Time Nano=minute Second = day Minute = month Hour =yearVandal moved swiftly through the silent alleyways and back streets. It was just before nightfall yet this sector was strangely quiet.
"It figures," Vandal thought to herself. "A viral sector wouldn't have much of a night life."
The large tower-like structure that had been looming in the distance seemed to be silhouetted against the darkening sky. By the time she reached the tower it was almost completely dark. Vandal jumped off her zip- board and looked for a doorbell or something to announce her presence, yet she could find nothing. Out of frustration she finally decided to knock, but just as she raised her hand to do so the door swung open. This unnerved her, but only slightly so. She was, after all, expected. A silent one binome beckoned her to follow as he walked briskly down the hallway. Vandal found the silence a refreshing change to the long winded grandiose speeches that usually went hand-in-hand with working with a virus.
As the binome guided her through the complex, Vandal noted the lack of ornate and unnecessary decoration. This, too, impressed her. Obviously this virus was single minded in his pursuit of power. Vandal had had just about enough of her employers flirting with her; most of whom couldn't get a date unless they paid the opposite party quite a hefty sum. Right now Vandal was not in the mood to play any games of that sort.
The last job had not gone as well as she had hoped. Sure, she had retrieved what the virus had wanted, and he had paid her in advance. So there was no problem with the payment, just the employer. He had decided that Vandal would make a nice addition to his house.
Of course he had been a basic fool. Thought Vandal, Locking me up in such a primitive cell. Just who did he think I was; some 2 bit hacker that didn't know how to pick locks? Well she had showed him. Vandal smiled inwardly at that thought.
Looking back at all the problems, double crosses and unpaid jobs which resulted from being employed by viruses, she wondered why she even bothered. Of course the pay (when it she received it) was good.......
The binome stopped at pair of double doors and pushed them open. Vandal stepped inside as the binome closed the doors behind her. The sound of closing doors seemed to alert the figure seated at the back of the room. He rose from behind the desk, which was neatly pilled with organizers and control panels.
"Vandal, you're quite punctual, on time to the nano," The virus said as he moved toward her.
"Well thank you Cipher. I believe being punctual is very important in this line of work" Vandal said smoothly.
"I agree. I trust you have had time to go over the information I sent to you, as well as the payment?" Cipher questioned.
"Yes I have, however, in doing so I have come across a problem with your plan. My specialty is, as you know, coding. I shouldn't have a problem hacking through the defenses, but I can't do that and ward off the guards and or CPUs that I will likely run into" Vandal stated matter of factually.
"Oh, yes I have.......... "Cipher was interrupted by the sound of the closing doors.
In walked a tall, lanky sprite with a self-confident grin on his face and a healthy swagger in his walk. Vandal could tell his strengths lay in speed and not brute force. His skin was light blue with a touch of green and his hair was glowing orange static that looked as though it was perpetually messy. He wore a short sleeved leather jacket over a tight white tank top that hinted to the toned mussels that lay beneath. Vandal also noted the katana strapped to his back as well as, presumably, a shorter blade sheathed at his side. His long black pants were tucked in to a pair of heavy combat boots and held up by a thick dark brown belt to which his icon was attached. Over all he was an attractive, self-assured male sprite. Vandal could tell she hated him already.
"Ah, Key. Despite the fact you lack punctuality you have excellent timing" Cipher commented with what sounded like a small sigh.
"I try." Key said with a slight bow. Once Key had straitened his eyes immediately fell on the much shorter female sprite standing in front of the virus. Her bright purple eyes and dark lips where pulled into a slight scowl. Ah, pity, mused Key, they'd look a whole lot better in aw smile. Then again, it looked like she didn't smile a whole lot. Her dark purple hair was pulled up into a high neat bun held together with a pair of chopsticks. She was wearing an oriental style high necked short sleeved shirt with gold trim that end at her upper thigh. The shinny maroon material followed the curves of her body as well as bringing out the pink in her light purple skin. A thick black belt, to which a pair of pistols were holstered, ran across her waist and over her shirt. She wore loose black pants that came to her ankles. She stood there her arms cross with a slight glare. Inwardly Key sighed. Well if aye have ta work with an ego centric sprite at lest she's a good looking one..........
