Chapter 27: The History of Coding, Presented by Vin
Music: The Ballad of Mona Lisa by Panic! at the Disco
'A lonely speak in conversation
Her words are spinning through his ears again
There's nothing wrong with just a taste
Of what you paid for
Say what you mean, tell me I'm right
And let the sun rain down on me.
Give me a sign, I wanna believe
Mood: Punky
Disclaimer: Writers lie, just like your parents
The Blast Bots were big spider-like mechs that were shooting at Zoomers and buildings, making their way to the Underground Hideout. If we got too close to them, they would shoot their proximity lasers at us, zapping anything that was moving.
It took quite a few shots to get the mechs to blow up. Jak used his Vulcan Rifle to shoot at them, waiting until the thing started beeping to stop. It gave about a three second warning before exploding in a deadly blast, taking out anything around it.
We stayed in a Zoomer, me driving again, chasing them down as they tried to get to the Underground Hideout. All three had zoned into the Hideout's coordinates, making a straight line to the place, not stopping, each coming from different parts of the city.
I found the first one in Sector 3, by the Power Station, and we chased it down, not getting to close, Jak shooting at it to make it blow up. Shooting at it alerted the KGs who swarmed us, creating a bit of a hindrance.
The first one blew up, and conveniently blew up all the KGs that were surrounding us with its blast. I jumped out of the Zoomer and switched cars, Jak jumping in after me, and we took off again.
The second mech was just entering the Slums via the Water Slums, getting dangerously close to the Hideout. It kept walking, even while it was being shot at, making its way towards the Underground. We almost didn't get to it in time, the KGs ' Zoomers and Hellkats crashing into us and making us have to stop for a second.
It had almost lasted the last corner to get to the alleyway when we finally blew it up. I think we all let out a deep sigh before continuing on the find the last one.
The last Blaster Bot was near the edge of Sector 5, not that close, but still uncomfortably so. Jak shot at it, and it started beeping, and I almost didn't pull the Zoomer away fast enough, and we just barely made it out of the blast.
"Remind me why I let you drive?" Jak asked dryly, looking at me with an arched brow.
I smirked sheepishly, turning the Zoomer to the Port, where the Weapon Training Centre was flashing, telling us there was something there.
We arrived, crashing the Zoomer and walking inside to see a brilliant glowing yellow light over a box. I bit my lip excitedly; I loved new Weapon Mods.
Turned out it wasn't a Weapon Mod, but a new Weapon Attachment. "All right!" Daxter exclaimed when Jak hooked his onto the Morph Gun. "Our own Peace Maker1 Now we're rockin'!"
I examined the new arrows and bow; they were sharper with some sort of residue on the end. They looked almost electrified… Now that I looked at it, the string of the bow looked different too, made of a different material. I dragged the arrow along the string, and sure enough, it sparked.
Cool. Explosions.
No one wanted either of us as their hired gun at the moment, so we made our way to the Hip Hop to spend some time with Tess and Katie.
"Hey! Back to work toots. Both of you!" Krew said, showing up. It made me wonder where he came from, and how he fit through his door.
"They're working beach ball! Quit your yappin'." Daxter protested, still lying down where Tess was petting him. Both Tess and Katie widened their eyes, Katie shaking her head at Daxter, trying to get him to shut up.
"Watch it!" The fatman threatened, wagging a stubby finger at Daxter. "Or you'll be yet another trophy hung on these walls."
Daxter keeled over backwards as Krew flew away, and Tess started fanning his face with her hand. I smirked at him.
"Jak," Krew started again, turning around so we couldn't see his face. "I want you to throw the championship race. Just let Erol win..." He fanned his face. Wait... What the hell?
"You bet against us?!" Jak asked disbelievingly.
"We're your team!" I stood up next to Jak.
"Jak... Jak..." Krew said faux-fondly, fanning his face, flying down, completely ignoring me. "It's just business." He said it like it was the simplest thing in the world. "You've become a symbol to these townies. They'll bet everything on a glimmer of hope." And there hatches his devious little plan; play on the towns people's hope. What a scumbag. "What better time to make money? Waddaya say?"
"What? No!" I protested, crossing my arms, staring at the slimebag incredulously. How could he actually expect us to just throw the race?
"I'd say you're going to lose a lot of money." Jak said disdainfully, turning back towards Katie and Tess. "Because we're going to race," He turned around, smirking darkly at Krew, "and I intend to win!"
"Aggghh!" Krew cried out in angry distress, flying to the ceiling. "You little... You're both becoming more trouble than you're worth!" He flew back down, shoving his face between Jak's and mine. "I wouldn't get too comfy, if I was you! Everyone's expendable!" The fatman sneered. I laughed loudly and mockingly as Krew flew away, turning back to face the wall and see Daxter faint again. We were the least expendable people out there.
"In a hurry to die?" Erol asked, cutting off whatever Jak had just turned to say. I froze in surprise, I hadn't seen him enter, but quickly regained my composure, putting back on my 'calm and collected yet still angry at the world' mask. "Well, we don't have to wait for the big race! We can do this right now! One on one," He poked Jak in the chest, looking at me pointedly before continuing. "through the city, using accelerator rings. Hit every ring from start to finish. Miss even one ring, and it's over! Keira already thinks you're a loser, and I'll prove it now, once and for all." He put his fist up in front of Jak's face.
"You're on." Jak growled, smacking Erol's fist out of the way.
"Without the girl," Erol responded as I began to follow, narrowing his eyes in disdain. I blinked. Jak raised his eyebrow, coking his head a little to the side. I twitched my nose and nodded a little.
They both made their way outside, Daxter chasing after Jak. Sure. He gets to go.
