.Hack//Heist
A .Hack fanfiction by Renfro Calhoun
Disclaimer: I claim ownership of nothing whatsoever related to Project .Hack, save for characters created solely within this story. Sort of makes you wonder if people who get paid to write these things ever read fanfiction, doesn't it? Ah well... guess dreams are dreams for a reason, huh?
Notes: Takes place shortly after Infection. Parentheses indicate thoughts. I M TEH L33T.
Chapter VII - Intermezzo One
------------
*click*
Cautiously, Dean turned the brass knob and pushed the door open, poking the silencer barrel through the widening crack.
"Shin? You home?" he called, mentally kicking himself; no one had answered the buzzer, nor his knocks. He stepped through the door and into the darkened apartment, leading with his pistol. He closed the door behind him, then passed the weapon from his right hand to his left, allowing his now-free hand to grope blindly along the wall for the light switch. His fingers came upon a large, rectangular button, which he pushed.
Dean squinted as the ceiling lights came on, revealing the interior of the one-bedroom apartment. Dull blue carpeting meshed with the off-white of the walls and ceiling to frame the room; a chest-high counter partially separated a small kitchen from the rest of the room, and doors to the north and east led to a bedroom and bathroom, respectively. A large TV and entertainment system dominated the west wall, and a well-worn pair of black leather recliners sat before it.
(Guess he's not here yet.) With a sigh, Dean flicked the safety for his weapon, unscrewing the silencer with his other hand, allowing him to fit both in his pocket. He then turned and locked the door behind him.
A glance at a nearby clock reminded him of his goal. (Almost midnight) he thought, kicking off his shoes. (I'd better get in there.) He unzipped and removed the weatherbeaten, brown leather jacket which replaced his windbreaker, and tossed it over one of the chairs as he strode towards the bedroom.
Passing through the open door, he started briefly when he saw a man in the room, staring back at him. In a flash he reached out and pounded the light switch, illuminating the room, revealing the 'man' to be his own reflection in a wall-mounted mirror.
He chuckled dryly, taking a moment to study his reflection. The events of the evening were visibly catching up with him. His posture was notably crooked, still nursing bruises from his escape, now hidden by the simple black shirt and jeans he had changed into. His short black hair was tangled and mussed, and not from the humid night air. His dark brown eyes carried a definite weariness, born from one long night and tempered by a history of long nights.
Dean sighed again, gazing through his reflected eyes. (You poor, dumb bastard.)
A shake of the head, and Dean entered the bedroom proper, which matched the color and carpet of the previous room. A glance beyond the comfy-looking futon brought his attention to the desired object: Shinji's computer, complete with state-of-the-art VR gear; a parting gift from CC Corporation, or so he'd been told. To its right sat a window, the Tokyo skyline staring at him in silent accusation.
(This stuff's probably bugged through the roof.) He frowned. (Hard to buy that they didn't know where to find him.)
He reached over and hit the power button, collapsing into the chair before the desk. (Accounting data my ass. They're protecting this for a reason, and I'll bet that's why Asara wants it.)
The computer slowly crawled to life, whirring and beeping. In seconds, the screen lit up, displaying the Altimit desktop. One by one the icons appeared, "The World" being the last. Dean reached over and grabbed the visor with one hand, double-clicking the icon with the other.
-
The rings passed, solidifying the image: a vast open field of green beneath a cloudless sky of blue, bizarre rock formations in three cardinal directions, a passage leading underground in the fourth.
His eyes, now a light green, carefully took in his surroundings. A gust of digital wind pulled against his black robe and lightly tousled the silver mass of hair atop his head. Gently he tapped the staff he now carried against the ground, fidgeting slightly, offering those and other visible cues to his anxiety to any who watched.
Stolls narrowed his eyes. (Where are they?)
The answer came from behind him. "Stolls!"
He quickly turned to face his addresser, and spotted two people - a Heavy Blade and a Twin Blade. With a slight smile, he waved. "Kite!" he called as he approached.
The instant he stepped within range, however, he found himself staring down the length of a very long, very sharp-looking sword. Behind it stood an angry BlackRose, her eyes locked on Stolls.
"Jesus, lady!" cried Stolls. "What's the matter with you?!"
"Why'd your friend come after us?" challenged BlackRose, placing the point of the weapon beneath Stolls' chin.
