idea when I touch the Codey’s wall, I got junk data in my system to heat me up Viruses.
My idea wasn’t new, but it wasn’t for a reason it was simple. Make a worm virus, the moment it enters the system duplicate and spread to new systems. I could code the worm to do different things dependent on what one I used. Fire worm melts code that is typed after upload. a Dos “denial of service” worm that when uploaded denies all functions.
I could put that on my Monowire instead of blackout.
Another one of the worst that affected me personally, wiper malware when I was versing someone sent me that virus in the game as a picture file, when I opened it, it tried to delete all the files on my computer. That would be against people I hated making it so their cybereye’s no longer had any code in them, they would just be shiny metal after that kinda attack. I could also make scatter, a less harmful version of wiper where it only moves all the data it would wipe into aa folder in its same place messing up everything, they would need to pull out all the data before their stuff would work.
I was smiling now. Yes, a plan just needed somewhere to code.
V: “you’re not worried at all about you staying here, are you?”
I looked at her.
Seare: “I could survive in the desert for a week on my own if needed, but that would get lonely, so I want to stay here. And I destroyed that guy I’m not worried.”
V: “are you sure you should have gone so hard against him, what if you piss of Saul?”
Seare: “it was a test, I always get the best grade possible for me, I won’t turn back from a fight.”
V: “I don’t back down from fights but was that a fight?”
Seare: “if there is a winner and a loser then it’s a fight, every day is a battle, and I will win. That’s why I don’t look down when we pass people it’s a battle of wills there, do they have the balls or do I.”
She swallowed.
V: “Is it fight even with friends?”
I thought on that.
Seare: “no. that’s one of the good things, you let your guard down. Like right now, I’m explaining myself to you, if this was a battle I would keep info, hide knowledge and spread falsehood.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Seare: “if its someone you care about then it’s never a battle it’s always a conversation there is never a winner or loser just differing perspectives.”
She blushed slightly for some reason.
Seare: “Like with my mom, I wanted to skip first through sixth grade because I was intelligent enough too. But my mom told me that there was more to learn than just information, changing my opinion. If it’s a battle their I wouldn’t have been able to change my opinion I would have fought until I won.”
V: “thanks.”
Seare: “of course.”
I was patted on the shoulder.
Saul: “I completely agree family is a safe place to relax, but not about everything is a battle except with certain people.”
I turned to him.
Seare: “I could be wrong. But so far that has got me though life.”
He was being nice and not some mob boss behind a desk so I would copy his formality.
Saul: “isn’t that losing?”
Seare: “no its just a differing perspective, were being friends right now so its not a fight, I can be wrong and change my opinion.”
He laughed. And slapped my shoulder again.
Saul: “well we decide to let you stay here for a while if you do work for us black hat.”
Seare: “thanks.”
Saul: “first Codey wants to know how you hacked him, he called you a monster. If you are able.”
Seare: “sure.”
Codey came in the room and sat at the table. I looked at him in a better light now, I could see a scar across his face he was excited it’s not often I bet that you can talk in person about how you netrun. He was a lanky man with short blonde hair in a zigzag fade.
Codey: “so, how did you destroy my walls so fast?”
Seare: “I pinged the wall looked at it then wrote a program that that wall would think made me able to edit it, then clicked the delete button on the whole thing.”
Saul wasn’t a Netrunner and was kinda listening but mostly just drinking his drink, V and Codey looked confused.
Codey: “what delete button?”
Seare: “control-a, backspace.”
V: “what?”
right this world didn’t develop the same, they don’t have control group’s like back on each installed into every machine, so they aren’t well known.
Seare: “to me, I code like it’s a text document, the firewall you put up was fifty lines of code, I typed a program making it so I could type inside the wall then I clicked backspace button.”
Codey: “but for the five hundred characters of code you would have to click delete five hundred times.”
Seare: “you aren’t thinking about the control commands text documents let you use. If you highlight a section of code, you can control button c to copy it then control v to paste a exact copy, what I did was command a which highlights all code then deleting it all with three button presses.”
V: “but to put it in a word doc you would have to read each word of the wall and to insert it in a box you could edit.”
Seare: “yeah.”
They were looking more confused.
Codey: “but to do that all in one second per wall. You would have to be able to see at such I high speed it would melt the deck right in your neck to have it on such a high processing chip for you to be able to comprehend that fast.”
Seare: “no I don’t have a processing chip.”
He turned to V.
Codey: “where did you find this guy?”
V shook her head at him.
Codey: “why hasn’t anyone heard of you yet? With that speed you should be known across all of night city.”
Seare: “well I got my cyberdeck yesterday, and you’re the first person I’ve hacked, before that it’s just been coding all my life.”
Codey and Saul looked like they thought I was lying.
V: “I saw it put in him, and after he made the blackout code different from what it was so easily and made it usable on smaller scale for specified targets.”
Codey: “thanks for answering my question.”
Seare: “sure why not.”
