Code Matriks

Episode 16: Hi-Jinx

By B1ockh3d

Author's Note: Hey! So, obviously the "end of each month" idea hasn't been going accordingly. In my defense, I didn't see two English papers coming at me. And I only see more coming. :/

Rest assured, I'm still working on this project, and I've even got the next few big events in the story planned. I haven't decided if I want to make one of those big events happened in the next chapter or the one after, but I still have quite a bit more story to write. I believe we are either crossing or past the midpoint of Code Matriks, which I really want to finish by the end of the year. Note: Want.

Regardless, it's nice to hear everyone's doing well! And I've garnered a few new readers! Thanks for joining this adventure, and please let me know how you're enjoying it! Read on!

"Knock knock?" An agent queried behind Juliet at he cubicle.

She swiveled around in her chair, facing Agent Cassinov, "Sir?"

"Have you been keeping up with those two down at that lab?"

"The two WSU students? Yessir. Everyday."

Cassinov flipped through a folder, and pulled out a piece of paper, "Tell me, what were you doing at their lab right before the raid?"

"Inspection."

"Interesting... They weren't scheduled for an inspection for another two weeks."

"Su...prise inspection. They weren't expecting one so early."

"Uh-huh..." Cassinov handed her the paper, "Because right before the raid, those two students sold their patents to a business that we have no information on."

"...Strange."

"And it happened to be right before a raid."

"That seems coincidental."

"A raid you were at before we got there." He raised an eyebrow.

Juliet shot him a disgusted look, "Sir! I would never blow an operation! Especially since I never knew about the raid to begin with! I wasn't even clocked in at the time!"

"So, why were you doing an inspection if you weren't on the clock?"

Juliet froze. He was right.

"Also, all of their prototypes don't work. Every single one. They clearly did work, but now they don't. And Markus seemed very eager to hand them over, along with hard drives that are under a unique encryption that our best coders can't crack."

Juliet smirked, "I thought that stuff was civilly forfeited?"

"It is."

"Then why are you trying to use their stuff? Break into their encrypted hard drives?"

"Because, according to the agreement they signed, anything done in that lab that may be involved in terroristic activity is government property."

"Then it's not civilly forfeited, is it? It's repossessed."

Cassinov froze. He was stuck.

"You realize since you got their equipment under civil forfeiture laws, it's still technically theirs until they lose the court case. But since that section of the agreement states that what you took was government property and you didn't go through repossession, when this goes to court, you'll lose."

Cassinov scowled, "Unless you want to continue staying at a desk your entire career, you'll get the decryption keys from them."

"Or what?"

"I'll write you up for interfering with an operation by warning those students beforehand. There's plenty of evidence."

"Oh-hoh! You're blackmailing me?"

"What we're doing in the field is beyond your pay grade, and your level of technical understanding. Get the key before you clock out for the day."

"So, yes. That's how I'm being blackmailed to get decryption keys from you guys."

"That's pretty scummy." Cooke nodded, "Wait- Markus, you sold both of our patents?!"

"Yep! To MCUT Corporations!" Markus proudly boasted.

"What on earth is MCUT Corporations?!"

"Oh, it stands for Markus-Cooke Universal Technologies."

"SON OF A- what?"

"We're an LLC now! It'll make things just that much harder for our intellectual property to be wrongfully taken, because we don't technically own it!"

"How did you make us an LLC so quickly?"

"Hacking, of course! While you were talking with Juliet."

"Okay, this is great and all, but why didn't you tell me what you were doing?" Juliet interrupted.

"Sorry, you were still in a state that of disbelief. I couldn't really wait to do all of that, but it does make you look bad." Markus apologized, "I was afraid they were going to do that."

"No... It's weird to say, but, I think you did the right thing. This whole situation is bizarre." Juliet agreed.

"Yeah... Why are you telling us this, anyways?" Cooke queried.

"Because a few days ago, several of our agents were brainwashed and you guys nearly died, only to be saved by me going to a virtual world, and only the three of us remember it because we also went back in time." Juliet summed, "In the military, I was assigned a unit of all men and I learned to deal with it. I believe I can trust you guys."

Cooke nodded, "Pretty good reason."