Stolls blinked, nonplussed. "What? Wait... what are you talking about?"
She glared. "Don't play dumb! Your friend attacked me earlier tonight, the Long Arm."
The Wave Master did a double take, glancing at Kite, then at BlackRose. Neither one looked particularly forgiving at the moment, and yet he couldn't believe what he'd heard. "Tamon?" he asked. "He... attacked you?"
Kite nodded, a stern look marring his otherwise soft features. "I found out about it before you e-mailed me. Why did he attack her?"
"Look, man, I don't know who or what you two saw," said Stolls, "but Max... Tamon's player, he's in the hospital right now, comatose."
BlackRose and Kite exchanged glances, the former shaking her head slightly. "But..." she started, lowering her blade. "I saw him... he attacked me. It was him, I recognized him!"
Stolls glared back at her. "Hey," he said, firmly. "I just got back from the hospital an hour ago, he's been a goddamn vegetable since that thing got to him."
BlackRose fell silent, averting her gaze. Kite took a step forward in her stead, a questioning look on his face. "Was he... data drained?"
Stolls peered quizzically at Kite. "Data drained?" He thought for a moment, recalling what Delphi had done to Tamon before the connection had been broken. "Well... before I got disconnected, the... it did something to him. I wasn't sure what..."
Kite nodded. "My friend... Yasuhiko, the same thing happened to him. Skeith data drained him." He turned and glanced over at the stairs leading underground, his words weighted with sorrow. "Right down there," he added, pointing towards the passage. "And the next day, I found out... he'd been put into a coma."
Stolls froze. The name 'Yasuhiko' triggered a memory, a brief image of a newspaper clipping, a player of The World found comatose at his terminal. (Orca... that's right, Kite knew Orca. Son of a bitch...) "Yeah," he muttered. "Yeah, that's... that's what happened. He went into a coma after that Delphi thing attacked him."
BlackRose looked back up, facing Stolls. "But I know it was him. More than that, he recognized me."
Rubbing his chin with his free hand, Stolls paused, thinking carefully before replying. "There was another player," he said slowly. "Supposedly he couldn't log out, and played outside the boundaries of System Administration. At the same time he was in The World, his player was in a coma."
"I remember hearing something about that," said BlackRose. "The character was alive in The World, independent of the player. I think his name was... Tsu... Tsukasa, maybe?"
"Right," replied Stolls. "That might be the case here... but the question is, why hasn't he contacted us? And for that matter, why'd he attack you?"
Kite tilted his head, idly scratching the back of his neck. "Stolls... who are you guys?"
The question instantly derailed Stolls' train of thought. "Huh?"
"I did some asking around," answered BlackRose. "Nobody I've spoken to has seen you around more than a week ago, and you told Kite you know about Skeith and the Data Bugs." After a beat, she added, "Why did you want Kite to help stop that creature? And why are you interested in these things?"
Furrowing his brow, Stolls pondered his words carefully. "Well, I said I'd tell you everything, and I will." He took a deep breath, and released it in a long sigh before continuing. "Tamon, Deisart and I were hired by a rival company to hack into CC Corporation's mainframe and steal data."
Kite blinked. "You guys are hackers?"
"Sort of." Stolls idly toed the ground with his show. "My name's Dean... I'm a private investigator. Deisart is Shinji, he used to work for Cyber Connect. And Max, or Tamon as you know him, he works with the company that hired us. The deal is we get the data for them, and they pay us $50,000 each."
"What kind of data is it?" asked Kite.
"I don't know for sure. They said it's accounting data, but just tonight CC sent some guys after us. Turns out, they were following us, and they sent Delphi in to attack us in The World."
BlackRose gawked. "They SENT that thing?!"
Stolls nodded. "Yeah. They're trying real hard to protect the data, whatever it is... that's why I don't think it's accounting data at all."
"So," Kite began, "what did you want with me?"
"Do either of you know about the test version of The World? The one that came out before the retail version?" Both nodded, and Stolls continued. "Well, they kept a backdoor directly through their mainframe onto what would become the Delta server, y'know for maintenance access and stuff. When they updated everything for retail, they never removed the backdoor. So, we need a hacker to break through the firewall around it; of course, this is accessible only through The World, so twiddling bits wouldn't cut it."
Stolls leveled his gaze at Kite. "That's why we needed you, Kite. We needed your help to hack through the firewall so we could access their mainframe. That's it."
