The Colorful Hacker
Like other residents of Den City, Maddy experimented with some changes during the past 10 years, but unlike others, she didn't have a good experience.
It all started when she tried to become a professional Net Battler, a personal dream of hers that was left behind after she became part of the now defunct evil organization known as World Three. Surprisingly, Maddy had a good start and felt happy with the outcome of each battle, where she would be the winner most of the time. But after trying to compete with more people inside the professional cycle of Net Battlers, Maddy would lose most of the time and it would be a surprise if she won a battle.
Unlike other times, where she simply didn't care much about losing, she felt hurt, thinking that she wasn't good enough even though she tried her best. With no luck in the professional cycle, Maddy had no other choice but to go to the undergrounds, a place where Net Battlers would compete in more "illegal" kinds of tournaments.
The change wasn't that big, with Maddy usually winning three out of ten battles, but she felt better in that place. After a final battle that happened during a losing streak, Maddy got hit with the worst moment in her life. Her opponent and his NetNavi were powerful and even after winning, they weren't satisfied. The only thing that would make them happy was to delete the NetNavi of Maddy: WackoMan EXE.
She tried to log him out, but she was stopped by the fellow gang members of her opponent. Maddy could only see in pain, as her dear friend was deleted by her opponent. Finally feeling satisfied, the gang leader logged out and told his subordinates to let Maddy go. She felt sad, guilty about not doing enough to save her friend and in the end she felt alone for the first time in her life.
Soon, people around the city discovered what happened, some tried to help while others decided to not bother her, knowing pretty well that she was still coping with what happened to . After thinking about it for some time, Maddy decided to disappear for a year, going out of the city and finding a way to heal herself. Even her closest friends, who were also former members of World Three, tried to reasonize with her, but all of them understood her reasons and hoped for the best for her.
At first, her trip had far from a pleasant start, each night Maddy would wake up from a nightmare related to that bad event, making her feel more guilty and sad about it. She even stopped sending cards to her friends after a couple of weeks, explaining in her latest one that she needed to take time alone, even if that means taking a break from talking with them, which they understood the reason for.
While each of them continued with their life, hoping that their friend was fine. Everything changed once they received a visitor. "I can see that this place hasn't changed that much." They could hear a feminine voice, someone who sounded familiar. Looking at the door, the three were surprised to see that Maddy fulfilled her promise of coming back after exactly a year.
At first, neither of them could recognize her. Before her trip started, Maddy used an orange and white shirt, a dark red long shirt under that, blue jeans and long colorful socks. She also had her hair tied in big fluffy bunches at the side of her. While she still continued using the orange and white shirt, she instead used black pants and a balck letter jacket, but the thing that stood out the most was her hair, which was now short and spiky, giving her a punk girl-type of appearance.
Even if she didn't look the same, the three were happy to see Maddy again after so long. After getting to know what the three have been doing in her absence, it was her turn to explain her sudden change and what she was up to during her trip.
During the first 6 months, she visited all kinds of places around Electopia, but when there was no other thing to see there, Maddy decided that she would take the opportunity to travel to another country if it was present to herself. A few days after that, the orange-haired woman heard about a group that was going to travel to Neotopia and needed someone to help them with a secret job that would pay well.
Seeing it as an opportunity, Maddy searched for the place where the group was reuniting, which was a building close to the docks. After meeting the leader of the group that went by the code "Kaiser", he asked her if she was interested in the job, and while it was still a mystery Maddy mentioned that she was interested in the job. Kaiser welcomed her into the group and told her that they were going to travel tomorrow to Neotopia.
Once Maddy, Kaiser and the rest of the members of the "Eindringling'' group, the name of the organization, arrived at Neotopia they started executing their plan. The only one without a role was Maddy, who was waiting for Kaiser to give her the instructions. Once he received the signal, Kaiser went with Maddy and revealed their intentions: They were hackers and planned to steal data related to some rare chips from an important company.
Being no stranger to this kind of job, Maddy kept listening to the plan and waited for Kaiser to give her a role. The task was simple enough, she just needed to pose as an executive for a company so the people in charge wouldn't notice the hackers. After putting on the disguise, which was a corporate suit, Maddy asked to reunite with the owners of the company until Kaiser told her to leave the place.
