Thanks again for waiting so patiently for the new chapter! I appreciate all the feedback I've been receiving! It really helps us writers. So, let's get on with the story!
Dean Vaughn had been in his office, only a week after the incident with Kira's computerized clone. Since his memory of the incident was wiped, he woke up on his office floor very confused. The staff could not figure out what happened, since there were no security cameras in the office; only a few in the hallways (the university wanted to uphold their reputation as a safe campus, so they had few cameras, which they felt would make people believe they were paranoid).
Regardless, the incident was dismissed, and Vaughn continued to work, but as he did, there was a knocking at the door.
Vaughn looked up from his laptop. "Come in!" he said.
The door opened... and two people, one male and one female in all-black suits and sunglasses, stepped inside. They both had a standard-issue acoustic tube earpiece.
"Pierre Vaughn?" the suited man said.
"Yes...?" Vaughn asked.
The male suit stepped forward, grabbing Dean Vaughn by the arm.
"Agh! What the...?" Vaughn uttered.
"We have a couple of questions to ask you, Mr. Vaughn." the female suit said.
"You've got an affinity for terrorist bombers, especially the long-range type!" the male suit said.
"What?" Vaughn asked.
The man continued: "We have reason to believe that you are affiliated with a group of bombers attempting to obtain ICBM-type nuclear weaponry."
Dean Vaughn was shocked.
"...But, I assure you, I am a highly-regarded campus dean!" he said.
The suited man stared through his sunglasses, just before releasing Vaughn.
"Okay, we believe you..." he said.
Dean Vaughn massaged his arm. "What is the meaning of this? Who are you people?"
"We represent an ultra-high division of the United States Secret Service so obscure and concealed, the President himself has no idea that we exist." the female agent said.
"Even we don't know who we really are." the male agent said.
"Last night, a government defense computer mainframe was hacked, and highly-sensitive weapons information was copied and stolen. We traced the hacker via a phone number that was left behind. We have analyzed it to find that it is also registered in this school mainframe." the female agent said, holding up a small note in Vaughn's face. "Whose phone is it?"
After doing a bit of searching in the student database, Dean Vaughn escorted the agents to the address of the student in question with the matching number... which happened to be Kira's.
"This house, I assume, is occupied by Kira Sykes." Vaughn said once they arrived. "She is a fairly hard-working student here at the university."
The agents immediately picked the lock and entered the house. They search around, and eventually found Kira's laptop and desktop computers in her office.
"There's something I just don't understand..." the male agent said. "...it's impossible to hack into the mainframe using this equipment. She would require a much more powerful CPU cluster configuration."
"Something not available to the general public." the female agent added. "The question is... where is it, and how did she get her hands on it? Who are her affiliates? And which terrorist cell is she working for?"
Dean Vaughn's eyes widened. "Our Kira... a terrorist!? I... I can't even bring myself to believe it..."
"We're going to apprehend this Kira Sykes and question her about her activities." the male agent said.
Little did any of the three know... they were being watched.
SORIA was hidden behind a plant in the corner, monitoring them with her screen switched off, but the webcam above it enabled, zooming in on the agents and Dean Vaughn, analyzing and registering their facial features.
Aster also happened to be out in the hallway, clinging to the ceiling like Spider-Man, shrouded in the darkness due to the lack of windows or open doors in the upstairs hallway.
They call my Kira a threat? Aster said. Not in front of me. I'd love to slaughter them, but... I gotta keep reminding myself about what Kira said about murder.
Star, however, was hiding in a crawl space in the wall, remaining absolutely motionless. If the United States Secret Service were to find them... Kira would be in deep trouble.
Mom... please don't let them take you from us. Star thought.
(XXXX)
Kira had been out doing a bit of window-shopping in her spare time. She was looking at various laptops, as she was considering getting a new one; her old one was getting really slow compared to current PCs at this point. She wanted a good, powerful one... and since she was feeling a bit frisky, she decided to look at a few gaming laptops as well. As she was browsing... she happened to hear a voice in her right-hand ear.
"Kira, can you hear me?" came SORIA's voice.
Kira glanced up, briefly surprised, but then realized that she still had the earpiece in her ear; it just came as instinct for her to wear it.
"Uh, yeah SORIA. What's up?" Kira asked.
"Kira," SORIA said through the earpiece. "I am currently monitoring three intruders who have entered your house. Did you give them permission to enter your residence?"
"What?" Kira asked, immediately anxious. "Are they robbers? What do they look like?"
