A/N: I hate schoolwork...And thank you all for your continued support in the form of reviews! It's you lot who keep me writing ^^. THis chapter will ahve no Luke for a change. As it means I can shamelessly use him throughtout the next chapter without worrying about subplots or anything!
Nederbird: Sometimes, a cliche is welcome. And hey, running through the woods at night whilst self reflecting? now that's asking for trouble surely?
BlazeShadow: Things do go his way...sometimes...maybe.
Watch Wannabe: Hopefully this meets your expectations. If not, then I blatanlty will have to write a better one later on in the story...
TzuiAssassian: Thanks! :D
Chapter Eleven: Hel March Under the Sea
The internet is a true marvel, one of the wonders of the modern age. It links us all, helps us learn and teach, to grow, to gain knowledge. Or it corrupts us, betrays our identities, hurts us. The internet is raw power, able to be used for good or for ill, dependant upon who uses it and for what purpose.
And now, the world over, in cafes, rooms, basements, schools, people gathered. Massive network issues had been detected in Japan, the last known location of the infamous "Seek and ye shall find" virus, one of the most efficient and dangerous programs of the modern world. Rumours abounded of its origin, ranging from aliens to secret military projects.
And now something was fighting it. The infected server had been placed under quarantine, but that did not stop the millions of skilled cybers who broke through to watch the programming marvel that was two new-age programs duelling. A virus versus a brand new kind of anti-virus. Some whispered of the "Seek" finally attacking a governmental mainframe, leading to this epic battle, whilst others believed a full scale cyberwar was currently underway.
No matter the truth though, people watched their screens as the programming codes scrolled by, and a carefully orchestrated battle began.
Floating in an endless ocean, Chisame Hasegawa smiled at her familiars. Kincha, Hanpe, Konnya, Chikuwafu, Negi, Daiko, and Shirataki looked back at her, their little faces set with determination. Behind the seven electronic spirit cluster regiment leaders, shoals of fish were lazily swimming around in circles, representing the idling systems on the net idols computer system.
A horde of tuna, a torrent of useless data, were awaiting her command behind Kincha. He would lead the Dos attack. Of course, in case of the enemy pulling a similar trick, Chisame had prepared a bucket filter program. Shirataki was with the syn flood regiment, a large gathering of swordfish, and Daiko was nervously glancing at his squad of sharks (ADM worms) which were looking at him hungrily.
The rest of the mouse group were arrayed before the school girl, where they would help her coordinate attacks and defenses against this Seeker character. Chisame couldn't help but smile at this turn of events. Her life had begun to get boring lately, what with her dominating the world of net idols. And here was a perfect break from the monotony.
Sitting on nothing, surrounded by screens and keyboards, the girl began typing out instructions, the programs coming to life and moving off according to her orders.
"Mistress, link to enemy OS established!" reported Hanpe, dressed in a chibi military uniform he conjured out of nowhere. Chisame found it wise not to ask, nodding to show she had acknowledged his comment before replying.
"Alright. Send Kincha first. Chikuwafu, you'll be the observer for this. See what we can learn of our enemy."
"Yes mistress," squeaked the little mice, scurrying off, and the shoal of tuna followed them into the cerulean distance. Chisame turned to another of her familiars when chevrons appeared suddenly, the word ALERT plastered boldly upon them in glaring red flashing letters.
"What the…?!" said Chisame, her fingers already dancing madly over the keyboard.
"An enemy attack?! So soon?" remarked Hanpe nervously, the rest of the present mice not looking particularly confident either.
"It's a torrent attack! No wait, two – no, thre-four?!" reported the familiar who had been named Negi. He glanced up at his master. "Ah..erm, we have ten dos attacks incoming simultaneously."
There was an awkward silence.
"Employ the bucket filters! Maximum output!" order the net idol, already shutting down any background programs currently running to save RAM. Ten attacks from different connections…impressive. But also telling. Indeed, she thought, pushing up her glasses. Sending a cheap, quick to produce horde of soldiers early on in the battle, overwhelming the opponent before they have fully established a force of their own or any defensive systems.
The RTS "Rush" tactic!
Standing on a conveniently located outcrop of rock, arms folded in front of his chest, Seeker gazed out across the boundary of his territory, marked by a towering wall of water stretching away in all directions. Behind him, a small base in red colors was churning out new programs with which to attack.
He had modified his operating system to be represented by this a while back. The cyber hadn't bothered changing it back. Normal people would have called it nostalgia, but he preferred the term "waste of time". A squad of conscripts had been sent out, and his war factory was busily churning out hammer tanks. All symbolic of course. Everything was either a program or a virus or an anti-virus given form. The tesla coils, the attack dogs, all mere images representing his great work.
Seeker looked back over his shoulder at the construction yard marking the connection to his personal OS. Should the enemy be able to get at it, he would be booted form this server, and all his work and plans would be naught. His HUD flickered, showing a top down view of the entire server, as if it was a geographical battlefield. He saw his conscripts, a each one a pathetic dos program, encircling the location of that net idol before charging in.
