Hi! I hope you are doing well with the virus and everything; you know, being in the italian quarantine quite sucks, but i'm also doing well!
So, here's a "7.5" chapter, because it's shorter than usual, but introduces a future character which we all know quite well. I've also decided to add a new whole set of characters, places and relationship starting by chapter 9-10.
I'd also like you to give me an opinion about the story, the characters, the relationship and everything else! I'll be very happy to respond you and talks about it, so i can improve myself!
Now, good luck for your lives, treat yourself well, and enjoy!
SATURDAY 31 OCTOBER, 6.15 AM
The Halloween day began, where the macabre and horrifying things (and even diabetes) abounded everywhere. For two days the school had been decorated with pumpkins and themed festoons, as the usual fancy dress party would be held in the school gymnasium. Originality take me away.
At that moment, in Richard's room, it was not the alarm clock that rang, but the PC: as Richard was half asleep, hearing that illuminating sound, he immediately got out of bed and checked the screen:
SEARCH COMPLETE:
1 MATCHING FILE FOUND.
SERVER: NCP, New York, IP ADDRESS: [PORT 210].
"Yes...YES! YES! I FOUND IT! I FUCKING DID IT! I DID IT. I DID IT!"
At that moment it was as if a mix of cocaine and adrenaline was circulating wildly in his blood: those sleepless nights of work (costing almost the sacrifice of his friends, if you remember ...) had paid off! He had that file! The one that would turn everything around! Now the chance to re-imprison XANA in the supercomputer was much closer!
He had to give the news of the day: he got dressed in a hurry, and then swooped out of his room, headed for the cafeteria, where the rest of the gang had just arrived and taken their seats: at that moment most of the students were taken by surprise when they saw Richard piuombaread at high speed in the cafeteria, took the breakfast tray and sat down at his usual table.
Edward: "Hey, Richard, is everything okay? Is this by any chance a XANA attack?"
Syl: "Let him breathe, Edward."
Richard: "Guys... I managed to find the file that will allow us to lock XANA inside the supercomputer! We need to hack the server, but it shouldn't be a huge problem."
Maya: "What!? Are you serious?"
Richard: "That's right, princess of the tower! And make sure you warn your dad!"
Maya: "Copy that, big boss!"
Syl: "That's great, Richard!"
Edward: "Yeah. So, now that you can sleep better, are you thinking of joining the Halloween party?"
Richard: "...I don't know, I hadn't thought about it-" he said as he saw Syl and her serene gaze: he could see a mile away that she was happy that Richard could now be calmer; after all, his wanting to put the "salvation" of the world over his shoulders was costing him dearly that October 4.
"...what had I promised myself? Not to fuck up and leave her alone anymore, not again, not with her. I still don't know how I could define my relationship with Syl, but I can't do like I did last time. And deep down, I think one day without XANA and the stress he brings could be good for me, or at this rate, i'm gonna go crazy..."
Richard: "...Aye, why not? After all, XANA has attacked us quite a few times in the last two months, and I don't think he has the irony to unleash his "nightmares creatures" on the day dedicated to horror. So yeah, I'll be there tonight!"
Edward: "Great! Meeting at 6:00 p.m. under the backyard porch?"
Richard: "All right."
The quartet then split up, each to go to Saturday morning classes.
SWITZERLAND
It had not been easy to escape for 875 km, hunted both from DGSE and Green Phoenix agents, but, miraculously, she had made it.
Now she was in a much more comfortable accommodation than last time: a very discreet 3-4 star hotel, where no one could have gone to find her without giving her enough time to escape. At that precise moment the woman had got out of the shower and had almost finished dyeing her hair brown; without using any make-up or disguise she would have been recognized from at least a kilometer away. Also because her body, especially her face, had remained the same as it was 30-40 years ago.
Meanwhile, on the bed, the laptop was on, intent on performing an operation; it seemed about to go into standby, when at one point it made a sound and the screen began to return the information found:
SERVER: NCP, New York, IP ADDRESS: [PORT 210]
"Looks like it's time to get back to work."
Finished applying the dye and getting dressed, the woman came out of the bathroom and went to her laptop: she had found just the server she was looking for; inside, almost certainly, there were all the information she needed.
"Perfect. Before I break into the system, I'm gonna monitor the server for a while."
KADICK, MEN'S DORMITORY HALLWAY, 18.10
Edward: "Come on, Richard, will you hurry up, we're already late."
For ten minutes, waiting outside the door, there was Edward who, as the rule of the evening, here at the Kadick, was dressed in a theme:In particular, he had managed to get from the historical fencing group of the college an old and broken replica of a long sword, retouched with fake rust for the occasion; the clothing consisted instead of a fake chain mail (the cheap ones, in short), torn; the face was partially covered by a band that surrounded the forehead, colored with fake blood, at the sight quite "cartoonish". Let's face it, there were worse costumes.