After that Codey showed me and V to our room, it was one I would share with V, they didn’t have much room for outsiders. That was fine with me.
It was past midnight so V went to bed, I stayed up I needed to rewrite my code so I would have a firewall in my system I didn’t want to be hacked in my sleep. I took four hours to make the two programs. Basically, every minute it would scan my system and if the code had changed then it would show a giant hacker alert in my head and if nothing was off then a checkmark would be in the upper left corner of my vision.
The second program was the actual firewall I put a weakness in it on purpose that if used installed blackout into the persons cyberdeck and alerted me. Other than that weakness then it was a basic firewall that would eject outside information and alert me and give me a prompt to let in info if I wanted it, I could make it better, but I was exhausted and went to sleep. From all this I level quick hacks.
I kinda wish I didn’t delete the code form the original cyberdeck in fear of viruses inside it so I could have a better firewall but the annoyance of rebuilding my own one was worth it.
The next day they didn’t have us do anything, so me and V hanged out watching tv and after a while we went to the bike for another ride it was fun yesterday.
As I got onto the bike V jumped up. a man In a nice bike yelled to us.
Guy: “You sure you know how to ride kid!”
He revs his engine in a challenge.
Seare: “Just try and keep up!”
and I rev the engine harder, and we both burst into the desert both trying to do more fanatic tricks than each other. After he did a double backflip like a pro.
Seare: “Hold on V!”
I the corner of my mouth turning into a grin as I push next to him by a few feet and then to a double front flip over him and tap his helmet with my hand.
V almost hurled on me but was also grinning like a maniac. Clutching me tightly as we slowed down some he also slowed down and we stopped with that trick anymore now just doing dune jumps and wheelies as we rode they are much harder to do in the sand you need better control.
Guy: “that was nova man, what’s your guy’s names? I’m Justin. I haven’t seen anyone do a flip like that I nearly flatlined myself mesmerized by that trick.”
Seare: “I’m black hat that double backflip was awesome.”
V: “I’m V.”
She looked like she wanted to blend into the background again but also liked how much fun we were having.
Justin: “we should do that again sometime here’s my deets.”
I accepted, changing my online name to black hat first.
Seare: “see you around.”
I wave as he walks off towards the restrooms.
As me and V ate Codey walked over.
Codey: “ok, we have a job for you. with your hacking ability we want to get into a warehouse, but its ice is better than my ability and we can’t break in normally because it’s the Wraiths were against here, they have better guns but if you can open the door, we can get in.”
Seare: “how difficult is the door?”
Codey: “you’ll need to plug in directly.”
Seare: “If I’m plugged in it will be difficult to defend myself.”
Codey: “V can be with you.”
V nodded instantly.
Seare: “all right when?”
Codey: “were going tonight in a few hours.”
Shit I wanted to make all my ideas for hacking code first I only have time for one, I decided on the Dos worm, and spent the next few hours on it. when I uploaded it, it would deny all action and spread to nearby systems.
I got back onto my bike, and we followed the four monstrous trucks ahead of us, we stopped a mile away from the building it was what looked like a abandoned gas station. I called Codey.
Seare: “you sure its here?”
Codey: “they moved here two days ago, it’s been ignored and abandoned before that except for a few junkies for the past thirtyish years.”
Ok. They want me to open the doors they had been replaced with reinforced steel and so were the walls some. I got off the bike with V and walked to the trucks and went to Codey.
Seare: “where is the plugin port in the building?”
Codey gave me a sheepish look and I glared at him.
Codey: “you’re a pro you’ll find it.”
Ah these bastards. He probable can hack it but they don’t want to risk one of their people. They knew they’ve been here for a few days and now they have someone disposable if things turn bad.
Seare: “sure you want to come V.”
V: “off course.”
We went through the desert sand walking over I didn’t feel any cameras as we approached then I did we stopped we went around the edge of the cameras finding spaces to step forward I could see the cameras with my eyes also and that helped. V was good she moved with ease slinking with ease avoiding cameras I only stopped her twice while I felt it four times I would have made a mistake, but we got to the side wall. I could have hacked the cameras but that would tell all of them I was here.
At the wall I flicked my wrist and roped it around the edge above us. I pull myself up and lower the wire down for V to climb she does, and we continue. The roof was empty there wasn’t a way down. That’s fine I was feeling the area with my cyberdeck and found a port, I could try and hack now I was safe, normal people would overheat without a plugin, but I had skills that would counteract.
Seare: “I’m going to hack it now, watch me and wake me if they start shooting into the ceiling.”
I put the Netrunning plug into my cyberdeck then emptied my mind falling unconscious as I pulled myself into my cyberdeck, the rest of me isn’t there, there is just the code in the area of my influence. I felt my body start overheating as I used my deck as a port to the net and my brain as the power supply, motherboard, disk storage needed that is usually a room full of computer components to use. My skills pressure healing, numbness, keep pumping keeping me from melting my brain with heat.