"Here, I'll get you out of this mess. At least for a little while." Markus walked over to a drawer and pulled out a package of USB sticks, and set up his computer, "All you'll have to do is plug it into your work station and it'll take over from there."

"It'll unlock all of your drives?"

"No, it'll unlock three. But the way it's coded is to make your hacker believe he cracked them." Markus explained.

"False hope will buy us a lot of time." Cooke added.

"If all goes accordingly, Cassinov will be off your back. Ours, too." Markus opened a drive and shoved it into the port on his computer.

"So... What are on these drives?"

"Junk." Markus chuckled, "Failed drafts of our various projects. Some are even empty, aside from the encryption."

"Why did you encrypt them?"

"Because you can't really trust anyone. Plus, it proves what we were worried about."

"...Which is?"

Cooke sighed, "You guys, the FBI, are taking stuff we invented and are trying to implement them with the technology that already exists. For free."

"You guys found the best and brightest to make the next best thing, and then essentially took it away before you had to pay for it."

Juliet folded her arms, "That's a mighty big accusation."

"Well, the evidence doesn't lie. It all points towards that." Markus ejected the drive and handed it to her, "We better keep our distance, though."

"Why so?"

"Seriously? You've already been accused of foiling their operation. If you get too close, they're gonna tell you to stop treating us like kids and more like government assets."

Cooke laughed, "I don't know what's worse, that we inadvertently became superheroes, or that we inadvertently became assets. All from the same event!"

Juliet stuffed the drive into her pocket, "Okay, I should get back to my office."

"Did we pass our daily inspection?"

"With flying colors, of course."

Juliet swiftly plugged the flash drive into the back of her computer tower, right as Agent Cassinov strolled up to her desk.

"So, get those decryption keys?" He smoothly asked.

"Your willingness to defy federal laws while enforcing them astounds me." Juliet bluntly lectured.

"Okay, in all honesty, who talks like that? Seriously? You aren't a scholar writing a paper!"

"I am an agent of the FBI and unlike you, I take my job seriously."

"Hon, you're a pencil pusher. Relax."

"...Did you really just call me hon?!"

"Heh. Yeah, go ahead and take me to HR-" Cassinov's phone buzzed. He checked it quickly, and put it away, "Well, regardless if you got a decryption key, my guy just cracked open a disk! Keep up your "serious" job in inspecting some college screwballs' lab daily. Fantastic work."

"Ha. If only you knew..." Juliet muttered as he walked away.

Cooke flung himself backwards onto his bed, "Ahhh my goodness we aren't stressing out over anything for once!"

"Math homework is done, English was cancelled, finished the project in Engineering two weeks ago alongside with programming!" Markus sat back in his chair, "And no pesky towers to deactivate!"

"Don't jinx it, bro."

"Jinx isn't a real thing. Whatever was going to happen would've happened regardless if I said anything or not. It's like watching a pot of water boil, it's still gonna boil regardless if I'm watching it or not!"

"...Don't jinx it, bro."

"Whatever. I'm just glad we're finally at a resting point. Maybe I'll take a nap."

"Right there with ya."

Cooke and Markus both got comfortable, and shut their eyes.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Cooke rolled over and looked at the computer that was beeping, "...Oh, fancy that. An activated tower. I wonder why that happened."

"Jinxing isn't real!" Markus sneered, as he pulled himself up to his computer, "...OH!"

"What?!"

"Way back when you found the first purple tower, I programmed the tower scan to detect those towers as well."

"...Sooo...?"

"It found a purple tower! It's another shot at the puzzle!" Markus clarified, "Let's bring in Juliet!"

"Woah, wait, she already used her "daily inspection" card once today, it'd be awfully suspicious if she left now."

"Dude... It's almost five. Do you really think she works around the clock?"

"Or, we could ask when she gets off. That works too."

"You wanna make the call?"

"Sure."

Juliet placed a folder in her outbox, finishing another file.

"Juliet, can you handle these for me?" An agent plopped down a thick stack of folders in her inbox.

She groaned, "Simmons, why do you have all these unfinished files?"

"Because I didn't finish them."

"Then why are you handing them to me?"