She really hoped that Meyers had not figured out where she lived.
"Two of them are in all-black suits with sunglasses, one male with fair skin and a shaved head, one female with shoulder-length dark-blonde hair. The remaining one has short, gray hair, glasses, and a tan suit." SORIA said.
It took Kira a moment to piece together the description.
"...It's gotta be Dean Vaughn." she said. "But then... who are those other two? What are they doing there?"
"I cannot identify them." SORIA said. "Though I have registered their physical features, I cannot cross-match it with any database on the internet. It appears that the two in black suits have no information on the worldwide web."
Kira immediately began to make her way out of the computer store without any further looking. She had to get back to see what was up... she really hoped that SORIA was japing her or something.
"If you would like, I can euthanize them with a halogen gas tank that I have in my main housing unit." SORIA said.
"NO, SORIA!" Kira said. "You can't kill anyone! Just sit there, and don't draw their attention! I don't wanna be spending the day picking up your pieces off the carpet!"
(XXXX)
Kira had made it back to her house. She pulled up into the driveway, and was about to make her way up to her house... when another car began to pull up. It was jet-black, and had government markings.
"What the...?" Kira uttered.
Two people in black suits stepped out, briskly walking towards her, pulling out handguns from shoulder holsters under their jackets.
"Set down the handbag!" the female agent said.
"You're under arrest!" the male agent followed up.
This got Kira's adrenaline going sky-high.
"But..." she began. "...what have I done?"
"That's for you to tell us, Miss!" the female agent said. "Get in the back of the car!"
"H-hey...! Wait!" Kira said as she was being pulled by the agents to the vehicle.
They shut her inside the vehicle and drove off. Her handbag was left sitting on the curb of her driveway. Shortly after the car was out of sight... Aster and Star emerged from the house, trying to feel for Kira's brainwaves. They could both tell she was already far away.
"Wh-what are they gonna do to Mom?" Star asked.
She hugged her father anxiously. He reassuringly rubbed her head.
"It'll be okay, sweetie." Aster said. "I know your mother. She always finds a way out of bad situations..."
(XXXX)
A little while later, Kai was going to visit Kira. He wanted to see when they could arrange their next game night. He decided to go over to her house just to check up on her. One could never know how she was faring with Meyers on the loose. He parked on the street... and noticed a strange, black car parked in her driveway. It was not Kira's. Suspicious, he pulled back a few feet to be concealed by the trees and shrubbery before getting out of his car.
Kai then slowly sneaked his way behind the trees, trying to see what was up... and within seconds, caught sight of a man in a black suit, stalking around Kira's property. He appeared to be taking pictures with a camera.
"What the hell...?" Kai uttered.
Hastily, he pulled out his phone, and tried to call Kira, seeing if she was alright...
(XXXX)
Kira had been taken by the female agent to an isolated office at the University, while the male agents took another car after briefly parking. Dean Vaughn was waiting for them; he wanted to hear what Kira had to say about all of this. They questioned her for roughly a quarter of an hour... but of course, Kira denied any of their claims.
"I swear to you..." Kira said. "...I've never hacked any information before in my life! I can't use computers very well!"
Just as the agent and dean were about to speak, Kira's phone rang. The agent picked up the phone, putting it on speakerphone.
"Kira...?" Kai said after hearing silence for a moment. "...What's going on? There's some G-man sneaking around your house!"
"KAI!" Kira shouted. "THIS IS ALL DR. MEYERS' DOING! COME BACK RIGHT NOW!"
The agent promptly hung up the phone, and shifted her gaze back to Kira.
"Very interesting..." she said. "...who is this 'Dr. Meyers'? The guy who recruited your affiliates?"
"Please listen..." Kira said. "...just trust me on this, and let me go. I have to help my family!"
"Kira," SORIA spoke. "my scanners indicate that a com-synth is about to materialize in your general vicinity."
"What?" Kira said.
"What do you mean 'what'?" the agent asked.
Out of nowhere, something began to materialize with a bright flash. There were visible patterns of binary code appearing in midair, forming a humanoid shape. After a moment... an exact copy of Kira appeared.
"Huh...?" Dean Vaughn said.
The agent pulled out her handgun again... but this made the clone react by rushing at her, knocking the gun out of her hand, and punching her in the jaw. The agent fell to the floor as she lost consciousness.
"Gah! NO!" Dean Vaughn said, just as the clone of Kira turned towards him.