Not only was the job a success, but it also made Maddy feel motivated for the first time in months. She thanked Kaiser and then revealed the story behind her trip. Being touched by the story, thanks to also seeing his NetNavi being deleted years ago, Kaiser offered any kind of assistance to Maddy and also the opportunity to go with them with more jobs.
For the next couple of months, Maddy continued acting like someone important to distract other people in charge of certain companies. Apart from her duty as the actress of the group, she also started to learn how to hack the Net and the security of other companies. In a couple of months, the orange-haired woman went from being the newest member to one of the most important members of the group.
After months in the group, Maddy went to talk with Kaiser and revealed that she needed to leave the group and come back to Net City. He understood her reasons, being aware of the promise she made a year ago. Kaiser and the other members of Eindringling thanked Maddy for the help and wished her the best before going back to her hometown.
It was an unbelievable story for a number of reasons, from the way Maddy found the group to how she changed in terms of her new appearance to her calm attitude. But even with those changes, they were happy to see that Maddy was fine and hoped to have a momento to know more details about her trip. Before any of them could say anything, Maddy revealed that she had a job and just wanted to see her friends before going with her first task in the city.
Before she left the establishment, the orange-haired woman gave each friend a gift: rare battle chips for them to keep or sell. All of them appreciated the gift and all was thanks to Maddy wanting to give something nice to her friends before starting her first official job.
Starting from that day, Maddy became known as the "colorful hacker", mostly because her signature was the old badge of WackoMan EXE. Her first few jobs were simple things, getting information related to certain people. With time, she got more jobs that were a bit more…exciting. From hacking the security system of a mansion to even change some information that talked about certain people.
She liked her new job, loving everything about it, being the only bad thing that she couldn't share her success with WackoMan, but Maddy was aware that he would be proud of her for getting this far. After a calm day, one of the few days where she would visit her three friends, Maddy was ready to sleep and get prepared for the new jobs of tomorrow. While looking at some old pictures, she got a message, one that stood out for a number of reasons.
"Dear Ms. Madd, the reason for this sudden message is related to a special project I've been working on and I need your help. I've been told that you are one of the best hackers of the city and this task needs someone like you. If you decide to accept the job, I'll pass you the coordinates where to go and later we'll discuss your task. And just so you can trust in me, reply back and accept to work with me, you will receive the first half of your pay up front. Anyways, hope I'm not interrupting something or making you waste time, Ms. Madd. See you later, or not.
-From your dear client…
"Strange…no one called me like that in years," Maddy said, surprised by the first part of the message. It sounded like an interesting job, like the ones she usually enjoyed, but she wanted to see if this client was serious about the proposal. When she accepted the job, the pretty woman was surprised to see that the first part of her payment was sent, meaning that her client was telling the truth. The two continued talking about their job until the client sent her the coordinates of the place that Maddy needed to go.
The next day, early in the morning, Maddy went to the place that her client told her to go. She wasn't strange to go to an abandoned building, most of her clients usually wanted to meet her in places where people wouldn't see them. "Something tells me that my client is coming to town," Maddy said after arriving at the abandoned clinic that was close to the airport. It either meant that or that her client used to be in the field of medicine. Just moments after she turned on her computer, the orange-haired woman received another message from her client.
"Dear Ms. Madd, I see that you finally arrived at the place. Now I think we could start with this little work of ours. I will send you a code to enter a secret page on the Net. While trying to crack it, I recommend you put your headphones on, just in case someone notices you, the sound you would be hearing will help you. Do a good job and I promise you nothing but good things for you.
-Sign, your favorite client."
A strange request, and even a strangest message, but nonetheless, Maddy followed the instructions and put her headphones on while waiting for the code. When she received a message with the code, Maddy quickly started to see what kind of page on the net was. Unlike other times, where there were some ideas related to the code or net, she couldn't deduce what it was. It couldn't be a government file since it was too easy to enter but also wasn't as simple as an open to the public page.
After 20 minutes, the orange-haired woman finally found a way to enter the private net. At first, she felt victorious, her status as the best hacker in the city remained and she just needed to see what was there so she could receive the other half of her payment, sadly, things weren't going well. Each time Maddy tried hacking the files or looking for information, the only thing that apparead was the same image of a green and black spiral.
At first Maddy took it as a joke, but she grew tired of it when it became all the information she was finding. At one point, she even was thinking of asking what was the information to her client, but seeing that she left a message with the words "I'm busy now, I can't be disturbed." From the random spiral images she was looking at using her headphones even though she couldn't hear any sound, Maddy became annoyed by the job.