"I have new priority ones to get to, and you finished yours."

She ran her fingers through her hair, "Alright, as long as those don't end up on my desk too!"

The agent tapped her desk and left.

"Really miss being in dirt right now." She muttered, then her phone rang, "Special Agent Juliet."

"Oh, special agent?" A familiar voice quipped, "What's the difference between a special agent and a regular agent?"

"This must be Cooke." She sighed, "How can I help?"

"What time do you get off work?"

"In an hour, but I might have some overtime..." She eyed the tall stack of files, "What's going on?"

"Did we ever tell you about the purple tower?"

"No... Can't say I recognize that term."

"Do you have any plans tonight?"

"Feed my cat. That's about it."

"Swing on by after you get off." Cooke hung up.

She put her phone down, "Well... At least there's something interesting to look forward to."

Juliet pulled up to the lab, and the two were standing out front.

"So, what's going on?"

"Are you good at puzzles?" Cooke queried.

"Well, I didn't study code-breaking in the military, but I do love a good jigsaw puzzle." She shrugged.

"Good enough. Cooke, fill her in." Markus entered the lab, and everyone followed.

"Alright, so awhile back, I was running from a clone of William-"

"The William controlled by... XANA, right?"

"Yes! You're getting the hang of it! Anyways, I was running from the clone, and I looked for a tower to seek refuge in."

"And... How many towers are there?"

"I believe it's something like fifteen. But I can only enter them when they're activated, except the Way tower and Passa-"

"Purple tower!" Markus interrupted as he opened the hatch to the super computer.

"Er, I ran from the clone into a cave, where a tower glowing purple stood. It wasn't on Markus' screen, and it disappeared when I entered it."

"So... Why is a disappearing tower important?"

"When I entered it, a panel appeared with a short quiz. It asked for my name, my quest, and the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow."

"Hold on," Juliet stopped walking, "This magical tower asked you to recite Monty Python and the Holy Grail?"

"Yes! And we don't know why!"

"...Aren't you guys super geniuses?"

"Uhh," Cooke bit his lip, "Not really, no? I mean, we somehow failed that quiz."

"How could you possibly fail that?!"

"It also asked what that was from! We fed it the right answer, but it rejected it!"

"Did you read the question correctly?"

"IT ASKED WHAT THE QUOTE WAS FROM! Come ON! Were we supposed to put in the full cast and crew too?!"

"Alright guys, hate to interrupt, but, go in the scanner." Markus pointed.

Juliet raised an eyebrow, "So, uh, you or me first?"

"It doesn't matter! Cooke, in!"

Cooke hopped in, and the scanner doors closed.

"Transfer, Cooke... Scanner..." Markus pounded the enter key, "Virtualization!"

The scanner doors opened, and the inside was completely empty.

Juliet timidly stepped inside, "Does... Doesn't this... Will this cause health problems?"

Markus shook his head, "The scanner is based off the ones designed for Carthage, and according to our French friends, they don't."

"Uh, what's Carthage?"

"Oh, dangit Cooke! I thought he told you! We'll explain!"

"And-"

"Transfer, Juliet!" The scanner doors shut, "Scanner... Virtualization!"

Juliet landed on her back on an icy plain, with Cooke overlooking her in his glorious blue, black, and white leotard.

"Aww, why did she get a cool outfit?!"

"I don't even know what either of you guys look like, so I can't say." Markus neutrally answered.

"This... Place, still gives me the chills!"

"Well, yeah, it's the ice sector."

"You know what I mean!"

Cooke laughed, "You'll get used to it."

"The purple tower is south by southwest, half a kilometer from your position."

"Can we have a vehicle?"

"I knew you were gonna ask, Cooke. Sending the Overbike."

"Uh, vehicles?" Juliet queried.

"Well, yeah. Unless you feel like running half a kilo for no reason. I'm surprised you don't know about them?"

"Well, I guess those other guys were using vehicles too, huh..."

The Overbike materialized in front of them.

"Ever rode on the back of a motorcycle?"

"No, I've never been on one before, actually."

"Simple stuff. Just hold onto me!" Cooke hopped onto the Overbike, "C'mon!"

