Heh. Me the evil.
Once a rhythm was established, taking the connections apart was fairly quick work. He was able to track the Major's progress as well, and could tell that all the connections were being sent a copy, because their synch breaks came simultaneously. They moved as mirror images of each other, wait, disconnect, loop, wait, disconnect, loop. When they reached the last one – at the same time as he had known they would – he automatically cut the connection and allowed her to loop it. They stood across from each other for a moment, smirking.
"Come on," she finally said, "we've still got to take down the original."
He nodded, following her to the scarlet column that personified the hacker's connection to Kumiko.
"Ishikawa, give me everything you can on this connection."
Near as I can tell, you can do basically the same thing you've been doing – maybe just on a bigger level – but I don't see any traps on my end.
"Neither do I…" the Major said.
"And that's what worries me," Batou finished for her, peering down both ways of the red.
"If we loop the information, the hacker might be alerted, and we won't be able to trace him," the major mused.
"If we don't loop it, there's a good chance the connection will reestablish itself."
"You're right," she said. "All right, I'm going to step in and redirect the connection to myself during a synch break. Batou, break it off behind me and place the loop."
"Got it," he said, flashing a thumbs up, "be careful."
"Of course," she replied, smiling, and placed a hand on the cord, sinking it in at the first break in code and shifting so that she stood in its path. Batou watched for a moment to make sure that the beginning had not held any surprises, and then went to work behind her, breaking off the connection and creating a loop, like cauterizing a wound. Once done, he sat back, watching the virtual representation of the major. She was stock still, eyes staring straight ahead. He shrugged, unworried – this was normally how a trace went. Checking Kumiko, he found that the scarlet line that had been the end he cut was slowly dissipating, and nodded in satisfaction. Then his gaze returned to the major.
She was twitching. He frowned, something tickling the back of his mind. This couldn't be good. He had done traces before with her, and while sometimes they took this long if it was done remotely, he couldn't remember her ever twitching.
"Ishikawa, are you in contact with the major?" Silence. "Ishikawa?"
Still silence. Batou swore; the hacker had cut them off. That could only mean that there was something coming down the line. He lightly touched the connection, checking the length for a trap – there it was, far down the line, an offensive firewall. He checked it and immediately came back to himself, swearing again. "Major!" he said loudly, trying to bring her back to herself.
There was no answer. He spat a curse, going back to check the firewall, and found it moving toward them rapidly. He knew that she was on the other side – he could have gone through it too, if he had wanted. But from here, he couldn't disable it, and Ishikawa probably didn't even know what was going on. The major wouldn't know anything about it until the firewall hit her virtual self, and from the looks of it, it would probably fry her brains. It was coming at them, and there wasn't shit he could do about it.
"Ishikawa!" he tried again, this time reaching out electronically to try and find the barrier that was keeping him from transmitting to the hacker. There was no answer, and he couldn't get far without being reminded of Motoko sitting in the line of fire. He checked the barrier's progress – too close, and getting closer.
"Shit." He couldn't just sever her – the barrier would probably continue on and hit them anyway. Besides, he was pretty sure her ghost was behind that wall – and likely was right behind the barrier. It would do a number on her cyber brain though, and section nine would need her and the information she had on the trace…
More than they needed him. He growled, well, there was nothing for it. There was a synch break, and he stepped in to face her, barely feeling the programs seep through his brain to go through her and finally disappear into the loop. The first codes hailing the attack barrier came up, and he quickly set up all the barriers he could think of – knowing it wouldn't be enough to save him.
Well, that wasn't the point. As many preparations as he could make done, he tried to relax, virtual eyes resting on the Major's personified form. He smirked, almost sorry that brain data was always represented differently on the net. He sighed, shaking his head. If this didn't kill him, she certainly would once he clawed his way back to the real world.
He felt the surge in offensive code, and knew there was only a moment left before the attack slammed into both of them. He reached forward, pulling the virtual body to him – more for his own comfort than her protection. As he did, several alarms went off in his mind – his own barriers were coming down like rice paper to fire. A brief thought said that he really might not make it, and he leaned down, more alarms going off.
"Sorry, Motoko," he whispered, and knowing it was stupid, he gently pressed his lips to hers as the barrier swept over them.