She hoped that the last file she had to look at had something special, but instead she found the same green spiral, this time being a video instead of an image. "Well, this was a waste of time." She said in an annoyed tone, being the only thing that was good about that job was the payment. Before she could think on what to do for the rest of the day, Maddy tried to take off the headphones, but after trying holding them she couldn't take them off.
She tried for a while, feeling confused about what was happening. Maddy tried to remain calm at first, thinking of another solution: disconnecting the headphones from her main PET, but when she tried the results were the same. "What 's happening?" She thought out loud while still trying to remain calm.
What really happened was related to a new kind of hypnotic induction that went by the name of "silent sound". Anyone who would listen to it would have problems doing some actions, especially taking off headphones. Maddy had no idea about it, instead she wondered if it was related to an image she saw.
While she tried to do that, the video of the green spiral kept appearing. Maddy tried closing it but it just kept coming back, so she had to crack the codes without looking, making things more difficult. Maddy tried to concentrate, but the spiral looked so…pretty. Each time she checked the codes, the orange-haired woman would continue to see the spiral for a millisecond, which made her feel so relaxed and calm.
Maddy couldn't describe how she felt, it was similar to being drunk but also she felt awake and was something unique, but also very distracting. In the past she normally wouldn't pay attention to her work, but with her new mindset the idea of not being serious with her craft was something that would never cross her mind.
After trying for a couple of minutes, Maddy became more distracted by the spiral, it was so pretty, so hypnotic. From the nice combination that the black and neon green had to the slow movement that gave her enough time to appreciate it. The whole thing was an internal battle between trying to get out of that site or just give up and look at the spirals.
"I…I…I need to…"Struggling with what she wanted to say, Maddy did her best to keep her posture. Her hands started shaking and she couldn't type the codes correctly, needing to hold one hand while using the other to type. She still couldn't understand what was happening, but she was aware that if she let her guard down something bad would happen to her.
Before pressing the final number of the code, Maddy noticed a message on the screen that simply said :"want a solution for this? put this code and everything will be under control." Her mind was still awake, even if she had problems with what to do, say or think the orange-haired woman was still aware of what was happening.
Seeing it as an opportunity to end this, Maddy typed the code, waiting for it to end all her problems. Sadly, it was a trap, not only did the video of the spiral take up all the space of her screen, but also she started to hear music.
"Wh…what?!" Maddy said out loud, taken by surprise by the sudden change of view. She couldn't type a code to stop it, the black and green spiral kept delighting her with their shiny colors and nice movement. The longer she looked at it, the least she wanted to look away. The whole situation was an internal battle, and she was losing, and things would only get worse after this.
"Don't be disrespectful and keep looking at the spiral."
"See the pretty colors, let them take you."
"You love seeing the spiral."
Maddy could hear a feminine voice, someone who sounded dominant and strong yet at the same time nice and loving, and for some reason someone who she wanted to listen to. The struggle kept growing stronger, as the hacker had a hard time remaining awake. She started to listen, loving the two colors she was looking at.
While she loved the colors, the idea that she didn't like was letting it take over her. Maddy had some harsh moments in the last years, but not once did she let anyone take control over her mind and her decisions. It simply wasn't a thing the orange-haired woman would do and wasn't planning on starting. Trying a last effort, Maddy tried looking away, all while shaking uncontrollably.
"Oh, no, no, no, dear. That's not a nice thing."
"I came here to help you, and I don't like that you want to look away."
"Don't you want me to help you?"
As she started to feel dazed, the question made Maddy think more about the effect on the spirals and what she wanted. After getting help from Kaiser and the other hackers, Maddy became more open to other people wanting to help her instead of turning it down, but this wasn't like that. She was losing self-control, having more issues with her own thoughts and actions.
"N…No…" Once again, Maddy struggled with her words, as her eyes locked themselves into the view of the hypnotic spiral. She didn't have the energy or motivation to move away, as the pretty colors she was seeing and the nice music she was hearing started to take over her. It was a matter of time before Maddy would submit to the power of the hypnotic spiral.
Soon, the same black and green spiral covered her eyes, making her feel more dazed and calm. The task of looking away or even thinking of anything else that wasn't the hypnotic spiral was none existent, as Maddy remained quiet, letting the view and music take over her. The only thing that kept her from submitting was the memory of .
