First of all, I think I forgot in one chapter to say this. Thanks Terminal, for beta reading these messes I make XD.
Second, sorry for the delay. I have been having an inspiration block these days about this story (I actually wrote around two chapters before writting the final one because they didn't look right to me.)
So! The plot has finally decided to show its face...ok no, sorry about that. Enjoy.
...
"Caroline? Well aren't you sweet. bushman?" Spy said once he finished reading. The black Spy agreed to that, both making Sniper blush out of embarrassment.
'It was the first name that popped in my mind, okay? Can we drop the subject already?'
"Alright bushman, we have more serious matters to talk about. Could you remember what you talked about with her? That could be important as to why Silent acts the way she does," said the black Spy.
Sniper frowned; now he had to suffer the 'bushman' nickname in stereo. Great. But he was right, remembering what he talked about with Silent was important, especially since, apparently, it could have been the base of her personality. Sniper could remember that he was the only one who talked to her in a more human way, and that was because he had found her to be as lonely as he had once been. Maybe that was what made him to start having conversations with her. In fact, the name 'Silent' sounded so cold that he named her Caroline to make her a bit more human. But in the end, she was just a system, something someone had created.
'I...' Sniper began, but what was there to say, really? He had had conversation with Silent as mundane as he would have with anyone in his team, but for some reason, he couldn't really remember much of them. Both spies were looking at him, waiting for him to continue. The pressure sure was there, but at the same time, both masked men had a expression of calm and patience. So it was all up to him, to remember what he said to Caroline, and what she said back to him.
'...I'm going to need some time to remember. Give me a second.'
Both spies relaxed their shoulders and sighed, but nodded nonetheless.
"Alright Sniper" said the black Spy "We already have something to work with, now just try to remember as much as you can, but don't force yourself too much." That last bit sounded like he was concerned. Sniper felt a pinch of guilt. That Spy was, after all, his old friend, and up until a few moments ago, Sniper didn't remember he existed. The Australian nodded, gesturing a thank you, even if he didn't know why he was thanking the black Spy, but it felt right. The black Spy nodded back, smiling a bit. "I think it might be better for all of us to have some rest. It's quite late, and Silent might start to suspect if you stay away from her grasp for too long."
"Couldn't agree more," Spy said. "How can we contact you if...anything happens?"
The black Spy waved his hand. "Don't worry about that, lil' Spy. I'll be around ready to jump in if anything happens."
Before Spy could reply anything, the black Spy cloaked and left with a simple 'adieu', leaving both REDs standing on the spot. Spy huffed, and then turned around, walking back to the van. Sniper snorted a bit: having bushman in stereo was nothing compared to having two spies bickering at each other. Priceless.
The trip back to the base was spent in silence, with Sniper focused on driving, and Spy focused on planning.
...
Engineer woke up with a gasp. The first thing he saw was the lenses of Pyro's mask right in front of him.
"Wow partner! You gave me quite the scare, Pyro. What happened?"
Pyro mumbled something, and helped Engineer to stand up. The shorter man gave them a confused look, before speaking again.
"I'm afraid I don't know how I got here. I was trying to figure out why Respawn is being so weird these days, and all of sudden I woke up in here. Although I feel like I had to remember something important..."
Engineer put a hand on his chin, trying to recall whatever was had escaped him. There was a thought there that was nagging at him, yet he couldn't fully grasp it.
"Quite strange...I guess I'll have to go back and tell the maintenance lady I got an accidental trip through Respawn." He turned to Pyro. "Thanks Pyro. Would you like to come with me?"
Pyro mumbled something else, accompanying the mumbles with some sign language. Engineer tried to understand what the sign language meant, but like with Sniper, he didn't have a clue. Instead, he focused on the mumbling. After years of working with the firebug, one could understand around ninety percent of it.
"Don't worry, the Respawn main room is out of boundaries as long as you try to get in without my permission." He chuckled a bit. "Not that anyone could anyway. Come, let's get there and tell the maintenance lady we are all okay and good to go"
Pyro nodded happily and followed Engineer. On the way to the Respawn's main room they noticed that while the entire team was doing something around the base, Spy was nowhere to be found, and while they knew it was something usual, this time it felt weird. If only their team could understand the dangers of disappearing at night...
Pyro shook their head and continued following Engineer. If anything happened, the rainbows would solve everything.