And then Richard opened the door...or rather, the one who looked like Richard, since his costume was extremely convincing: the clothes were normal, i.e. jeans, a blue t-shirt with a Varsity Letterman jacket (American school model, to be precise) and a pair of Nike Airmax. However, everything looked terrifying, thanks to the wear and tear on the clothes, the boxing bandages worn on the hands, and the fake blood that was much more realistic; the face was something even more macabre: disheveled, dirty and with fake cuts (including a medical gauze on the cheek), and lots, lots of fake blood. Finally, to accompany it all, there was a baseball bat held in his right hand, and a rubber mask in the shape of a chicken.
Edward: "...You're gonna scare everybody..."
Richard: "Right, that's the idea, isn't it? Come on, let's go."
It didn't take long to reach the girls, as they were just lurking behind the men's dorm door. As soon as the Killer Rooster and the Undead Knight came out, they got a big jumpscare from the two girls of the quartet; or rather, Edward had been taken by surprise, while Richard had just turned around (actually, the scare kept him inside...). Turning around, both of them could see Maya and Syl in themed dresses; about: Maya was wearing a dark pink, short skirt dress, covered at the torso with a leather bodice... Ankle boots, fake pointy canines were sticking out of her mouth, and hornets were sticking out of her head, attached to a hairband. A little devil in pink...
Richard: Internet, prepare to receive waves of work from artists whose minds range from the brilliant to the incurable perverse.
On the other side there was Syl, who was relatively more sober: from the t-shirt she switched to a long-sleeved shirt, the latter "fishnets"; the skirt, short as usual, was a bit more elegant, with a big (albeit fake) lilac flower sewn on top. Finally, around the neck it had a black lace band. For the rest he wore the same boots, stockings, fingerless gloves and cap; the usual Syl.
Richard: ...shite, that's a foocken bonnie lassie... *...a thought/compliment in Scottish dialect.
Syl: "...what is it, Richard you've become a bleeding statue?" he said in a nice tone.
Richard: "wha-...nae, nothing."
Maya: "Well, let's go then, shall we?"
The quartet of secret saviors of the world then headed towards the gym, where the heart of the party was held; going out into the courtyard you could admire the people and their costumes, some well done, others decidedly mediocre. Or the fucking classics.
And look who's at a distance of about ten meters if not our NOT-dear and NOT-desired Jacqueline August and her lackeys/women in training. They were dressed like non-Goth trying to be Goth. Simply put, they were dressed like hookers in black. And shitty, too, at the thought of the group. Jacqueline & Co. took one look at Syl in the distance, ready to pull out a string of terms from slightly disparaging to extremely offensive; a pity for them that they were immediately silenced and frightened by Richard, who, using her costume, gave them a semi-psychopathic smile, as false as it was eloquent in meaning.
Finally they crossed the sports field and were in front of the gym, from which one could hear Velcro Fly by ZZ Top, a ball volume. Finally decent music...
Richard: "The Drums of the Gods. Have we just come to Lud?"
Edward and Maya, in chorus: "...Huh?"
Syl: "Mhh... "Wasteland" by King, right? "
Richard: "Aye, lassie, exactly."
Too bad, as usual, the phone gets the notification that ruins the whole evening...
Richard: "Jesus Shi***g Christ, is it ever poss-wait...it's not XANA...someone's hacking the fucking server!"
Maya: "What's going on?"
Edward: "An attack by XANA?"
Richard: "I'd quite prefer it was like that: I was able to put a bot to check the status of the server, and now someone is hacking it. And it's not XANA...
What are you guys standing here, come on!"
Heading to the factory now, the group would have no Halloween night...
SWITZERLAND
"Very well, hacking this server is easier than I thought. Now all I have to do is hack in and get that file..."
All those years of imprisonment, caused by the Carthage project, were about to be repaid...
She hadn't noticed that the third wheel had just arrived...
KADICK, GYM
By now PCs were also helping some of the DJs' work, especially at parties. And while Jeremy was there to help with the electronic equipment, Odd had taken the day off to help with the music. He missed the Kadick; and how could he not remember the giant teddy bear attack at the annual school dance?
And Einstein's phone rang, too, with a call from Maya.
Jeremy: "Hello Maya, is everything okay? I haven't seen you around."
Maya: "Dad, you have to run to the factory right away. Remember Richard's discovery, the one I told you about this morning?"
Jeremy: "Yes, of course; this isn't by any chance a XANA attack?"
Maya: "Unexpectedly no, actually someone else is trying to break into the server. And they probably want the same file."
Jeremy: "All right, I'll be right with you. Odd, to the factory: it's not about XANA, but it's just as important."
Odd: "Copy that, Einstein."
Even the adults wouldn't have enjoyed the evening.
FACTORY, LABORATORY
Richard "That bastard is still cracking a port to get into the server! I'm gonna try to intercept him now."
Edward: "Don't you risk getting caught?"
Maya: "I doubt, as long as he's not trying to hack the NCP server, he shouldn't be directly tracked down by anyone who can arrest us for cyber crime. At least, not right away."
At that moment Richard's priority was to block that hacker: the first was to find out more information about him; the IP address alone was not enough.