Juliet cautiously mounted the back of the vehicle, and Cooke then immediately opened the throttle to the maximum,"AH!"

"See? Easy peasy!"

"THIS ISN'T SAFE!"

"The worst that will happen is that you get devirtualized! Chill!"

"THIS WAS A HORRIBLE MISTAKE!"

"Man, for an uptight FBI agent, you sure get squeamish at the drop of a hat!"

"ARE WE THERE YET?!"

"What do you think? And stop shouting! I can hear you just fine!"

Cooke pried Juliet's frozen fingers off of his chest as they both dismounted the Overbike.

"Alright, where is it?" Cooke scanned his eyes around. There was a long plain where they just came from, mountains on both sides, and a cave.

"I'm guessing since we don't see it, it's in that cave?" Juliet deducted.

"Man, I wish I thought of that." Cooke sarcastically remarked.

"Uh, guys?" Markus warned, "There's a weird signal next to the tower."

"Just a weird, ominous, singular signal?"

"It has the same kind of symbol for a person or monster."

"Oh, lovely." Cooke drew his short sword, "Must be William."

Juliet drew two knives, "I hope it's not, because he sounds like a really tough guy to beat."

"Oh, he gets easier every time I fight him. XANA is just a program that simulates fighting, but he's still a computer with predictable movements. Also, those areyour weapons? Not bad! Anything else?"

"Yeah! I can also turn invisible for a few seconds!"

"Okay, you can stop rubbing it in. I don't care."

"But, you just ask-"

"Shut it!" Cooke winced, "Let's focus on the mission, yes?"

"A-alright. Lead the way."

Cooke ran inside the cave, followed by a timid Juliet.

"What's this "William" guy have?"

"A big honking impractical sword. But don't be fooled by it, it can pretty much one-hit you!"

They arrived at the purple tower, but to a much different enemy awaiting. It was the abducted archer from the Cortex!

"Uh, is that William?"

"Nope! Much worse!" Cooke readied his sword, "If those arrows still do what they did to me, don't get hit by one!"

"What did they-"

"NOT NOW, JULIET!" Cooke swung his blade and engaged the whip function, slashing the archer from a sizeable distance away."

"Woah! Nice! Check out what I can do!" Juliet drew two knives and activated her cloaking ability.

"Huh? Where are you?!"

The archer fired a shot at the distracted Cooke, and nailed a hit square in the head.

"OW!" He stumbled, "...At least I wasn't abducted."

"Don't worry, I got you! Watch!" She threw her knives. One was deflected, another hit square in the chest.

The archer stumbled, but managed to gather his footing. He looked around, and sank into the ground. Juliet deactivated her cloaking, and smiled contentedly.

"Well, that was easy. We did it!" She proudly boasted, "Cooke? We did it!"

No response.

"Cooke? Cooooooke?"

The scanner doors opened for a very unhappy Cooke, rubbing his face.

"Uhh, welcome back to the earth!" Markus greeted.

Cooke stomped over to Markus, took off his headset, and put it on himself, "Hey, Juliet, next time keep track of where you throw those things!"

"Cooke? You devirtualized? How?"

"Yes! Because when you stupidly threw knives at him, the one he deflected hit me square in the face!"

"Oh, sorry."

"This is why we make plans! Because I literally couldn't see your knives coming! Now we won't know what will happen in the purple tower! We have to abort!"

"I can always do, er, try it."

"This puzzle is super complex! I need to study it and figure it out!"

"But we'll get another shot at it, right?"

"Maybe! Eventually!"

"Great! No harm in trying then!"

"Listen to me, you don't know what you're doing!"

No response.

"Oh, you did not just go in there!"

Markus pulled up the security camera trained on the super computer, which blinked purple eight times, "She's in."

"God freaking... UGH! THIS IS WHY I DIDN'T WANT TO RECRUIT ANYBODY!"

Juliet looked around the bare tower, and found a floating panel near the center.

"Alright, let's do it."

She approached the panel, which read "Welcome to Matriks."

"So, how do I start this?"

BEGIN!

"Ah."

What is your name?

She typed in "Juliet."

What is your quest?

She typed in "I seek the Holy Grail."