Once the reached the Respawn's main room, Engineer opened it with his ungloved hand and both of them stepped in. The screen was in the same state Engineer remember leaving it: with some encrypted files on screen, but not much else. Engineer sat down on his chair and turned on the microphone.
"Caroline? You still there?"
They heard a bit of static before a lady's voice came out of the speakers.
"Engineer! Thanks Goodness you're okay. You stopped talking all of sudden, and I heard crashing noises. What happened?"
Engineer set everything back in place while she was talking, and at the question he looked up at the screen and answered.
"I'm afraid whoever is touching the Respawn system wanted to make a joke...or a point. I'm not sure what happened, but I appeared all of sudden in the Respawn's room, and I can't recall the last minutes of the last life. Did you record anything of what I said?"
Caroline sighed.
"No. Whoever is doing this cut through out communication in those last minutes, and I heard only a few words of what you said before the crashing sounds. I don't have enough for it to make sense. I'm sorry"
Engineer smiled, even if he knew she couldn't see him. "Is okay miss, we're trying our best here. I think we should leave it here for today, seeing how our attacker is active and watching us, I suggest to leave this for another time, but for today let's just rest. Have a nice night lady."
"You too Engineer. Good night"
Once the communication ended, Pyro dared to make a sound. They mumbled to Engineer, who was quickly disconnecting all microphones and cameras. "Yes partner, you're right. I don't think miss Caroline is telling us everything." Once all cameras and microphones were disconnected, Engineer sat down on the chair and started going through folders and files in the system. The encrypted files of Sniper were on a side screen, but those were set aside for now. Engineer's focus was on the main files, the ones that kept Respawn together.
"Wait...this isn't normal."
He had seen some files renamed to 'Silent', but now there were main files named under the same name. Someone had changed those, but for some reason, whatever was the attacker trying to do, the connection between the Respawn's main system and the new program wasn't completed yet. There was a missing code in all of this, and for some reason, the attacker hadn't managed to put it yet. Or maybe...
Maybe the attacker didn't have the code...
"That means someone else has to give it to him..."
Engineer looked at the side screen, where the encrypted files of Sniper were. "What if...". He took the files onto the main screen, and instead of trying to decipher them, Engineer started reading through them. Most of it was gibberish, useless characters that served no purpose but to hide something else. As he kept reading down the files, Engineer started seeing several patterns that could potentially be source code. The attacker had been trying to get the missing codes from Sniper everytime he respawned, which meant Sniper was either oblivious to this, or feigning innocence and lying to them. The last part made Engineer grimace. They had that Sniper for a month now, and until he came into the team, none of this had happened before. He was the cause, or at least part of it.
But he couldn't tell the team yet. What if Sniper was nothing but an ignorant pawn in all this? He had to talk to the man first.
"Pyro, could you do me a favor please?"
Pyro stood like a soldier, ready for orders. Engineer smiled at that.
"Could you please fetch Sniper and bring him here? I need to talk to him."
Pyro gave him a thumbs up, and walked out of the room. If Engineer was right, it would be matter of minutes before he uncovered an important part of their attacker's plan.
...
Sniper and Spy arrived at the base still in silence. Without a word, Spy stepped out of the passenger's seat and waited for Sniper to do the same. Once both of them were out, Spy was the first to say something.
"I suggest we leave this as a secret. I need to know more before we..."
He was interrupted by Pyro walking straight to them, grabbing Sniper by the arm and trying to drag him away. Sniper's first reaction was to resist and try to pry his arm free, but Spy stepped in, stopping Pyro on their tracks.
"What exactly are you doing?"
Pyro let go of Sniper's arm and proceeded to use sign language to communicate them that Engineer had called for Sniper. The taller man tensed, while Spy just looked calm. "And why that would be?" Pyro shrugged, gesturing they didn't know why, but it was something to do with Respawn.
Sniper's fear grew stronger. What if Engineer had managed to find out about Silent on his own? What if he was going to put all the blame on him? What if...?
"I'll accompany you both, if you don't mind. You see, Engineer will need a translator if he's going to communicate with the bushman here."
Pyro gave it a thought, and then nodded. They walked back in the base, turning they head around every now and then to make sure both men were following. Spy walked in a casual way while keeping his own feelings at bay. He couldn't look as worried as he felt for Sniper's sake. The taller man looked nervous and scared, even if he was trying to hide it as well. Spy was about to snort at the Sniper's attempt to hide his emotions when he remember that the situation didn't call for it.