"Key will provide the necessary protection for you. I would send my own forces to accompany you, but sadly the Principal Office virus scanning program is quite advanced. Even one of my infected binomes would set it off and you would be surrounded before you even got a chance to start hacking. Not to mention Key's weapons of choice makes far less noise then a blaster," explained Cipher.
The scowl had been replaced by a face devoid of any emotion through out the rest of the exchange. After the last details had been ironed out they took their leave of the virus and headed for the hanger where Key's ship was parked. As soon as they were out of ear shot of their employer Vandal stopped and turned toward him.
"You know, I've heard of you and your work" Vandal said.
"I'm glad maw reputation pressed me," Key good-naturedly replied.
The scowl had returned to Vandal's face, and her arms were crossed. "Your work is sloppy and amateurish, the only reason that you've lasted this long without the guardians catching you is pure luck. Especially considering that you leave your little 'calling card' everywhere you go. Well, this is MY job, and I won't have you crash it. Just stay out of my way and try not to screw everything up." Vandal sneered. Without warning she turned the hallway leaving Key to catch up. Key sighed. This was going to be a really really long night.
Key had caught up with Vandal by the time she reached the hanger. There stood his pride and joy. The air ship was fitted with its own generator and was not affected by system wide power downs. It was faster then a zip file and handled like a dream. Many hours and been put into the ship, adjusting everything possible to meet his specifications. The vertical tail fin had a stylized decal of a key printed on it, and the name of his ship was written just above the cockpit.
"Your ship's name is Ship.........?"
"Yep."
"That's quite possibly the most basic thing I've ever heard."
Key handled the controls with practiced ease as he navigated the ship through the maze of buildings. "Ya know, I've heard of ya too, and from what I gather yur noth'n but a back-stab'n, honorless bitch. Who 'ill do anything ta finish a job and earn some extra credits. And what I've seen so far you ain't done nuthing to prove otherwise," Key said with a flat emotionless tone.
"At lest I get the job done cleanly, quickly, and efficiently," Vandal replied coldly.
Key set the ship down in amongst some buildings, a little ways off from the Principal Office. Both sprites got on their zip-boards and made their way towards the long forgotten and unguarded maintenance tunnel that would take them to the archives. Vandal bypassed the lock with little trouble but before entering she tossed something at key.
"A hidden file command? I always figured REAL hackers donna need ta use hidden file commands," Key said with a smirk.
"I usually don't need to but I don't see how you could sneak in any place with ridiculous hair like that," Vandal said as she activated her command.
Not really wanting to argue with her, Key activated his command as well. Yet as he passed her before entering the tunnel he leaned toward where she was standing and replied "Ya'd be surprised."
The passage through the tunnel was pretty much uneventful. Key walked quietly, despite the heavy combat boots, blades drawn and ready to eliminate any obstacle which might arise. Vandal followed him not far behind, padding soundlessly. The tunnel came to an end with a short ladder leading to a trap door. Key lifted the door open slightly, spotting the guards off in the distance. With remarkable agility and grace, Key made short work of the guards in such a manner that would have even impressed Vandal. Of course, all this was lost to the invisibility of the hidden file command. As soon as she saw that the guards had been taken care of, Vandal quickly made her way to the door as started working on the first line of defenses.
Key was bored, it had been a good 60 nanos since he had taken care of the guards and he hadn't seen any action since. The hidden file commands had long since worn out and Key watched Vandal working on, what he presumed to be, the last defense before they could enter the archives. Key was beginning to think that his presence was hardly required. Not that he really cared, it wasn't like it was his credits being wasted.
Vandal let out a frustrated growl.... She knew it wouldn't be long until some one discovered them, yet she couldn't crack this code. The door was heavy enough that explosives wouldn't work. Nor were there any other structural flaws that she could exploit. Noting her distress Key came over.
"Thought ya could hack through any thang" Drawled Key with a maddening smug expression on his face.
"I can hack. It will just take a while," Vandal said through grinding teeth as she continued work the key pad.