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

She typed in "That depends. African or European?"

The panel lagged for a moment.

...What is that scene?

"Hm. And the answer isn't the actual scene..." Juliet smirked, "So... What is this scene, if it's not Monty Python?"

Could it be Cooke put it in wrong? Or maybe the answer wasn't specific enough? Perhaps the question was put in wrong. There could be any number of reasons as to why this particular question was wrong, but she only had one shot.

"...What kind of questions are these?"

The name question felt fairly straightforward. Everyone has a name. Cooke worked, as well as Juliet. Who wouldn't have a name?

But... What is the quest question about? Is it looking for a specific quest? Everyone has a different quest in life, but maybe that question is being read farther into than it needs to be.

And finally, the unladen swallow question. While Juliet doesn't keep that information in her head like everyone else does in society, why would it matter? Much less, all of these questions were answered with their Monty Python continuation. Something every person on the planet knows!

Wait... That exactly who'd answer these questions. People. Software can't.

Computers, specifically artificial intelligence, have to answer questions exactly. Just like searching something on Google for something else and getting something oddly specific and makes sense with the search, but it's not what you were looking for. Such as searching for "arcade fire" and getting the band, but you were looking for arcades on fire. Point being, computers don't have names, quests, and would give a precise answer to the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.

"...It's a Turing test." Juliet deduced.

What is this scene?

A computer would give an exact answer, that it's Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But it would be wrong, because that's not what the question is asking. It's asking for a personal opinion on the scene. Computers don't have emotions or opinions. What is this scene to you?

"...Funny. It's a funny scene." Juliet shrugged, and typed in "Funny."

The panel disappeared, and the color inside the tower changed from purple to orange.

"Uhh, computer, what's going on?" she quietly panicked, "Can anyone hear me?"

The tower started dematerializing around her, revealing a non-ice sector.

"...Woah."

The computer screen cleared all windows, and displayed the message: "Welcome to Matriks."

"Oh, my god, she did it?!" Cooke scratched his head, "How?!"

The holographic display zoomed out of the ice sector, and revealed a world map consisting of eight sectors total.

"Jeez! Eight?!" Markus attempted to comprehend, "What - why - how?!"

"Guys? Can you hear me?" Juliet called out.

"There you are! We've been waiting two hours!"

"That was only a minute!"

"You were in suspended animation, big difference." Markus explained, "We've literally been sitting here for two hours."

"Oh, it was well worth it!" Juliet assured, "This place is incredible! There's things everywhere!"

"What does it look like?!" Cooke demanded.

"There are lots of these tall black buildings, like the towers, but huge!"

The tower scan suddenly went off, showing that all of the towers in all the sectors were activated.

"Uhh, bad news, I think we just helped JAER escape the super computer!" Cooke panicked.

"WHAT?!"

"All the towers are activated! The super computer is gonna be compromised!" Markus quickly dove into the source files of the computer, and found various strains of code being wiped, "Crrrap! I'm bringing you in while I still can!"

Markus quickly launched a materialization program, and seconds later the scanner doors opened with a very dazed Juliet.

"What's going on-" she clutched her stomach, "Ohhhh...!"

Cooke handed her an open trash bin, "Forced suspended animation takes its toll!"

She grabbed the bucket, ran to the corner, and hurled several times.

"What on earth just happened?!" Markus pulled at his hair, "That went from productive to very bad in seconds!"

"Did JAER really do all that?!" Cooke paced.

"That's the only explanation that makes sense! Our mainframe was just eaten for crying out loud! Do you really think a human would wait for us to unlock the computer and then wipe it?!" Markus opened a terminal command window, typed in instructions, then slammed his fists on the desk, "THE SCANNER PROTOCOLS ARE GONE! We can't go back to Matriks!"

"No! NO! NO NO NO!" Cooke appropriately reacted.

Juliet took a deep breath, then exhaled, "What's left?"

Markus rubbed his face, then continued working, "...It looks like everything we put on it, some data packets, and... Huh. I don't recall leaving an audio file on here?"

"Huh?"

Markus highlighted a file named " 3"

"Alright, I'm getting a little weirded out now." Cooke commented.