"I..." Kite trailed off, lowering his head slightly. A gentle breeze rustled the grass, accenting the sudden silence. BlackRose fidgeted, but said nothing.
"I'm sorry," said Stolls quietly. "I didn't want to drag you guys into this. We didn't have any choice, though... we need to get the data by Sunday. Max is in the hospital, big guys with guns are after Shinji and me..."
*click*
Stolls turned, staring at empty air in the direction of the noise. "What was that?" he said to himself.
BlackRose raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"
"Dean?" called a voice from outside The World.
Stolls recognized the voice. "It's Shinji. Shin, in here!"
No one arrive in the green plains, but he distinctly heard footsteps approaching. Unseen through the visor, Shinji spoke up. "Damn, it's good to see you again."
Dean grinned. "My thoughts exactly. You all right?"
"Barely," answered Shinji. "Those guys showed up a few minutes after you called. Got out quick as I could, but it got messy, fast. They shot two cops and tried to frame me for it."
"Shit," hissed Dean. "Like we don't have enough to worry about."
More footsteps, keyboard buttons clacking. "Are you in there with anybody?"
"Kite and BlackRose. Listen, Shin, I... I told 'em everything."
Silence. A slow, carefully drawn breath, and controlled exhalation. "All right," Shinji replied quietly. "We need the files, we need help. I guess we have no choice now."
"Right," said Dean. "If we don't get that data, we're all dead. Hang on, I'll log out. Get in here and tell them all you know about it, maybe..."
"We'll do it."
Dean jumped in surprise, turned around and faced Kite and BlackRose, having almost forgotten that they were there, the voice bringing him back to The World in an instant. He peered curiously through Stolls at them. "Uh... what?" he asked.
Kite tilted his head towards BlackRose, just long enough to see her nod in agreement. With a smile, he turned back to Stolls. "We'll help," he said.
"Are you sure?" asked Stolls. "Once you're in this..."
"We're already in this," said BlackRose. "If Kite's in," she continued, glancing at the Twin Blade, an unnoticed glint in her eye, "I'm in."
Stolls nodded. "All right." He looked over his shoulder. "Shin... it's on."
- End of Chapter VII
A .Hack fanfiction by Renfro Calhoun
Disclaimer: I claim ownership of nothing whatsoever related to Project .Hack, save for characters created solely within this story. Sort of makes you wonder if people who get paid to write these things ever read fanfiction, doesn't it? Ah well... guess dreams are dreams for a reason, huh?
Notes: Takes place shortly after Infection. Parentheses indicate thoughts. I M TEH L33T.
Chapter VII - Intermezzo One
------------
*click*
Cautiously, Dean turned the brass knob and pushed the door open, poking the silencer barrel through the widening crack.
"Shin? You home?" he called, mentally kicking himself; no one had answered the buzzer, nor his knocks. He stepped through the door and into the darkened apartment, leading with his pistol. He closed the door behind him, then passed the weapon from his right hand to his left, allowing his now-free hand to grope blindly along the wall for the light switch. His fingers came upon a large, rectangular button, which he pushed.
Dean squinted as the ceiling lights came on, revealing the interior of the one-bedroom apartment. Dull blue carpeting meshed with the off-white of the walls and ceiling to frame the room; a chest-high counter partially separated a small kitchen from the rest of the room, and doors to the north and east led to a bedroom and bathroom, respectively. A large TV and entertainment system dominated the west wall, and a well-worn pair of black leather recliners sat before it.
(Guess he's not here yet.) With a sigh, Dean flicked the safety for his weapon, unscrewing the silencer with his other hand, allowing him to fit both in his pocket. He then turned and locked the door behind him.
A glance at a nearby clock reminded him of his goal. (Almost midnight) he thought, kicking off his shoes. (I'd better get in there.) He unzipped and removed the weatherbeaten, brown leather jacket which replaced his windbreaker, and tossed it over one of the chairs as he strode towards the bedroom.
Passing through the open door, he started briefly when he saw a man in the room, staring back at him. In a flash he reached out and pounded the light switch, illuminating the room, revealing the 'man' to be his own reflection in a wall-mounted mirror.
He chuckled dryly, taking a moment to study his reflection. The events of the evening were visibly catching up with him. His posture was notably crooked, still nursing bruises from his escape, now hidden by the simple black shirt and jeans he had changed into. His short black hair was tangled and mussed, and not from the humid night air. His dark brown eyes carried a definite weariness, born from one long night and tempered by a history of long nights.
