Power
It was a cold winter's night in the city, streetlights light up a pathway for me to follow. Leaves and papers roll in the wind, it's so peaceful. I forgot what time it was, so lately; I just walk the streets until I can see the sun again, every single night. Things haven't been the same lately, after that crazy man killed my family in cold blood, while they were sleeping. My name is Aiden Pierce, and I'm determined to find who's responsible for this. No matter how much it takes. For me, every day is the same old routine, I'm unemployed, and so that helps. But usually I just walk around the city, go see some of my friends. Little did I know, it was all about to change. I stopped by the local tech store, a good friend of mine; Zeke owns the joint. Most days I'll come in, he'll let me 'take a look' at some of the new stuff he's been getting in. I'm a tinkerer of sorts. I get all new kinds of tech, play around with it, and make some stuff you'd never believe. One time, I made this really cool thing with an old phone, when you try to use it, it shocks you. You wouldn't believe how many people fell for this on the street!
But when I walked in today, my friend Zeke called out my name, "Aiden, hey. I want you to come see something I got today." As natural instinct, I decided to go with him "He took me into the storeroom out back, left his friend in charge of the place while he stepped out. He pulled out this small black box, I waited in anticipation for what was going to be inside. He opened up the lid of the box, and what laid in there, was this sleek, black smartphone. I asked what was so special about it, it looked the same as most of the smartphones on the market. He told me that this wasn't just any ordinary phone, it just showed up with all the latest stock this morning. "Take it for a spin" Zeke told me. So I slid the phone carefully out of the box, and pressed the power button. A strange symbol of what looked to be some sort of fox came to be on the screen. "What's this?" I asked him. A few strange numbers popped up I showed Zeke the numbers on the phone, followed by words, Visit me, if you want the truth. "Huh, this is really strange. Whaddaya think those are, co-ordinates maybe?" Zeke said. "Why don't you, keep the phone Aiden? It's not like I need it for the store" He asked. I was surprised, and grateful of his generosity. So I headed home, with the new phone in hand.
I headed home, wondering what this phone even did, and how it found its way to me. I had a think about following those co-ordinates that it left. I decided to take a break, just sit down in the park a couple blocks away. I thought to myself, "Maybe it could be about my parents?" I decided to go with caution, brought my 42 caliber with me, just in case it was a trap. So as soon as the sun was going down, I packed my things, and set off for the co-ordinates. They appeared to be taking me towards the more run down parts of Chicago. It was eerie, flickering street lights, walking past homeless people, gathered around a little fire. The closer I got to this mystery person, my phone began to beep. I got to this old abandoned bar, there were two lights, one of which I sat under. It was empty, I yelled out to see if anyone was there, but no reply. Until I heard a door open out back, and a women with black hair, and a headband walked and sat under the second light. "You Aiden?" the woman asked, "Yeah, you the one who gave me this phone?" I replied. She nodded, "I know something about your family's death, if you wish to know. I tensed up. Could she really know about who murdered my family? I approached the conversation with caution. "Yeah, what do you know?" I asked her. She gave off a small grin, "It's not that easy bucko. I know some of the information, I need you to get the rest. That's why I gave you the phone, I needed to unlock it." I was confused, she wanted me to do her dirty work? But it would mean finding out who killed my parents, and putting an end to them. "So what information do you need?" I asked "I need you to put an end to someone, a man named Sytsevich. He owes me some money, for a favor I did for him not too long ago. Try find one of his accomplices, find out where he's hiding, and then come back here." "I understand, I'll be back with the information you want."
So of course I wanted to help. "Unlock?" I asked, "What do you mean by unlock"? I asked. "Here, hand me the phone, I'll show you." She insisted. She was tapping away at the screen, I had absolutely no idea what she was doing, but it looked promising. After a few minutes, she was finished. She handed the phone over to me. "You wanna know about your parents?" she said, "Well use this, to your advantage." The phone read 'DEDSEC' the name rang a bell in my memory. "What does this dedsec do?" I asked, "Power." She said, "Complete power over the entire city. You can hack anything you want, atm's, security cameras, traffic lights, steam pipes, peoples phones, Wi-Fi, anything you can dream of." I was astonished. Could this sleek phone, have power over the whole entire city's systems? Before I set off to see what this baby I could do, there was one more thing I forgot to clear up, "By the way, I never caught your name." I asked her. "Lucy" she replied. "Call me when you're ready." She hollered to me, "Ready for what?" I wondered. So I walked out the rusty old bar, with the feeling of power in my hands.
So I set off, into the dark city, the thought of what I could possibly do was overwhelming.
I decided to test this out. I walked down the block to a grocery store on the corner, and used the ATM inside the store. I tapped the ATM button on the screen of the phone, and a flash of light appeared on the machine, a sort of "ascii skull" appeared on the ATM, and text read "How much would you like?" so I simply put in $1000, and to my surprise, it worked. So I walked out a very happy man that evening. Next thing was to try a mobile phone , so basically repeating the same process, I smirked at how easy this all was, and I simply hacked into this business man's current phone call, but what they were talking about was more important than I thought it was. "Did you see the news? Someone killed that Aiden Pierce's family, in cold blood. It's all over the news!" the man said, "I know, that was me." Said some mysterious man. "Crap" I silently uttered, but little did I know, they could hear me. "Who was that? Was that you?" the mysterious man asked, "Sytsevich, you gotta get outa wherever you are, right now." "Why?" the man, who I presumed to be Sytsevich asked hastily. "I think the kid may be onto us, he must have joined that rebel group of hackers." He whispered into the phone. He hung up, so I decided to follow this business man for a few blocks, until he walked into a back alley for a cigarette. I wanted answers, and I intended on getting them. So quickly, I grabbed him and pulled him further into the alley, and held my 22 caliber to his forehead.