Rushing was a highly developed tactic, based entirely upon catching one's foe unawares whilst they still had no forces. Most of the time, it was an all or nothing gamble, as if the opponent managed to survive or repel the attack, it would leave the attacker vulnerable. Luckily, he had perfected that tactics several years ago. Who said playing computer games was pointless?
A samll beep alerted him to a situation update, and he turned his attention back to the overhead view. His programs were in sight of the enemy, they were getting close…
And as one they all blinked from existence.
Seeker hissed coldly, partly annoyed at his tactic being repelled so easily, partly admiring at the skill of the girl. Looked like he had underestimated her slightly. An overclocked filter was it? If that was the case, a heavier duty virus would have to be sent, he thought to himself, his gaze idly lingering on the tans arrayed before him.
The cyber would have smirked if his static features would have allowed him too. A game which would last longer than five minutes…it had been too long. This warranted something special.
He clicked his claws as the idea struck him, laughter grating in his throat. "Comrades, rejoice! Your lord and master stands on high, playin' Track 3!" he roared out to his army, and the mass of viewers undoubtedly watching the unfurling battle.
And so the music began, the drumming beat reverberating through the false air. The Hell March.
There would be no victory for his opponent now. The juggernaut of his CPU would be unleashed totally against her!
Once he had mustered all his forces that is…
Chisame allowed herself to sigh slightly in relief. Her filter barriers had done their job well, obliterating the rushing enemy. It had horrible heated up her hard drive though, as could be felt by the marked increase in temperature of the surrounding water.
"Cheap shot," she growled. It was time to take the fight to him, and prove she wasn't a turtler!
"Kincha, Daiko, Shirataki, go!" she ordered, casting her hand out imperiously, the assembled battalions swimming forth at her command. Meanwhile her other hand was almost a blur as she tried to prevent her computer from literally melting down as it handled the exchange of information not even NASA was used to. She may have been no gamer, but she knew enough of cyberlore to know that after a rush the enemy was particularily vulnerable.
However, this Seeker character was undoubtedly a master of such tactics, and had some sort of back up force to defend himself whilst the organized another attack on her. The thing now was to either overwhelm that force with her superior numbers, or at least distract him long enough for her to think of a winning move.
The watery beasts swam past the boundary, heading straight for his base. The entity known as Seeker stood and watched them approach, not even flinching as the swam through the air, brushing past him.
He "Heh"ed at the sight of three mice leading the charge. With a loud "BZZZT" the tesla towers activated, arcs of lightning striking the fish. The ones to be hit were immediately turned into charred skeletons which were blown away by the wind. However, there were too many for the simple defenses. The torrent files broke through, folled by one or two of the ADM worms.
The sharks swam straight at his construction yard, slamming into it nose first and rebounding away only to be shot by his tanks. Such programs were far too limited, only being able to damage Linux systems. The Seeker had built his own operating system.
One of the swordfish however got lucky, striking his barracks. Immediately a link was opened, surrendering control of the facility to the opponent. She wasted no time in demolishing it, rendering it totally inoperable, whilst remaining a drag on RAM. Seeker could see his units slow fractionally as the computer tried to upkeep with the data.
A tank rumbled past, its turret clogged with tuna. Another was bitten neatly in half by a shark. Seeker stared as the animal spat out the turret of the vehicle, the chunk of programming dissolving away. His gaze flickered uncertainly. This was…strange.
One of the sharks seemed to notice him finally, and swam right at his avatar. Seeker merely sidestepped and the shark hurled past, stopping dead a few feet behind him. And then it exploded into data fragments. The hacker looked down at his metallic claws, noting the dent in one of them where the shark's teeth had managed to bite down.
Now that certainly wasn't right. His actual presence here was armored against any and all cyberspace attacks. How the hell had she –
He had to stop his train of thought there for a moment as another shark tried to bite his head off. He raised a taloned leg and slammed it into the programs nose, sending it flying away into the distance.
Seeker looked up, seeing the information overwhelming his base of operations. And smiled.
With several mental clicks of the mouse, a blue sphere appeared in front of his construction yard, announced by a pleasant female voice reporting: "Chronosphere activated". Out of the phenomena rolled out his ultimate offense. Brute force viruses, amidst the most devastating and feared programs of destruction. So it was only fitting that they were represented here as Apocalypse tanks.
Grabbing the fins of a swordfish, a syn program his identifier informed him, he hurled it into the mass of tuna heading at the vehicles and leapt impossible far to land atop the lead tank.
He stood up, his tail lashing the metal he was standing on and pointed towards the known location of the enemy base. "Roll out!" he roared, the music of the Hell March playing on.
"My, my, looks like she could be in trouble now! This guy is one heck of a programmer!"
"Estimates of Hasegawa's victory have now fallen to fifty percent."
"Really? Hmmm, and what are the chances of this guy doing something really bad?"
"Define bad."
"Something which would damage my files on the school database? I have a lot of precious research there you know."
"I do. Chances of negative consequences of this hackers victory are ninety nine percent."
"What?! Then don't just stand here, go help her!"
"Understood."
"Enemy hacking attempts have slowed down!" cried Negi happily. Chisame smiled, though inside she was a bit disappointed. For all his boasting, this Seeker was still a weak low life hacker, thinking he was skilled just because he had busted some codes and mainframes.