She immediately did the same thing to him, knocking him out. Shocked, Kira stood from her chair to try and escape. The synth was about to go after her... but first, she wiped the agent's memory, as well as Vaughn's, since she had been instructed to by commands input into her parent supercomputer. With that, she immediately tried to pick up on Kira's trail... but she was nowhere that the clone could see.
(XXXX)
Kira had managed to escape. She ran from the university all the way back to her house. She could not be calling a cab or taking a bus, since she wanted to draw as little attention as possible right now. If the government was accusing her for hacking... she was really in some deep trouble.
She made it back, and bent over, gasping for breath.
"Well..." she said, panting. "...there's my workout... for the year..."
"Kira!" Kai's voice said.
Kira looked where the voice was coming from to see Kai rushing towards her.
"Kai!" she responded. "What's going on? Where did you see that other suit?"
"He's... asleep. Right on your stoop." Kai said.
"Huh?" Kira asked.
"I dunno, he was walking around your house, and then he started looking drowsy and disoriented, just before he lowered himself to the patio floor and was out." Kai said.
Kira immediately realized what it was.
"Aster... he must've telepathically sedated him." she said. "I know because he's done it to me know-whos-how-many times."
"So, like... what's going on?" Kai asked. "Did the government find out about Aster and Star?"
Kira shook her head. "...They think I hacked into some weapons mainframe, but I just know it was really Dr. Meyers! I mean, really, the guy's evil, and he always has several tricks up his sleeve! We've seen it before with his Queen!"
"But you really think he could have a well-thought-out plan shortly after busting out of prison and finding you?" Kai asked.
"Who knows?" Kira answered. "Plus, while I was being interrogated... something totally insane happened."
"What?" Kai asked.
"Well, you're not gonna believe me when I tell you, but... a clone of me emerged out of thin air." Kira said.
Kai looked dumbstruck. "Kira, are you serious? Are you just making this up?"
"No! It really happened!" Kira said. "There was a bright flash, and then random lines of computer code appeared in the air, like some sort of hologram, and it created a clone of me that knocked out the agent and Dean Vaughn! I escaped before she could come after me!"
"Wait..." Kai said, pondering. "...they exist!? No way... I thought it was just a hoax... a story for the science journals..."
Kira looked lost. "What do you mean?"
Kai looked back at her.
"...I think that clone of you might have been a com-synth." he said.
"Com-what now?" Kira asked.
"A com-synth." Kai said. "Short for 'computerized synthetic'. It's essentially an exact copy of a living thing based on biometrics, mainly obtained through medical records. In all essence... that synth was you, Kira... but with only basic brain functions. Motor skills, basic dictionary memory, psychological adaptation, improvisation... but no emotions, no fond memories. It's no more human than a robot, psychologically."
"But... how do they make them?" Sam asked.
"Two ways." Kai began. "The first one, which is the first way it was done, was using quantum computers to produce human embryos containing the chromosomes of an individual's blood, growing them at the same rate as a human being. The second one, the more advanced way, probably which Dr. Meyers used... it involves a highly-sophisticated quantum computer; one that can manipulate matter, on a subatomic level, into anything specified, including biometrics."
Kira shook her head.
"No way..." she said. "...that kind of technology... it doesn't exist yet. Even WY doesn't have anything as advanced as that!"
"Well... given how dedicated Dr. Meyers was with his work... I think he might've achieved some breakthroughs in his life, and developed a quantum machine that can create such things. Improbable, definitely... impossible, no." Kai said.
"But..." Kira said. "...if he can get access to this kind of technology..."
Kai pursed his lips, thinking. "...I think we might need to try and locate this quantum mainframe Dr. Meyers has his hands on."
"But where would we even begin to look?" Kira asked.
Kai was thinking heavily... up until something came to his mind.
"Kira, do you remember when we hacked into Elisabeth White's computer, and learned about that quantum computer that was being used for this 'Project: SUBCON'?" he asked.
"Yeah..." Kira remembered. "...do you think...?"
Kai nodded. "It might just be that very same computer... but there's only one way to find out."
"...We need to look for a solar farm." Kira said.
"And it has to be within a certain proximity to a WY building." Kai added.
"Okay," Kira said. "let's put Dr. Meyers on the coals for good this time!"
Well, hope you all like the long chapter! I'm aware that the story might seem a bit bland for now, but there are more twists and turns to come, so just sit back, let the chapters come... and hope that I don't accidentally die at some point, which would permanently stop the fic. XD So, I'll catch you guys later! Keep holding on...