"Who's Sytsevich?" I yelled at him, "Why did he kill my parents?!" He didn't respond, so I slammed his head into the wall, trying to get him to talk. "Okay, okay, just don't hurt me! I got a family man!" he pleaded. "Then talk, who's Sytsevich?" I demanded. "You really wouldn't want to hold out any longer, my patience is growing thin." At first I felt bad for doing all this to him, but it needed to be done, otherwise I wouldn't know about my parents. "S-Sytsevich, he's a Russian mobster, he specializes in hit man contracts, you need someone gone, and he'll do it. H-He's in the grand hotel, master suite! Just don't hurt me, pleaseā¦" I had the information I needed, so without really thinking, I smashed his head against the cold brick wall, not really sure if he would survive it.
As soon as I got the information, I headed back to the bar to see Lucy, tell her about the man I "Ran into". "Is it done? Did you find out where Sytsevich is hiding?" She asked me. "Well not much 'hiding', he's in the master suite of the grand hotel, uptown." I told her, "Really? I thought he'd maybe hide in a more secure area. He'll probably have guards roaming the place, so you gotta watch yourself, use that phone to your advantage, as often as you can, to gain the upper hand, you just need to get in, get the money from Sytsevich, then I don't really care what you do with him, and surprise me." "So what's in it for me? Can I get a cut of it?" I asked her. "Well bring back some extra cash, and whatever is left over, is yours to keep. How's that sound?" I just nodded, and headed for uptown. I took a bike that was nearby, set the GPS on my phone for the Grand Hotel in uptown Chicago. Roughly 5 to 10 minutes later, I arrived at the 30 story grand hotel, the finest building I've seen. The sleek, modern design made it stand out from some of the other classic designs of the buildings around uptown. I surveyed the area, there were armed guards everywhere, and Sytsevich must have booked the whole place for the week, dang that man is rich.
I had to park the next block down, so they didn't know I was coming, and I went straight for the back door. It was dark, so I used this to my advantage. I hacked the security camera, to make sure they didn't see me, and used an EMP on the light above them, "Hey, who turned out the lights?" one of the guards said to the other. While they went to check out the area, I used my trusty baton, to knock out one of the guards. The remaining guard was startled by the noise, as I dragged his body around the corner, the guard turned on his flashlight, began searching for me, I threw an empty alcohol bottle I found lying next to me, got his attention. Then did the same with this guard, knocked him out. The best part was that now the security camera was out, not a single person saw me. So as I opened up the door with the guard's keys, I needed to get to the stairwell, lucky enough, the guards patrol the doorways, not the stairwell itself. So it was pretty much a straight way up, still had to be quiet though. After a few minutes, I finally made it to the 30th floor, home of the master suite, and the man who murdered my family. I had no intention on being silent, I slammed the door wide open, and shot every single guard that came my way, I counted at least 20. As I made my way down the corridor, I heard sounds coming from the suite, things knocking over, Sytsevich must know I'm here. I kicked the door down, pointed my gun towards him, "WHY DID YOU DO IT SYTSEVICH? WHY DID YOU MURDER MY FAMILY?" I said angrily, I really didn't want any excuses from him, he needed to pay for what he did. "You really think I-I did this? I hired a chick to do it for me, I'm just the guy who organizes it all, okay?" He said with fear. "Look, help yourself to whatever money I owe Lucy." "Lucy?" I asked, "Lucy, rebel hacker? Lives in the slum area of this place?" I felt used from then, she wanted me to get her money, when she murdered my family. I couldn't believe he wanted them dead in the first place, I was so overcome with rage, and I just shot him, right in the head. "That's what you get when you plan the death of my family." He had no idea what was in store for Lucy though.
I was in a hurry, the guards were on their way to the suite to kill me. I had a look out the window, the only way out, was to jump in the ocean. I saw a jet ski not far from the hotel. The guards knocked down the door, and I was on the balcony, ready to jump. "Mr. Pierce, get down from there right now!" I couldn't hear them over the beating of my heart, it was so fast, and I dived in. I felt this rush of adrenaline, I saw the guards run to the balcony, "Crap, we lost him! What's the boss gonna say now?" one of the guards said, "Man, the boss man is dead now! We're free!" the two guards high fived each other, not caring about me. I guess they were in it for the money. After 20 minutes, being able to dry off and all, I reached the bar. I kicked that door down, it was never gonna go back up. "LUCY!" I screamed, "LUCY, GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!" she came running in, "Aiden, is everything okay?" She couldn't see the pure rage in my eyes. "You set me up, you wanted me to get your money, for killing my parents. Why would you do this?" "Okay Aiden, just give me a moment to explain-""You know what? I'm done with waiting, you deserve this." I raised my firing arm, with gun in hand, and put one straight in the head, then a few more, letting out my rage.
I walked out of that bar, a new man. I thought to myself, did those people deserve to die? I finally realized what power turned me into, a monster. I couldn't even recognize myself. At least my parents could die in peace, knowing I avenged them, and I can finally go home and sleep for once, without feeling guilt about them. Or at least about my parents.