"Play it."

"Of course I'm going to play it, Juliet!" Markus pounded the enter key, and a familiar tune started playing.

A piano rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

"...What."

"Okay, I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that."

Markus stared in awe, utterly confused. "This couldn't have been JAER."

"Sounds like we need help from Jeremie." Cooke pinched the bridge of his nose, "I... Need a freaking burrito. Food. I'm pissed."

"Aren't we all?"

"Juliet, do you know what would happen if JAER or XANA escaped their super computers?"

"I can't say I would know."

"...Global annihilation." Cooke deadpanned.

"You can't be serious."

"Oh, yeah, it's even happened once. But we don't remember because Jeremie's gang returned to the past."

"But with us not being able to use the scanner, we can't deactivate any of those towers." Markus reminded.

Juliet looked around at the computer screen, and ultimately laid eyes on the audio file, "We need to find the MO of this virus. Who would recognize this file? It's obvious to me that a virus wouldn't hand-pick files."

Cooke planted his face into his palm, "Hey... Remember when XANA brainwashed your agents?!"

"But this is the jar one, right? Surely it's not on the same level as XANA."

"We don't even know what JAER is capable of! Or what JAER stands for!" Cooke frantically pointed at one of the computer monitors, "And now he's at full power!"

"Calm down, the world is still spinning. And as long as it stays that way, we can do something." Markus interjected.

"Like what?"

"Well, let's start off with finding out the significance of that song."

Jeremie's phone rang. His eyes pried open, as he saw the clock read 2:43 AM through the pitch blackness of his room. He picked up his glasses and slid them on, then answered his phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Markus."

"Activated tower?"

"Uhhh... Yeah, you could say that."

"Where?"

"Yeah... This is where it gets strange. All of them."

Jeremie shot up, "All of them?!"

"Yeah, right after we unlocked seven more sectors."

"Seven?!" Jeremie quickly got out of bed and scrambled to find his shoes, "I'll wake everyone up!"

"Wait! Before you do that, we need a mystery solved."

"Uhm... Mystery?"

"Whatever happened to our computer, someone or something left a short song."

"...Go on?"

"It's a piano rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

"Twinkle Twink... I'm gonna go wake up Aelita."

"-And we can't virtualize into Matriks."

"That's not good," Jeremie quickly slipped on his shoes, "I'll be at the factory soon."

"To do what?" Cooke piped over the phone, "You probably can't connect to our computer if we can't virtualize. If we can find out the significance of that song, we'll know more."

"...Alright, I'll stay here. But I think Aelita might have an idea-"

"Wait, Aelita might know?" Cooke snapped his fingers, "Stop right there, I got it. I know what it is!"

"What?"

"If Aelita knows something about that song, it'll likely tie back to Franz Hopper. Just like the code, or Shelda. This is clearly a sign from him!"

"Except, he died." Markus reminded.

"With a clue as big as Shelda, I'm calling it now. I'm ruining the plot twist. It's gotta be Franz!"

"I'm not gonna tell anything that incredulous to Aelita until we know for sure." Jeremie affirmed.

"Incredulous? And here I thought you wouldn't know slang or big English words over there, kudos to you." Cooke remarked.

"Why, thank you."

"Okay, we gotta go, Jeremie. We'll call if we need more help."

"Alright, bye!"

Markus put away his phone,"...Let's assume you're right, Cooke. Where do we go from here?"

"Nothing. We're done for today."

"How so?" Juliet participated.

"If Franz is truly behind this, it'll work itself out."

"And if he's not?"

"He absolutely, positively, is. I have impeccable intuition." boasted Cooke.

"But, just for fun, let's say JAER is the one causing this." Markus rolled his eyes, "Then what?"

"Then..." Cooke pondered, "We work out a solution to shut down the super computer without blowing up the entirety of DC."

"So, nothing then?"

"Look, no scanner, no fighting. So if you want to repair whatever is going on with it, be my guest."

Markus sighed, and stood up, "Alright, let's get dinner then."

"Food is good for the mind."

Juliet looked around, "Well, I'll see you for inspection tomorrow then."

"We look forward to it." Markus waved, and the trio split their separate ways.