Dean sighed again, gazing through his reflected eyes. (You poor, dumb bastard.)
A shake of the head, and Dean entered the bedroom proper, which matched the color and carpet of the previous room. A glance beyond the comfy-looking futon brought his attention to the desired object: Shinji's computer, complete with state-of-the-art VR gear; a parting gift from CC Corporation, or so he'd been told. To its right sat a window, the Tokyo skyline staring at him in silent accusation.
(This stuff's probably bugged through the roof.) He frowned. (Hard to buy that they didn't know where to find him.)
He reached over and hit the power button, collapsing into the chair before the desk. (Accounting data my ass. They're protecting this for a reason, and I'll bet that's why Asara wants it.)
The computer slowly crawled to life, whirring and beeping. In seconds, the screen lit up, displaying the Altimit desktop. One by one the icons appeared, "The World" being the last. Dean reached over and grabbed the visor with one hand, double-clicking the icon with the other.
-
The rings passed, solidifying the image: a vast open field of green beneath a cloudless sky of blue, bizarre rock formations in three cardinal directions, a passage leading underground in the fourth.
His eyes, now a light green, carefully took in his surroundings. A gust of digital wind pulled against his black robe and lightly tousled the silver mass of hair atop his head. Gently he tapped the staff he now carried against the ground, fidgeting slightly, offering those and other visible cues to his anxiety to any who watched.
Stolls narrowed his eyes. (Where are they?)
The answer came from behind him. "Stolls!"
He quickly turned to face his addresser, and spotted two people - a Heavy Blade and a Twin Blade. With a slight smile, he waved. "Kite!" he called as he approached.
The instant he stepped within range, however, he found himself staring down the length of a very long, very sharp-looking sword. Behind it stood an angry BlackRose, her eyes locked on Stolls.
"Jesus, lady!" cried Stolls. "What's the matter with you?!"
"Why'd your friend come after us?" challenged BlackRose, placing the point of the weapon beneath Stolls' chin.
Stolls blinked, nonplussed. "What? Wait... what are you talking about?"
She glared. "Don't play dumb! Your friend attacked me earlier tonight, the Long Arm."
The Wave Master did a double take, glancing at Kite, then at BlackRose. Neither one looked particularly forgiving at the moment, and yet he couldn't believe what he'd heard. "Tamon?" he asked. "He... attacked you?"
Kite nodded, a stern look marring his otherwise soft features. "I found out about it before you e-mailed me. Why did he attack her?"
"Look, man, I don't know who or what you two saw," said Stolls, "but Max... Tamon's player, he's in the hospital right now, comatose."
BlackRose and Kite exchanged glances, the former shaking her head slightly. "But..." she started, lowering her blade. "I saw him... he attacked me. It was him, I recognized him!"
Stolls glared back at her. "Hey," he said, firmly. "I just got back from the hospital an hour ago, he's been a goddamn vegetable since that thing got to him."
BlackRose fell silent, averting her gaze. Kite took a step forward in her stead, a questioning look on his face. "Was he... data drained?"
Stolls peered quizzically at Kite. "Data drained?" He thought for a moment, recalling what Delphi had done to Tamon before the connection had been broken. "Well... before I got disconnected, the... it did something to him. I wasn't sure what..."
Kite nodded. "My friend... Yasuhiko, the same thing happened to him. Skeith data drained him." He turned and glanced over at the stairs leading underground, his words weighted with sorrow. "Right down there," he added, pointing towards the passage. "And the next day, I found out... he'd been put into a coma."
Stolls froze. The name 'Yasuhiko' triggered a memory, a brief image of a newspaper clipping, a player of The World found comatose at his terminal. (Orca... that's right, Kite knew Orca. Son of a bitch...) "Yeah," he muttered. "Yeah, that's... that's what happened. He went into a coma after that Delphi thing attacked him."
BlackRose looked back up, facing Stolls. "But I know it was him. More than that, he recognized me."
Rubbing his chin with his free hand, Stolls paused, thinking carefully before replying. "There was another player," he said slowly. "Supposedly he couldn't log out, and played outside the boundaries of System Administration. At the same time he was in The World, his player was in a coma."