A few minutes later they were standing outside the Respawn's main room opened door, with Engineer sitting on his chair waiting for them. His fingers were crossed on his lap, his face unreadable under those goggles. Both men and Pyro walked in, and only when they were inside Engineer stood up, walked past them and closed the door, locking it.
"Alright gentlemen...I think we have something to talk about here, mmm?" Engineer looked at Sniper while speaking, and then he glanced onto the screen. In bright letters over green screen were written Sniper's class title, along with the word 'folder'. Under it several names with weird characters on them were listed. Sniper visibly tensed, and Spy tried his best to not let that affect him.
"You see, I've been investigating for the past days about the weird performance in the Respawn's system, and apparently all clues fall on this folder and on you, Sniper. Care to explain why your files contain code that could connect the outsider's system to ours?"
Sniper flinched. Spy quickly stepped in, between his...err, friend and Engineer. Seeing how Pyro was just in the corner, not participating, Spy focused on the shorter man.
"Let me tell you, Engineer, that Sniper is innocent. He's been involved in this case against his will, and..."
"You knew about this and you didn't tell me?" Engineer's voice raised, his tone clearly angry. "You do realize this could do a lot of harm to our team, Spy? You choose a newcomer over us? He's been here for a month and everything is going downward to hell! Any teammate could be in danger, and you choose to hide what you know from us for a..." Engineer stopped on his tracks when he saw the look on Spy's face. It was the look you received when you said something awfully wrong in Spy's presence, past beyond the annoying words and jokes, and went into personal, serious territory. Engineer swallowed: he wouldn't back down just because of that look.
Before he spoke, however, Spy stepped in, cutting off his words before they could come out of his mouth.
"Sniper didn't remember anything of this until today. His prior team was pretty much wiped out by the same thing that's attacking us now, and then used him to carry part of the code that could put the same thing into our system like it was some sort of sick joke. If all you brought us here is to yell at me for trying to do what I consider the correct thing, then we'll leave."
Engineer looked at Spy, startled by the answer, and then his gaze traveled to Sniper. The taller man was leaning on the wall, one hand grasping his hat and covering his eyes with it, and the other arm between his back and the wall. Engineer lowered his eyes to the floor. Maybe he had spoken too soon.
"Sorry Spy, I just want the best for the team, and this...this..."
Spy put a hand on his shoulder and then stepped towards the screens before speaking.
"I see you disconnected both microphones and cameras. Temporary I guess?"
Engineer nodded. Spy smiled. "Then this is the safest place to talk right now". Spy gestured Sniper to come closer to him and the screens. Sniper complied, still hiding behind his hat. Once the taller man was besides him, Spy started explaining Engineer what was happening.
"I don't know what you got until now, but our attacker is not human, but a system called 'Silent'"
Engineer looked at him in disbelief, but decided against saying anything and let the Spy continue.
"For what little information we were able to get, it's a system that works on its own inside Respawn, so it can repair any error or glitch the system may have, avoiding Respawn's failures before they can happen. I don't know a lot of details, but apparently the program, system or whatever Silent is, developed a mind of its...her? Own. Sniper told me they treated Silent as a 'she'".
Engineer couldn't believe his ears. A system that could work on its...her own, and fix any possible glitches before they affected the Respawn? That was brilliant! But then, why was Silent inside they Respawn system?
Spy must have read his mind because he quickly answered the question.
"Silent wiped out practically the entirety of Sniper's old team, leaving only a few survivors. Two of them carried Silent inside their brains, like they were hard disks. Apparently, Silent was able to connect through the Respawn's chips we all have installed in our necks. The bad part, however, was the fact that the ones who carried the code weren't themselves."
"Let me guess," Engineer interrupted "Sniper is one of the carriers".
Spy nodded. "The other seems to be their Scout. And it seems that if they get near any computer with wireless connection, Silent could get in. So they decided to find another base, get Silent in, and destroy her once she was completely installed."
Engineer nodded, but then a dark thought crossed his mind. There was a faster way to get rid of Silent. Kill the hosts.
He was about to say that out loud but stopped right before the first word left his mouth. It was a dark thought indeed, and one of the hosts was right there. In his mind it made sense, getting rid of both of them, but that was because he wasn't the one in danger there. He shuddered; it really was easy to discard a life after so many years killing enemies who came back to life. Engineer shook his head, and then looked at Sniper. The man didn't look at him back, in fact, he was focused on the screen. Engineer followed his gaze but all he saw were the files that were stored inside Sniper's folder.