While it was still a bad thing to remember, the main reason why Maddy didn't forget it was because it helped her continue with her life. Each time she would feel down or find herself in a difficult situation she would think about her friend, motivating her to continue and to not give up.
Surprisingly, the idea started to help her, as Maddy had the strength to look away from the screen for the first time in a while. It looked like progress, but in reality it was a small thing, she was still in an internal battle between submitting or trying to remain strong. Even after looking away, some seconds later she went back to wanting to see the screen.
The sound of the music started to decrease and the spiral became paler, showing grays and a lime kind of green instead of the bright tones it had before. It looked like Maddy was starting to regain control over herself and that the hypnotic screen powers were decreasing, but in reality everything was a trick so that she would be more docil and to make her submit faster.
"I don't know why you are looking away. All we wanted to do was help you. Don't you want to forget all the problems, all the bad memories that have been haunting you?" Making more emphasis on the last part, Maddy was left in shock after hearing those words. The reason she started her trip, the one that helped her with the problems and turned her into a hacker, was to help her feel better. Even after that, while it looked like she was fine, there were moments where Maddy would fall down into memory lane and find herself with those nightmares.
One main reason why she didn't want to forget those things was related to WackoMan. EXE. It was a bad memory, Maddy was aware that each time she remembered that moment she would feel bad, but also it was the last time she was with her friend. In a way, the reason she didn't forget it was related to him, and she hoped to see it as a normal memory, a thing from the past, but it was more difficult than she expected.
The fact that this mysterious voice wanted to help her in some way, plus the calm sensation she was feeling, made her wonder if maybe she was telling the truth. "It is fine, be quiet while the spirals and sound take over you." As she heard the voice again, Maddy looked at the screen, with the pale colors turning bright again and the sound getting louder and louder.
Locking her eyes on the screen one last time, the orange-haired woman stayed quiet, while letting the flow of the spirals do their thing, all while she had all those good ideas in her mind. Like she heard, listening and letting herself be helped by the voice and the spirals was the right thing.
"This is good, you love it and wouldn't take anything else."
"You love this feeling, it makes you feel relaxed."
"Submit, and more will come."
At that point Maddy was completely lost in the deep state of trance. The voice was right, she loved the spirals, she didnt liked anything else and if submitting meant getting more of that nice feeling then she was ready to submit, to become a slave, a mindless puppet with no other things in her mind than to obey her mistress.
With the new mindset, Maddy smiled, showing a signal of submission to her new mistress. She was grateful for what she received, the pretty image of the spirals and the nice feeling that took over her, she hoped for more and couldn't wait to see what would happen next.
After submitting to the spirals, the video stopped and her computer turned off. While it was a surprise, the orange-haired woman remained quiet, keeping her posture and smile as she was aware that everything was related to the one that had control over her. The silence that was around the place was interrupted by the sound of a call on her PET. Looking at it, Maddy could see it was her client, who was now the one in control. Not wanting to be disrespectful, the orange-haired woman took her headphones off and answered the call.
"By answering this call I know you became my pretty little slave, my own personal hacker. First of all, congratulations and welcome to the team." Hearing the words from her mistress, Maddy felt honored, privileged to have that title. This was better than money, far superior from any material thing.
She started to get ideas about her future, about what kind of things this nice woman would make her do, and she, as a slave, would follow any command. It wouldn't matter how ridiculous or harsh it would be, she would do it for her mistress.
"You and I will have a lot of fun, but before that happens, I need to meet face to face with my second in command, that being you. Put all your equipment in your bag and meet me in zone H of the airport. And don't forget to put the dark glasses I told you to bring with you. I don't think we should…show everyone your pretty eyes, those are just for me. Understood?" The mysterious woman commanded.
Maddy put on the dark glasses she always had with her before replying with a soft "Yes, mistress…" She was ready to obey, to follow more of her commands and to show how loyal she was to this mysterious woman, whom she still hadn't seen in person. Maddy picked up her stuff and went out to the abandoned building, starting to go on route to the airport.
In the last couple of years, Maddy had a lot of changes. Some affected her in a negative way while others helped her. She believed that being a hacker was her true call, but after her encounter with the spirals and her mistress, the orange-haired woman was aware of the perfect role for her: a loyal slave.
And she hoped to do a good job for her mistress.