"Define 'a while'."
Vandal sighed "A couple of seconds max."
Key raised an eyebrow and said nothing, but began to inspect the door itself. He had seen this type of armored door before while working on a job back when he was in the guild. It was impossible to blast through, and if the encryptions were really as extensive as Vandal claimed, they would be here a while. That is if they continued to do it Vandal's way.....
"Unless ya'r about ta have a major break through, could I take a whack at 'er?" inquired Key with a toothy smile.
Vandal scowled and stepped aside. Key unsheathed his katana and sliced open the key pad panel, which was made of a weaker metal then the rest of the door. After a moment he found the two wires he was searching for. He carefully cut and stripped them, then twisted them together. With one blindingly quick move Key leaped out of the way, grabbed Vandal, and dove to the ground. Behind them the door was shorting out and producing several small explosions. Once the fire works had ended the sight creek of a door on its hinges could be heard.
Vandal, still a bit dazed from being grabbed and forced to the floor and the explosions, moved to get out from under Key's body shield. She turned to glare at Key.
"I'm going to assume that the way in which you chose to grab me was merely an accident and not some cheap attempt to cop a feel."
Key quickly removed his hands out from under Vandal and raised them both in front of him "But aw course," he replied with the same toothy smile. It had been quite and unfortunate 'accident' indeed. Key thought inwardly with a smirk.
"The explosion has probably alerted the guards, we had better move quickly," Vandal stated, reverting back to her emotionless tone.
The two sprites stepped wordlessly through the ruined door way into a door filled corridor. Vandal walked briskly and authoritatively, scanning the numbers on the door until she found the one she was looking for. Stopping at the key pad she typed in several different combinations before the door slid open.
"Well that was surprisingly easy," commented Key.
"Indeed. I suppose they assume if you can get past the previous door, you are obviously supposed to be here, not only that but doors and encryptions like the last one are quite expensive. It's likely they were trying to save a few credits," Vandal said as stepped into the darkness of the room "Wait here." A few minutes latter she returned with a file in hand.
"Wait aw minute, THIS is the archives? I've never seen archives like this before." Key said with a touch of awe in his voice.
"Well that's probably because you've only hacked 2-bit systems. This is a new filing system. It's far more effective, organized and secure." Vandal replied with a notable amount of condescension in her voice.
Before Key could say anything a shout was heard echoing through the corridor. They had just come.
"Spam it! The guards are here, we need to get out, NOW." Vandal said as she upholstered her pistols.
Likewise Key quickly unsheathed his blades, and leaped towards the oncoming CPUs.
Vandal watch with a good deal of admiration as Key leaped into the wave of armed CPUs. His fluidly controlled movements took out one biome after another. Though his blows were savage and ruthless none of them were fatal as a pile of wounded and unconscious biomes began to surround him. Not wanting to be outdone, Vandal started picking off the CPUs that were coming at her pistol whipping and kicking at the few that got close to her. Between the two of them, it wasn't long before the entire squad lay incapacitated at their feet. Key was already running towards the entrance and Vandal rushed to follow him. Vandal rounded a corner just in time to see Key dive back from the opening.
"Don't suppose ya got any of them hidden file commands left?" question Key.
"I thought REAL hackers didn't use hidden file commands," sneered Vandal.
"We have you surrounded! come out with your hands up, and we promise you won't be deleted," boomed a voice from outside.
Vandal sighed and rolled her eyes. This sort of thing never happened when she went solo. She made a mental note never to take a job with a partner ever again. "Like I said, I usually don't use them, but I do have some," Vandal said handing one to Key. "They're not as stable and will probably only last 10 nanos, but I'm not seeing a lot in the way of alternatives right now."
Grabbing a hold of Key's forearm they both activated the commands and made a mad dash for the trap door. Once there Vandal squeezed Key's arm signaling him to stop. She upholstered one of her pistols and did her best to aim it in the general direction of the CPUs surrounding the archives. Before Vandal had a chance to even see where the shot had landed, Key yanked her down into the tunnel. Praying that the CPUs hadn't seen the door open they raced down the tunnel, not stopping 'till they reached the other side.
