Chapter 2

"We interrupt your daily televised programming for a breaking news bulletin. There have been many recent break-ins at many esteemed and ancient temples, shrines, and spiritual landmarks. Burglary was not on the intruder's mind. Interpol has declared a manhunt for the perpetrator or perpetrators that are responsible for disrupting the peace and as a preventative caution against any kind of malice that may befall these ancient relics. A more detailed report later at 11. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming."

"Strange." Monroe said.

"What? It's nothing important. There is no damage and if anything, the places this guy breaks into seem to look even better than before his visit. It is strange, yes. Is it something that we should waste our time on? No." replied Zero.

A roof opened up over what looks like a grand laboratory and mansion combined into one. Two reploids flew over the top, descending into the building over the opening using jet packs on their backs and with the jets in their feet.

"Again, we interrupt your daily televised programming for another breaking news bulletin. The largest and most powerful supercomputer in the world, second only to Dr. David Monroe's, has been hacked. We have our reporter Tasha Nokowana on scene to give us more detail. Tasha?"

"Yes, Deena. I am here in front of the esteemed Soku Fuji Incorporated headquarters. The mainframe is owned and maintained by Soku Fuji Inc, a company whose interests are to manage, collect, and preserve human history, discovered just a few minutes ago that someone had hacked into the mainframe and stole thousands of years of history. Fortunately, Soku Fuji reported that the electronic documents were only copied. To quote Mr. Fuji himself:

It is a disgrace to the world that someone would dare try to tamper with our research. It is history. It is in the past and while history does "repeat" itself, it is not the same as the actual event and therefore, cannot teach us without the same sacrifice that was given once already by those before us.

Dr. Monroe, the man who was commissioned to build the supercomputer, was unavailable for live comment but did say earlier that he has sent a specialist to make sure nothing was tampered with and to beef up the security not only within the mainframe, but also within the building itself."

The TV is turned off abruptly and Monroe stands up to leave the room.

I have enough on my mind and I don't need questions regarding…

"Doctor, what are they talking about?" asked Sakura.

"Apparently, some group of malicious hackers found a way to penetrate my security measures. It's quite troublesome as now I need to figure out how they were able to get in and seal it off."

"Sounds like you should send me."

"No, Zelda. I already have sent someone to take care of this matter. He is one of my students at the university."

Zelda pouted and crossed her arms. Why doesn't he send me? I don't get to fight and rarely does a programming challenge ever present itself!

"So then, doctor… Who did you send?"

Monroe gave her a dark stare before answering.

"No one you need to know about. I already said he is a university student under my teaching. That's all you get to know."

At the lab, Monroe had just started working when two reploids with jet packs came in. One of them was carrying a small rectangular box. Both reploids bowed respectfully and handed over the box to Monroe.

"As you requested, doctor. Why you need such trivial information beats us. However, it has created problems for us."

"You weren't seen, were you?"

"No, on the contrary. They seem to have bought another story. However, the mainframe may hav…"

"WHAAAAT? I JUST SENT IN MY BEST STUDENT TO COVER THIS UP!"

The two reploids gave each other a look and bowed again.

"We're sorry doctor. We did exactly as you said. We believe someone may have changed your original design, and that's why we might have messed."

Monroe gave them both disgusted looks before attaching the box to a terminal.

"Well, it shouldn't be too hard for you two to take care of this mess you created."

Before they could reply, Monroe dismissed them both with a wave of his hand. They bowed one more time before walking out the door they came in.

"What a nuisance this has become. No matter. This stolen information will allow me to erase what happened a few hours ago."

With a few chuckles he set to work decoding what was on the device.