But it worked I was in the cyberspace, I looked around my hand drawn world again I had only seen it through a computer screen before. I looked over my abilities and saw it would be dangerous to use one of my hacks but not impossible, that’s good.
I looked around I could see the lines from each camera to a central cube where a Netrunner was looking at each cord. They have a Netrunner, they haven’t seen me. I looked for a place I could put my worm into, and found it a empty vending machine without a firewall but still connected to the building, which was connected to the server which was connected to everything else p uploaded my worm into the vending machine I hadn’t had time to make it so I could control its spread so i was now on a time limit for when the Netrunner would notice that they couldn’t do anything anymore and when they would be unable to do anything themselves. As I finished uploading the worm I felt flames spread through my entire self my brain was melting slightly it was painful I didn’t have anywhere else to store everything except my brain so it would hurt I knew that.
But not this much I almost was shunted out of the cyberspace because I couldn’t focus on it well enough. NO. I looked around the Netrunner had noticed the problem they tried delete it from a system only for it to jump to them, they tried to log off and I saw they couldn’t they got denied. It wouldn’t last for long they also can affect this space.
I moved myself to them and uploaded blackout into each part of their system. The pain inside me increased every time but I pushed, I was now in they couldn’t use any cyberware. I deleted the code in the doors that say to lock out intruders. Done.
Suddenly I was shaken.
The world came back to me I wasn’t a floating cube in a hand drawn world I was a person I had eyes, the world came into focus V was shaking me. I had limbs a body. I was me again.
V: “WE GOT TO MOVE!”
How long was that my head burned. I looked and saw that there was a ladder against the far side. HOW did they find me. Wait I only turned off the Netrunners cyberware not the other peoples, they saw that I was the only one without a virus in me on their roof.
I called Codey. Calm collected.
Seare: “the doors are down, and so is their Netrunner for a limited time.”
Seare: “were on the roof and people are trying to get up.”
Codey: “nice work, we saw them start running and are already riding.”
I saw a hand appear over the edge and I flicked my wrist my wire coming out and cutting the hand down the middle into two half’s. I heard a scream the person didn’t let go with their other hand.
Guy: “their up here! They got a Monowire!”
I heard more people running to the ladder.
V aimed her gun and waited for a shot. I looked over the edge we climbed up and a shot rang out and almost hit my head. Ok were trapped.
I was about to ask for her gun, but someone’s head poked up and tried to go down faster but V hit them in the eye immediately no hesitation and I heard them tumble down.
She’s better than me with a gun for sure I wouldn’t have hit.
Then I saw the four trucks come over and the people went back into the building to hold out for reinforcements. But they couldn’t call anyone they were denied by the network to send my worm working.
The group of Wraiths were destroyed by Saul and Panam who looked like beasts. Afterwards I deleted the worm virus so they could use the machines normally.
Panam: “thanks you guys. Also, V nice shot. We watched with binoculars until we started actually shooting.”
V nodded.
Seare: “She’s great right!”
You need to put yourself forward more.
V: “Shut it!”
She hit me in the back of the head getting passed her shyness. Panam shook her head.
V: “thanks Panam.”
Panam: “yeah. Also, black hat that was awesome to watch. I know some things about Netrunning, and you need a port to connect to right?”
Codey heard and ran over to listen
Seare: “yeah, to focus yourself out of your body mentally and the cord to put your disconnected mind into the net. But if you are able to mentally disconnect yourself, you could use your cyberdeck as port and enter alone.”
My head still felt like it was burning slightly but it was going away fast as I rubbed it.
Codey: “yeah but you’ll overheat.”
Seare: “if you do anything big, just a few hacks into a system and editing the code isn’t enough to kill me, hurt me sure but not kill.”
Saul who was pulling a crate but had stopped to also listen spoke up.
Saul: “Black Hat, if you ever wanted to stay here more permanently, we’d let you. just a thought don’t decide right now.”
And continued to pull a box into the truck.
Seare: “V lets go back, we can’t bring anything with us on the bike so let’s go.”
V ran back to the bike, and I jumped on. We rode back at speed. Back at the camp we both decided to rest. V on the bunk above me her leg over the side of the bed she slept. I sat there thinking, what could I have done better.
I could have put blackout on all of them, making all their cybernetics useless and just large metal they had to carry. No, I would have overheated to much. what I should have done is finished the worm code it went everywhere seeable after seconds because of how loud it was. Ok one goal finish that code second goal do the other ideas I had, third goal level up I felt that I had leveled and got one new skill in quick hacking.
I spent the next hour looking over my abilities and finally chose.
“optimized” optimize and control the space in your head better.
Good, I almost was forced back into my body because I didn’t have enough control. I would have failed. That done I was about to go to bed for real, but I noticed V was shivering.
I put her leg back under her blanket and she stopped.
I checked and saw that mom still hadn’t texted me and went to bed.
Goodnight world.
End if chapter: eight