Trix placed his goggles onto the desk, resting his eyes for a bit. The code was quite the unbreakable one- if Crystal goes to sleep without finishing it, that means it was beyond tough. He blinked, trying to adjust to the colors that were other than orange. He sighed, feeling the weariness set in. He ought to go take a break too, play a couple rounds of Halo or something if not sleep, but he didn't want to wake up Crystal just yet. She was a budding insomniac and worked herself to death. And when she did sleep, it was not peaceful.
He briefly wondered how Bastard was doing. Probably getting himself fat and driving himself up the wall, barking at Near. Mello and Near. Two polar opposites- it was incredibly entertaining to watch them bickering. While he 'Matt', he would often barge in on Mello's arguments with the albino and tell him to get a room. Even though it lead to a good three hours of hiding inside mossy hollowed logs infested with spider to evade the wrath of the vengeful blonde, it was so worth it.
He didn't know exactly when he would go back to the Wammy house, or if. He had a place here with like-minded people. People who wanted to help the world in their own way, even though it wasn't entirely legal. But then again, Matt, or Trix, knew that legality wasn't all that it was cut out to be.
Growing up to be one of L's successors, groomed to be a faceless puppet for a man he's never met was undeniably illegal. And the world needed people like L. But he didn't want to wait until the man died to make a difference. He'd do it his own way. And with Crystal and the others, he was doing it.
Trix got out a fag and lit it up, taking a slow deep drag as a method of quick relaxation. Being part of the Robin Hood Code was a bit of an honor. That was what they called themselves at least amongst themselves. Only the six of them knew their true intents and goals. The rest of the world, the police and criminals in the deep web alike, knew them as Faceless, a group of elite black hats who did any dirty deed given the right price.
It was true in a sense. Faceless does do the crime. A client asks them to steal money from a bank, they do that. But the six of them also double cross in incredibly subtle ways that makes the client think that he outed himself. Digital breadcrumbs laid out for the police to follow.
He didn't have a problem with hacking banks. They were notorious organizations themselves- a bit like bloodhounds on the hunt once they find the balance was due yesterday. They don't care who they hurt as long as they get what they want.
They system they had was pretty neat, Trix had to admit. He let out the smoke.
Crystal began this. She had built up quite a reputation as a black hat in the deep web. ScarletWIDOW was her username and it had other black hats on their knees, bowing whenever that name appeared in a line of code. When Trix joined, she confessed to all of them that all the atrocities that ScarletWIDOW was presumed to have done were, in fact, done.
He didn't know how to feel about that at the beginning, but his logic told him that it was the only possible way. It was for the greater good. Also, not to mention that it was a testament to her skill with a computer. The woman took forty million dollars from Citibank to prove that it can be done. She revealed to him that it was in a remote server in the Caymans, donating three million dollars a year spread among various charity organizations. If anyone bothered tracing it all back, they would find that a wealthy French doctor, Guillaume de Villiers was the donor. He enjoys yachting and windsurfing in his spare time.
The level of detail paid to the non-existent man's alias impressed him. Fake webpages, data in real webpages, even the Times' list of most influential men at one point. The works.
Last year, she deemed her dream team complete and they had a celebration. Just for kicks, the woman hacked into the highway signs on the freeways and got them to read "Zombies Ahead," and "Will Work for Brains." It took her twenty minutes to write and execute the program. Needless to say, everyone saw why she was number one.
It was difficult for white hats to live under the guise of black hats. It was sometimes depressing to know that the organization he worked for was the 'blame' for so many heists and unlawful stuff. It was why they had two names. Robin Hood Code always reminded them that they were the good guys.
Matt/Trix took another drag, both loving and hating the burn of the smoke down his throat.
Their plan was easy enough to understand. Though not as easy to execute.
First, their reputation as the best of the best in the digital underworld lure criminals who don't want to get their hands dirty. They give the Faceless a task and then offer them payment.
Second, they actually do the act. Whether it be a heist or sadly, the occasional stealing of state secrets, they are obliged to do it. The most convincing act is based on the truth. Clients ask for details that only a hacker who had done the deed would know, and to lie convincingly, the truth must be known. Vital details are altered and if necessary, geotags are changed. Either way, all is done to ensure innocents don't get caught in our gambits.