The hidden file commands had already worn out by the time Vandal peeked out the side the tunnel, her ears and eyes scanning for any hint of CPU activity. With the coast appearing to be clear she motioned for Key to follow. She maximized her zip board and watched it fall to the ground. A quick glance at the sky added to the sinking feeling in her stomach.
"Spam it all to Dell! They've powered down the system." Vandal hissed in frustration.
"If we can make it back ta Ship we'll be fine. I got 'er fitted with 'er own generator," Key then quickly added, "Course, we have ta get to 'er first,"
The two sprites darted quickly in and out of the shadows trying their best not to be noticed by the roaming CPU's which were now scanning the city for the still unseen thieves. The hair on the back of Key's neck stood on end and his mussels tightened as the sound of a cruising CPU echoed up from behind. Key turned around just in time to see the car beginning to round the corner. It was just then that Vandal yanked him into small passageway. As he turned to look down the narrow side street his heart sank. It was nothing but a dead end. With the CPU almost on top of them and no were left to run, Key did the only thing he could think of at the moment. Unbuckling his sheathed swords Key threw them in to the shadows and before she could object did the same with Vandals pistols. Then Key grabbed Vandal by the waist and kissed her very deeply right as the CPU spotted them.
"You there! What do you think you're doing?" Shouted one of the CPU's as he and is partner existed the car and came towards the two sprites with file lockers raised.
Key, putting on his best sheepish yet seeming terrified face, just stood there looking dumb struck.
"Didn't you hear the alarms sounding and notice the system wide power down?!" Shouted the other CPU.
"Oh ya right... Well ya see officer I was take'n home maw date for the evening and then well we desided ta take a little detour and when tha system powered down.... Well ya see I figured if I got's a good reason ta be late in getting 'er home ta 'er old sprite I might as well be take'n advantage of it. If ya know what I mean," Key said with a wink and a toothy grin.
Catching on quickly, Vandal let out a seemingly impossible girlish giggle in reply. Key found it to be oddly chilling.
Both CPUs turned to each other and yet out an exasperated sigh, "The streets are not safe, there maybe virals on the loose. Now we're going to take you two back home before any thing........." The radio crackled as one of the officers rushed to it. There was a brief but frantic conversation ending with him calling to his partner to join him.
"What about these two? We can't just leave them here it's not safe!" shouted his partner.
"Yes we can, the problem's not here, they'll be fine. Now come on we have to get going," the binome said as he started up the car a prepared to leave.
His partner turned to the two sprites and glared at them "I want you to home NOW. No more detours or delays. Understand?"
The two sprites nodded quickly and the binome turned and ran back to the car. The CPU quickly lifted off and was gone. Key let out a sigh of releif and turned to Vandal, only to feel the stinging pain of her well-placed uppercut. Key staggered back grabbing his jaw in surprise. That was going to leave a mark.
"Well I 'pose I deserved that," Key managed get out.
"Spam right you did! What the dell were you thinking! We're fragging lucky that those bits for brains CPUs bought your basic story!" Vandal fumed as she retrieved her pistols.
"Well ya can correct me if am wrong, but yur pistols donna look like they're armor picering. And standard CPU procedure for this here system and, fur most systems fur that matter, is that if they need ta get out of the car only one of um does it. While the other waits with one hand on the radio and tha other on tha trigger. Now if that there CPU had rounded the corner ta find two fully armed sprites look'n fur a fight, well I reckon they would have called for a good portion of the force ta back 'em up. I donna know about ya but I'm good but I sure as dell ain't that good. So I did tha only thing I could think of at tha moment," Key said in a surprisingly matter-a-factual voice. Vandal watched him as he scooped up his weapons and carefully strapped them back in place. Key noted her gaze and replied "What? Ya think yur tha only one that did research before this mission?"
Vandal sighed. Turning away from the infuriating sprite she began to walk out of the alleyway. "Come on lets just get back to the ship," She called over her shoulder.