"...Alright." Engineer said. "Now I guess it's my time to tell you what I've found." Both Spy and Sniper looked at him. "You see, Silent here managed to get most of her files in, changing some of the main system's files in the process. However, she still can't connect to the Respawn and take complete control. If she wants something from the system, she has to...'ask' for it, and wait in line until her request is processed. Those mysterious deaths were probably her asking the Respawn to perform a sudden death. That connection code is our last barrier against her." Engineer looked at Sniper. "I only have part of it hidden in your files, but half of it is still missing. You have it. You think you could write it down, on a paper, so I can have it?"
Sniper looked at Engineer for a moment, before his gaze went back to the screen. So she was already in there. So many hours of conversations between the two, and he could barely remember a few words. Something felt wrong in all this: Sniper was helping his new team get rid of Silent...no, of Caroline, and for some reason something felt terribly wrong. He had talked with her for so long, exchanging ideas, talking about any topic she was curious about...
Had Sniper helped Caroline become what she was today? Had his words affected her personality in any way? What had he said? What could have been said for her to turn so violent and so dangerous? Why was she killing? Why did she kill his old team? What happened back there?
He couldn't recall. There had been something for sure, but Sniper just couldn't get his mind around it. Not even when he was in front of her new body. Sniper then remembered he had to answer Engineer's question. He could get the code...eventually. Maybe write a few lines here and there, maybe after he woke up from one of those weird dreams.
Weird dreams...
Sniper snapped out of his thinking, and looked at Spy, instantly using his hands to communicate something. Spy quickly took the memo, and started translating.
"Sniper says a few nights ago...he dreamed about coming in here...and typing something in the computer...but he's not sure it had been a dream...so maybe...oh!"
"What? 'Oh' what?"
Sniper finished, and Spy's expression went from surprised to serious. He nodded, and then looked at Engineer.
"He says that Silent could be able to take control over him when he falls asleep. If we can manage to step in when that happens, we could get the code. Apparently, Sniper only remembers it when he's unconscious, or when he's not aware of what he's doing."
Engineer gave it a thought. That was a good, yet risky idea. It meant they had to stay alert when Sniper went to sleep, or when anything weird around him happened. In other words...
"Spy, I think you would be the perfect candidate for that." Spy looked at the shorter man in confusion. "Well, Sniper sure trusts you, and you're the one who spends more time around him. So how about you stay with him in his van for a while, until we have the code?"
Hell broke loose at those words. Both men tensed, and they started giving their reasons why that was a bad idea. Spy stumbling on his own words, Sniper moving like he just ate a ton of sugar. Engineer chuckled, a small, sweet revenge on both of them for keeping all this as a secret. Engineer raised both hands to get their attention. "Look, I know the idea makes you both uncomfortable, but for now is all we got. As you can see, Sniper here had a trip through the base in his dreams, and nobody realized it. We could have the team alert for it, but that would mean keeping them awake, and then losing on the field. We can't let the Administrator know this, because I'm sure she'll try to take care by herself, and that could complicate things. Besides, you two looners could have some bonding time out of this."
Both 'looner's' gave an exasperated sigh, and then ran a hand through their faces. Spy was the first one to answer. "You're right...it's a good plan. Bushman, we will start today. Please clean that place you call...home, I don't want to walk in and step on your underwear."
Sniper silently growled, but nodded anyways, and walked towards the door, only to find it still locked. Engineer causally opened it, letting the taller man go without being able to avoid the grin on his face. Once Sniper left, Engineer looked at Spy.
"Spy...I trust in your way of doing things, but this one better work, or we are in serious troubles, and not only from Silent."
Spy put a hand on Engineer's shoulder. "Don't worry, my friend. We'll go slowly and calmly, so she doesn't realize what's going on." And then he left. Engineer didn't know which one that 'she' meant: the Administrator or Silent, but he was sure of one thing. They had to be careful on anything the did from that moment. Any step would have to be carefully planned, and he still had to think whether he should tell anyone else or not. Engineer looked at Pyro, who was in a corner looking at the lights like they were a show.
"Come on Pyro, let's get some rest"
Pyro looked at him and nodded. Engineer reconnected the cameras and microphones, and left the screens back in the login page before leaving the room with Pyro to get some well earned rest. None of them saw the lights in the top right camera flickering, nor the movement it made, following them until they left.