"Well then, let's teach him a lesson about challenging the net's top idol!" she said, smiling evilly as she conjured up another hundred shoals of tuna. All of her familiars were gathered before her, full given over to maintaining her computer now the enemy was sufficiently weakened.
Usually, this was the time an experienced hacker would slip some viruses through undetected, when his rival was sure he was no more of a threat. But Chisame Hasegawa was far too intelligent to fall for such a ploy. Which is why she had sent all her familiars to guard against any last-ditch infiltration attempts whilst she dealt with this freak.
Then she heard the music. A deep, bone shaking rhythm, almost militaristic. Looking up at the boundary, she saw something which made her blanch. A brute force virus, in the form of a gigantic tank, rolling at her. And atop it, what could only be described as a humanoid robotic dragon.
Brute force viruses were the monsters of cyberspace. They ground down protection through sheer power. No matter what defenses one had, sooner or later, a brute force would get through. And the only way to stop them was to disconnect.
But with it already within her boundary, meant that any attempt to disconnect would leave her operating system infected. Thinking rapidly, she decided on a course of action and acted upon it. Hurling every last tuna fish she had at the behemoth, she sent orders to her mice.
With a beep, a window showing the disconnecting attempt popped up. A small bar begun to load as each link was systematically turned off and quarantined by her familiars. She looked up at the pile of fish, the torrent data totally covering the brute force virus and the avatar atop it. But it was still inching towards her.
Nervously, Chisame checked the disconnection progress. Almost half done, but it was slowing down as the virus encroached further into her territory. His lag was beating her lag. It was wearing her down, and soon he would conquer her system, allowing him to loot the data within freely, or even to expand, sing her history cache, and infect other systems.
She would not let that happen! She was Chiu, the finest net idol in the world, and a computer expert! With a face set with determination, she once more began typing on the keyboards in front of her, the screens blinking in colors as she inputted data.
Snarling, the smell of fish filling his scent receptors, Seeker burst out from the mound of tuna, spitting out one or two of the damned things that had squirmed into his mouth. He glared across the small distance left between him and his opponent. She looked up suddenly, making eye contact. And smiled victoriously as she pressed a button.
And all the tuna exploded.
Chisame couldn't help but squeal in victory like a little girl, watching the disconnection continue, now about two thirds done.
"Ingenious," growled a voice from the wall of smoke marking the expiry of the brute force virus, all thanks to her programming skills. The net idol looked towards the lazily rolling smoke, seeking the avatar of her adversary.
"But you're out of torrents," he laughed as another nine mammoth tanks rolled from out of the smoke, with him sitting atop the leader.
She simply stared, numb. N-nine brute force programs?! That was generally believed to be the requirement for breaking into classified military files! Not to mention each one had to be uniquely designed, which in itself took a month…who the hell is this monster?!
Seeker stood triumphant as his viruses finally reached the girl. With this victory, his dominance of cyberspace would be assured. And any information the girl had could prove useful, especially regarding her programming techniques. Such overpowered torrents were shocking. Perfect for his use!
"Submit, Chiu," he rasped at the girl, standing defiantly before him, though her shaking knees sort of spoiled the dramatic moment. "This is my victory! With this, all your data belongs to me!"
What do I do? Thought Chisame to herself, gritting her teeth. This freak has me outgunned. Only a minute left until disconnection, but it doesn't matter. He'll just override the command and ruin me! What to do, what to do…
A whistling sound caught her attneiton then. It caught Seeker's too, who looked up over her. "What the..?!"
And the lead tank exploded.
Landing deftly on the next vehicle in line, the dragon warrior growled. "Who are you?!" he demanded, aiming the question over Chisame's head. The net idol looked up, eyes going wide when she saw Chachamaru floating high up, holding onto what could only be described as a tank cannon.
"Chachamaru Karakuri," she answered, pulling the trigger and loosening a hail of shots at the advancing tanks. Each shell hit its mark and blew it apart, leaving the fragments to dissipate.
Chisame felt like cheering as she watched the disconnection process finish, and the world flickered and went dark as they left the server.
"THIS ISN'T OVER!" screeched the grating voice of Seeker after them as he was also booted form the server. "I'LL FIND YOU YET!"
"What a sore loser," grumbled Chisame as she fell back into the real world with Chachamaru.
"Indeed. He did not take to his defeat in a manner befitting his skills," agreed the gynoid.
"And what the hell was with that geek's avatar?! He has got to be some sort of otaku, trying to look and act all cool on the net. What a freak!" snapped the net idol, still shaken by her ordeal.
Chachamaru smiled slightly. "Yes. His blatant escapism did make him seem desperate for attention."
"What?! I never said anything like that!"
He roared in fury, reaching forward and tearing the PC monitor in front of him apart. Panting slightly, as if he'd been running, Seeker snarled as he smashed his clawed fist onto the desk. The metal ruptured under the impact as he bellowed like a caged animal, his tail whipping around frenziedly.
"Chisame Hasegawa….Chachamaru Karakuri…You. Will. Pay."