"I remember hearing something about that," said BlackRose. "The character was alive in The World, independent of the player. I think his name was... Tsu... Tsukasa, maybe?"
"Right," replied Stolls. "That might be the case here... but the question is, why hasn't he contacted us? And for that matter, why'd he attack you?"
Kite tilted his head, idly scratching the back of his neck. "Stolls... who are you guys?"
The question instantly derailed Stolls' train of thought. "Huh?"
"I did some asking around," answered BlackRose. "Nobody I've spoken to has seen you around more than a week ago, and you told Kite you know about Skeith and the Data Bugs." After a beat, she added, "Why did you want Kite to help stop that creature? And why are you interested in these things?"
Furrowing his brow, Stolls pondered his words carefully. "Well, I said I'd tell you everything, and I will." He took a deep breath, and released it in a long sigh before continuing. "Tamon, Deisart and I were hired by a rival company to hack into CC Corporation's mainframe and steal data."
Kite blinked. "You guys are hackers?"
"Sort of." Stolls idly toed the ground with his show. "My name's Dean... I'm a private investigator. Deisart is Shinji, he used to work for Cyber Connect. And Max, or Tamon as you know him, he works with the company that hired us. The deal is we get the data for them, and they pay us $50,000 each."
"What kind of data is it?" asked Kite.
"I don't know for sure. They said it's accounting data, but just tonight CC sent some guys after us. Turns out, they were following us, and they sent Delphi in to attack us in The World."
BlackRose gawked. "They SENT that thing?!"
Stolls nodded. "Yeah. They're trying real hard to protect the data, whatever it is... that's why I don't think it's accounting data at all."
"So," Kite began, "what did you want with me?"
"Do either of you know about the test version of The World? The one that came out before the retail version?" Both nodded, and Stolls continued. "Well, they kept a backdoor directly through their mainframe onto what would become the Delta server, y'know for maintenance access and stuff. When they updated everything for retail, they never removed the backdoor. So, we need a hacker to break through the firewall around it; of course, this is accessible only through The World, so twiddling bits wouldn't cut it."
Stolls leveled his gaze at Kite. "That's why we needed you, Kite. We needed your help to hack through the firewall so we could access their mainframe. That's it."
"I..." Kite trailed off, lowering his head slightly. A gentle breeze rustled the grass, accenting the sudden silence. BlackRose fidgeted, but said nothing.
"I'm sorry," said Stolls quietly. "I didn't want to drag you guys into this. We didn't have any choice, though... we need to get the data by Sunday. Max is in the hospital, big guys with guns are after Shinji and me..."
*click*
Stolls turned, staring at empty air in the direction of the noise. "What was that?" he said to himself.
BlackRose raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"
"Dean?" called a voice from outside The World.
Stolls recognized the voice. "It's Shinji. Shin, in here!"
No one arrive in the green plains, but he distinctly heard footsteps approaching. Unseen through the visor, Shinji spoke up. "Damn, it's good to see you again."
Dean grinned. "My thoughts exactly. You all right?"
"Barely," answered Shinji. "Those guys showed up a few minutes after you called. Got out quick as I could, but it got messy, fast. They shot two cops and tried to frame me for it."
"Shit," hissed Dean. "Like we don't have enough to worry about."
More footsteps, keyboard buttons clacking. "Are you in there with anybody?"
"Kite and BlackRose. Listen, Shin, I... I told 'em everything."
Silence. A slow, carefully drawn breath, and controlled exhalation. "All right," Shinji replied quietly. "We need the files, we need help. I guess we have no choice now."
"Right," said Dean. "If we don't get that data, we're all dead. Hang on, I'll log out. Get in here and tell them all you know about it, maybe..."
"We'll do it."
Dean jumped in surprise, turned around and faced Kite and BlackRose, having almost forgotten that they were there, the voice bringing him back to The World in an instant. He peered curiously through Stolls at them. "Uh... what?" he asked.
Kite tilted his head towards BlackRose, just long enough to see her nod in agreement. With a smile, he turned back to Stolls. "We'll help," he said.
"Are you sure?" asked Stolls. "Once you're in this..."
"We're already in this," said BlackRose. "If Kite's in," she continued, glancing at the Twin Blade, an unnoticed glint in her eye, "I'm in."
Stolls nodded. "All right." He looked over his shoulder. "Shin... it's on."
- End of Chapter VII