It was a short and, thankfully, uneventful walk back to the ship. After they had climbed into the cockpit an uncomfortable silence settled in. Key managed to find some data and offered some to Vandal, who promptly refused, bitterly thinking it was probably drugged or something. Key just shrugged and took a deep long drink for himself and settled into a more comfortable position. There was another long pause and then Key turned to Vandal and asked "So where'd ya learn ta hack like that?"
Vandal was quiet for a long time, hardly wishing to acknowledge the sprite who she saw as the root of all her current problems. Everything about him infuriated her; his cockiness and reliance on luck, the way he weaved in and out of trouble like it was nothing at all. The fact that he could get away with almost everything facing only minor consequences, it just went against every thing she stood for. She couldn't help but wish his luck would run out, and he was but at the mercy of likely hoods and probabilities. That he would be in a place where one mistake led to disaster, that's how the world really was. At least, that's how her world was. But still the silence was eating at her too and it wasn't like her origins were a mystery, in fact she was surprised he didn't already know them himself.
"My parents were hackers, as were their parents before them. My whole family has a knack for hacking. Runs in our code I guess," Vandal said after awhile.
Key nodded and was quite for awhile, and then added "So ya close?"
Without thinking Vandal replied "Not really, they were always off on some job or other. They really didn't have much time for me. Nobody was particularly sad to see me go. We all had better things to do and better places to be." Vandal blinked mentally, why did she tell him that? Why was he asking about her personal life? It was none of his businesses. Was he planning something? Many more questions and suspicions swirled through her head and she turned and glared at Key. "So what's with all the questions?" she said a bit more coldly then she had meant to.
Key looked a bit startled but not particularly angry. "Well we can't just g't up and leave right now with the whole spamed system on alert. So I figgur'd maybe aye could kill some time. Maybe get ta know each other a bit better. I'm sorry if that offends ya."
Vandal let out a small sigh and motioned for the data which Key handed to without hesitation. "So were did you learn to do that sad excuse of a thing you call hacking?"
"Thieves guild. Joined one of um when I was a young sprite, 'couple of the older kids taught me tha basics, aye picked up tha rest on maw own." Key replied.
"I take it you weren't close to your family either." Vandal added as she looked out the window.
"Naw, maw old woman was far more interested her various boyfriends then me, and I never knew maw old man, I doubt my ma did either. I left as soon as aye was old enough ta," Key said with slight tone of bitterness creeping into his voice. It surprised Vandal to hear this. Perhaps there was something to this sprite after all. She quickly dismissed that thought and went back to looking out the window. The silence settled back in, but neither sprite wished to break it. After a while Key started up a few of the ships sensors to monitor the CPU activity. It seemed that the majority of it was being centered two sectors away. Key brought the ship off of the ground and, keeping low to the ground, weaved it in out of the buildings quickly making his way towards the viral sector.
It wasn't long before the two sprites were back in front of the virus.
"Ah, it is good to see you two again and in one piece. I trust you ran into no major problems?" enquired Cipher.
"None that we couldn't solve," Vandal answered quickly before Key could respond.
"Excellent, and the file, you have it?" Before Cipher could even finish Vandal laid the file in question on his desk. Cipher wordlessly picked it up and quickly scanned it's contents with a growing smile.
"Well, it has been a pleasure working with you two," the Virus said as he reached into his desk and pulled out two neatly stacked piles of credits and handed them to the sprites.
Vandal nodded silently, and turned to leave. Key moved to do the same but stopped before he exited the room and turned to Cipher. "I don't suppose ya had anythang ta do with tha commotion hap'ng acouple sectors over?" Key questioned.
"It's a big system Key. I'm far from the only virus here. Whenever there is a power down one of them usually sees an opportunity and takes it. Why do you ask?" Cipher replied leaning forward with interest.
"No reason." Key said with a smile and with a slight bow turned and left the room.
Key quickly caught up with Vandal and with a voice dripping with charm and charisma said "I donna suppose I could offur a luvely sprite a ride outa this system?"
Vandal sighed, as much she hated to admit it with the system still powered down and the thieves still at large, Key was probably the best, quickest way out of here. Vandal was not looking forward to spending any more time with this sprite then she absolutely had to, though she did have to admit he was a good kisser......