Thirdly, the breadcrumbs are laid. For each scenario, digital fingerprints are placed in ways so that it can be seen by the police. When and how these breadcrumbs are laid depends on the case itself. If it involves sensitive information that threatens the security of the general public, Crystal lays them out right away. Luckily, those projects are usually high risk for the clients themselves- most of them are terrorists. Their plans are necessarily convoluted, leading to paranoia and insecurity. They exploit that, laying the trap so that they think that they made a mistake and the police got them. Of course some suspicion is transferred to the Faceless but thanks to their notoriety, that notion vanishes given time.
Sadly, for that very reason, not every case can be handed over on a silver platter to the police. If their requests are less serious- say two million dollars from an NGO- even though it is morally deplorable, they couldn't turn them in, seeing as it was an easy job. A trail is laid, but after a few years. Sometimes even ten years later. And they are hacked and caught for something completely irrelevant to the task they had Faceless do.
They also interfered with the projects of other cyber terrorist groups and hacker networks. Like Anonymous and Cult of the Dead Cow. A terrible risk, but a necessary risk. Faceless had to be on top, and also divert suspicion.
Fourthly, their payment is accepted. Blood money it maybe, but it was necessary. Ironically the terrorists funded the people fighting against them.
Trix puffed out another cloud. He knew the risks, but he did admire the cause. He'd stick with them until the end. If the police questioned their methods, he could rightly laugh in their face. Pot calling the kettle black and all. He saw their group as a bunch of cyber superheroes- working against the law, yet getting the job done.
He mindlessly cleaned his goggles, fingers itching to curl themselves around a PS4 controller and shoot some zombies through the skull.
"Yo. Trix. You working or what? I can go wake Cris up if you wanna get some shuteye."
His head jerked up to see who was talking to him. Blinking, he saw Pearce's quizzical face and relaxed. She was closest to his age- eighteen. Crystal was not much older- twenty. And that shocked him when he first saw her.
He caught her hacking into L's network that he had designed. At first, he thought that it was a system bug- no one should be able to find the backdoor so easily. Besides, it was new- the program was less than a year old. It would take even an experienced hacker two years at least. But she did it. And through the online game he was playing.
He confronted her. But Goggleyedfreak76's avatar certainly did not expect ScarletWIDOW's avatar revealing herself to him. At that moment, he set up a private chat box link and she asked for him to join the team. He was skeptical, but after she requested only altered information, he knew at heart that she was sincere about not being a cyber-terrorist.
He however did as she asked, without L's permission either, double and triple checking that he gave away absolutely no data. L was the world's best kept secret. After a few months of suspicious pondering, he agreed to her offer. And it was the best thing he had ever done- a risk that truly paid off. She even helped him perfect L's security- it was now almost impenetrable. Sealed.
When he first entered their base in Sydney, Australia, he was- least to say- surprised. He expected a man in his late thirties or so. Hackers tended to choose their opposite genders in their screen names- 'widow' indicated a female screen name. He did not expect a girl a little older than he was, given the near-decade she had been active.
Everyone was young. The oldest was Romeo- just turned thirty. Pearce was the youngest. Speaking of. Said girl was still staring at him.
"Oh. Um, no thanks P. I'm good for now. Don't wake Crystal. She needs her rest."
The girl nodded and turned back to her screen. Trix put down his now glowing cigarette stub into the ashtray and turned back to his screen. He typed less than three words into his program, when a resounding scream came from the rec room.
"AAAARRRRRHHH!"
Matt/Trix looked up, as did everyone else. Other than the startling feeling of a loud sound in a relatively quiet place, no one looked very surprised. Crystal was having a nightmare. And everyone had enough experience to know not to go near her and comfort her when she woke up. She didn't deal well with vulnerability. She was only approachable when she came out of the room on her own accord.
Trix was quite worried about her, but still didn't do anything. Everyone had their own past, secrets and personal demons. Crystal just coped with hers in a different way he did. The only way to help her was to give her the space to deal with them.