I needed to do something to distract myself. Tess and Katie both tried to talk to me, but at my obvious ignoring of them, they had stopped and walked back to the bar.
I flipped open the mini map, looking for something to do, already feelingthat 'Jak isn't here, now you're angry' feeling start to flood my being. I pushed it back, building a dam in my mind around the thoughts I didn't want.
"Jak?! Maddy?! Someone! The communicator popped up, transmitting Vin's hyper-paranoid voice. "I need one or both of you. Come see me at the Power Station. And hurry!" Perfect. Vin was a good distraction.
I headed over to the Power Station to see Vin bouncing around checking stats on the computers.
Hey Vin," I greeted walking in.
"I've got good news and bad news." The scientist started, not even noticing that it was just me. "The good news is Kor tells me that we've got enough power on-line to keep the shield walls up. So for now, the city's safe. But I don't know how long the system can hold!" He stopped puttering and turned to look at me, grabbing his face in distress.
"And the bad news?" I asked, cocking my head to the side and scanning the symbols and coding on the screen. There was something wrong with Vin's equation on the shield wall.
"We've detected a cluster of Metal Head eggs growing up at the Strip Mine site." He got on his elevator, flying up to the top most screen, scanning the equations there. "Now, you've got to go back there and find a way to destroy those eggs before they turn into a whole new army of creatures." He pointed to one particular section. I read it quickly as he talked. It was a tracker for the Strip Mine, signaling the new creatures.
"Well," I began, thinking back to the times we had been there. "I noticed the crane was carrying a large metal container. If I could jump onto the container, we could drop the crate from above." I mused thoughtfully.
"That just may work!" Vin exclaimed.
I headed towards to Warp Gate, stopping and turning back around and walking towards Vin. "Hang on…" I looked at the screen, watching as the symbols shifted to give an update on the Shield Wall's security.
Vin stood next to me nervously, watching as I flicked my fingers back and forth, typing in commands and moving things around. "Uh…" He stuttered.
"Gimme a second." I said distractedly, holding a hand up as I walked to a different screen and changed the programming there.
"Can you not do that?!" Vin asked frantically, watching me type. "You don't know how the wall works!"
"Vin!" I stopped him, grabbing his wrist, dragging him over to the elevator. I directed it up to the main monitor of the shield's stats. "Look." I demanded, flipping through the Sections, arriving at the coding for a small section in the back of Sector 3. I ran my fingers under the breach in coding, the small hole in the fabric of the shield that anything could get through. "There's a hole."
Vin's eyes widened in panic, completely forgetting about me as he flew back to the bottom of the room, running about, changing coding and rearranging the pieces of the shield.
I followed around near him, changing other bits to make things more secure, and to get the shield to stretch over the uncovered bit. Now that I thought about it, I didn't know how I knew how to write the coding for the shield, I just did.
I ran to another computer across the room, hacking into the search history, looking for who may have been the one the breach it, but even after my extensive search, I couldn't find anyone of that much suspicion. I only found the Palace Guards, Vin, and Kor. Of course I suspected Kor, but I wrote that off to paranoia. It must have been a fluke. None of the others would organize a breach.
"Woo!" Vin said, finally stopping behind me. "That was a close one!" He looked over my shoulder, and I stepped out of the way.
"I can't find anyone but you, the Guards, and Kor." I told him as he searched too, still coming up empty handed. I noticed that Vin was significantly less sketchy while working on computers, his fingers surprisingly steady, his whole mind set on the task.
That's what I had been doing, distracting myself with the coding, and that's what I planned to keep doing until Jak came back.
"I just don't get it," Vin said, looking back at me. "I know I didn't let the breach. Who else could have done it?!" He ran back to another computer. I followed behind him watching him as he searched the shield walls for more breaches.
I took his hint and went to the computer besides him, letting my fingers slide over the monitor, reading through the lines of code to detect other breaches that may be there. Since there was one, there might be another.
I found it strange that Vin hadn't asked about how I knew how to code and read script, but I brushed it off, wandering around the room, lining codes and trying to avoid colliding with Vin while running around the room.
"You know Sylence invented all of this," Vin told me from his spot across the room, not even looking up while talking. "It's fabled that she invented this form of coding." He gestured to the computers around him, still facing the computer. "She and Mar invented and wrote every line of script in this room." He finally looked at me. "That's pretty amazing." He looked at me. "Now, the question is, how can you do it?" I froze, looking at him half my mouth pulled down. I honestly didn't know. I opened my mouth to tell him that, but he started talking again before I could get a word out. "Since the two founders invented the code, no one found it necessary to check the stats of the Shields, and even when they did, no one knew what it was saying. It's like a hidden language." He paused looking at me, hid fingers still typing on the keys. "I'm the only one that can read and write it. I cracked the code, and I thought I was the only one to know it."
I stopped typing, adjusting the Eco levels on the grid by Sector 1. "Here's the thing, Vin." I started, pushing a hand through my hair. "I don't know." He looked at me. "I don't know how I know." I clarified. "I just kind of… do." I became frustrated by my lack of words. "I just… I looked at your codes, and I realized that something was wrong… I, like, instinctively knew what was wrong and how to fix it." I paused, grimacing. "Do you get what I mean?"
"No…" Vin fluttered his hands around him frantically. "But I'll take it. You remind me of someone. Something is telling me you're telling the truth."
He turned back to his computer without another word, and I did the same.
And that's the very same position Jak found us in when he finally came back.
A/N: Aww cute Maddy/Vin bonding, hint at secret identities, all that. God it's a total bummer that Vin dies.
P.S. Sorry for not posting dudes. I totally thought I did last night, but I guess I just uploaded the document and didn't post it. My baddddd.
xMonster