Chapter 33

SPLINTER

The brute force assault was finished and the networks laid bare of security, ready for the final cracking.

Gaining entry into networks…

Deploying virus…

Engaging against final lines of defense…

Hold my beer…

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Chapter 34

HOLLY

Holly, deeply plugged into the Helio Corps networks, felt it first. Red poured into her vision. This…whatever it was…it was…overwhelming. It reached Emmett, and she felt him shut down immediately, his safety overrides attempting to at least keep him safe during the threat. She couldn’t do the same.

She felt the foreign data being injected into the system, almost painfully. If she could just manage to tell Helio…

Her picture flashed up on the display screens throughout the HC building. Her lips moved, but only garbled text and static came out. Then everything went black.

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Chapter 35

FLORA

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Flora looked up from her desk, running a hand smoothly through her bluish-purple pixie cut. How strange. Her cyber-intruder alarm was going off. She quickly tapped into the network on her computer.

Whoa. There was a full-scale invasion. Some foreign virus or something. A few keystrokes later and she could see it attempting to compromise the entire Hyperbotics network, in Hyperion and in Atlas. Meridian had told her there was no need to extend security measures to the Atlas part of the network, as he could take care of that himself — and he was quite good at that sort of thing, she noted — but of course she hadn’t listened. Whatever secrets Meridian thought he could have on the Atlas network, well, she didn’t much care, but they weren’t secret from her. Boring stuff, really. Omni doing something stupid in Atlas. Notes on how much Meridian disliked Flora on a personal level. Discipline records for Oz and Rufflebucket, who seemed to love pranks. She wasn’t much of one for apologies, but she’d have to see about reconciling with the Bucket. They could have some fun together at Uncle Meridian’s expense.

Oh, right. The invasion. Good thing she had installed a security update a few days prior. As if anyone would catch her unawares when Meridian had specifically hired her for this sort of thing. Apathy notwithstanding, this was her pride and reputation on the line. She WAS the best, after all. This foreign invader was…unusually powerful, however. She’d have to tap into the system manually to engage further defenses.

She made a few clicks and her avatar sprang to life. Basically a tiny digital version of herself, with pixie cut, mismatched earrings (one a DNA double helix, the other a processor chip), and miniature Flashcannon to boot. She could see the virus particles, their strange scary legs looking like computerized spiders. With a half-smile that would have done even Lockwood’s ego proud, Flora fired up the digital Flashcannon and fired a blast. The virions did not seem to know what to do, essentially ignoring her until the blasts swept them away.

Finally, some started to fight back, and Flora found herself being pressed back by a horde of virions.

She would need something big. She charged herself up a moment, then launched an empowered Flashcannon blast and wiped out the onslaught of virions.

Wiped every. single. invading. virus. particle. the fuck. out.

Not on my watch, motherfucker.

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Chapter 36

NEV & DVAASHA

Dvaasha dropped in on her favorite toy — literally. She plummeted from the ceiling onto Nev, who yowled and hissed before realizing it was only Dvaasha. A week or so ago, that would have terrified her, but at this point she knew what to expect. As odd and sinister as the serpent woman could be, she didn’t want to eat Nev — at least not like that — and their goals did seem to align. Well, sort of. Nev was just a curious kitty, but Dvaasha was more of anarchist. Anacondarchist? She just wanted to watch the world burn, and found it funny to have Nev help her do it. Magnus had apparently created Dvaasha as a pet for himself, which she found hilarious and insulting. The other info they had found in Magnus’s office was boring financial stuff, a few stray documents detailing some investments. Still something, but the good stuff was probably in his locked safe. In any event, they had reached out to the only person they could think of who might make use of that — Grey.

Nev had remembered Grey’s visit to EvoS the night of the ball. Dvaasha hadn’t been born yet, of course. Some strange things had gone down…Nev didn’t know the details, but she knew there was no love lost between Grey and Magnus, and when she had mentioned this to Dvaasha the snake’s eyes had lit up. Of course, her enthusiasm abated when she learned that Grey ran Hawk Aviation, hawks being a predator of snakes. (And imagine if either of them knew Hawk Aviation had been developing a badger!) Then she had gotten pensive. It was perhaps in Dvaasha’s best interests if Magnus were to win in whatever conflict there might be with this Grey, but she should really hedge her bets. If she could make nice with both sides…but Magnus had been away or occupied with some sort of business ever since Dvaasha’s…birth, so opportunity to make nice with him would have to wait. In the mean time…

WHOOOOZSH. The lights went out. The hiss of the radiator also abated, and both women quickly realized that the power to the entire facility had gone out. There were backup generators, of course, that would be online within 10 minutes or so — so that the valuable experiments in the labs would not be compromised, some of which required very specific temperatures or other conditions. But this was not an opportunity to be missed.

“The sssssafe!” hissed Dvaasha urgently. This was a golden opportunity to get some real dirt on Magnus. Whether or not she gave it to the Grey lady, this could be valuable leverage.

Between Nev’s lowlight vision and Dvaasha’s sense of smell, there was no difficulty navigating the near-pitch-black (but for some LEDs) floors, and the two arrived in Magnus’s back office with several minutes to spare. The door was again unlocked. Luck was with them.

Dvaasha wrapped her tail around the safe’s handle and pulled. It did not yield, of course — its lock was mechanical and did not rely on any electrical power. However, its alarm was likely down. Dvaasha motioned to Nev, and the kitty reluctantly came over. Her enhanced hearing could, perhaps, let her hear the clicks of the lock and determine when the pins were aligned. Nev fumbled with the dial, wondering mentally why she did this for Dvaasha. They didn’t have much time, of course.

Suddenly, the door flew open and a large form stood in the doorway, a dot of fiery light near its head standing in sharp contrast to the surrounding blackness.

Nev and Dvaasha froze.

With a sudden whir, the backup generators came online and light flooded the hallway. The figure, being backlit, was still hard to make out, but Nev already knew who it was.

The large creature flipped the light switch, revealing an extremely menacing snarl. It spoke slowly, almost carefully, but unmistakeable in its anger.

“What do you think you’re doing in my office?”

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Chapter 37

AURORA

The network was under heavy strain. Parts of the Omni hypernet were already down — and with them, much of their AI work. Aurora rearranged data particles as quickly as she could, but the attacker was like a tidal wave, breaking through anywhere she wasn’t actively working.

It seemed that the network would surely fall. How much irreparable damage would be done to their core systems, to all of their research? Aurora tried to remember the last time they’d made a full, proper offsite backup. Probably a month or more. Oh boy. The Omniarch would be furious.

Aurora could feel the network on the verge of collapse, when suddenly a powerful surge of energy coursed through and repelled massive swathes of the virus. Who? What?

She saw in her mind the image of a hooded man, a strange symbol…the letter S…and the next thing she knew the network was secure.