He was about to start a duel with keyboard and command lines.
SWITZERLAND
On a percentage scale, the cracking of the NPC server port was at 93%. During the operation, however, a brute force attempt by an unknown IP was reported .
"And who is this!? Let's get him out."
It begins the first exchange of command lines to prevent the second hacker from hacking into his laptop. The situation was stalling more and more, with every attack move he made, she was blocking him, and the cycle was repeating endlessly: they both weren't in front of an amateur. In the meantime the cracking of the port had reached 100%; the woman managed with one last command to break away from her opponent, and then immediately entered the NCP server.
FACTORY, LABORATORY
Jeremy: "How's it going?" He and Odd had been there five minutes, watching the hacking duel between Richard and the unknown hacker.
Richard: "Fuck, nae! He hacked into the server and cut me out! I can't waste time cracking a port, it would take too long. I have to think..."
Maya: "One moment Richard: I remind you that this is a quantum computer; tell me, how does XANA connect to our world?"
Richard: "With the towers, nae shite; and what i'm gonna have to-" At that moment he had a flash of lucidity in that shitty situation. "Is it possible for me to control the Towers?"
Jeremy: "Of course I do! I've used this trick several times against XANA."
Richard: "Great! If I can't crack a port normally, then we'll dig the server access ourselves. "
At that moment he feverishly typed the commands needed to activate a tower on Lyoko, using as a base the commands used by XANA (which remained, somewhat, in a log file.)...although he would not be limited to that...
NCP OFFICES, NEW YORK
At that moment everyone was there: technicians, secretaries and even the company director.
"Sir, someone broke into our server with an attack on port 210!"
"Stay calm. Even if he managed to get in, he'd have to decrypt the information he's looking for, and with our security measures it would take him a long time, unless he has a military computer, which he certainly doesn't. For now, just monitor him."
There was silence in that office: all the computer technicians' eyes were fixed on the monitors, ready to track the intruder at the most suitable time. They couldn't be fooled by one hacker, not the NCP.
"…"
"Sir, I think the server's down! 42... no 287... Good heavens!"
"What's going on!?"
"All our ports are being attacked by... more than 4582 dynamic IPs are reported attacking at the same time, all over the world! "
"WHAT!?"
SWITZERLAND
"What the-!? 5000 different IP's are attacking the server! No wait ... and they're changing all the time!"
Could that be the same person as before?
Download File: "85%".
With a quick keyboard stroke she started an automatic command: she had learned how to continue downloading from a server after leaving it safely. She had to download and protect the file at all costs!
FACTORY, LABORATORY
Richard: "FOUR ACTIVE TOWERS AND MILLIONS OF ATTACKS, UBER-MORONS!"
Jeremy: "That's great, Richard! You're smashing an entire server!"
Richard: "And that's not all! The attack automatically decrypts all files in the database! In this way I have removed all layers of security! We're in!
What!? The other hacker had managed to take the file and take it with him while he was still downloading it!?"
Jeremy: "Are you serious?! How are we going to do it, then!?"
Maya: "Richard, can you track the hacker on the Internet?"
Richard: "Yes, I should be able to do that, but let me leave a "Halloween candy" at NPC first..."
NCP OFFICES, NEW YORK
"We're not stopping all the attacks, there are too many of them! And they've already decrypted and taken a file from our secure database!"
"Is this a fucking joke!?" The warden had never been so angry and agitated in his entire career.
At that moment he started an electric shock from all the central computers: the smell of circuits and burnt plastic permeated the office air, all followed by a total blackout. The server, and the company's power grid, were gone...
"...Did anyone manage to see where in the world the attacks were concentrated!?". He was doing his best not to smash anything in front of him (blindly of course..).
"If I'm not mistaken, sir, I've noticed a peak of connections in Western Europe, particularly from France and adjacent countries."
"Very well... we must look for those bastards! I'll ask my "contacts" to perform the operation..."
The NCP had contacts in the DGSE and Green Phoenix; everything was connected by many, tiny wires and vectors that made up a large and complex image...
SWITZERLAND
Download:"97%...98...99%".
"Even if only by a hair's breadth, I did it! Now the file is in my hands!" As good as her opponent might have been, she had worked on Project Carthage; she was on another level.
Or maybe not?
..98%...94%..
"What the... NO!"
That hacker not only managed to find her, he was literally stealing her file!
At the same time thousands of screenshots and glitches were appearing on the screen: her computer was being fucked up; she was feverishly typing every command, every single way to keep the file and escape from this virtual vice...
87%...72%...45%..
"No, no, NO!" She couldn't stop that wave of attacks, all headed for his PC; it was like a digital tsunami...
0%
And then, the computer suddenly shut down.
"nghh... DAMMIT!"
FACTORY, LABORATORY
The door of the armored elevator opened in its usual noisy metallic clank; from five, nine had come back, as Aelita, Ulrich and Yumi arrived; Jeremy had thought well to call them and have them come to the factory: a sort of general meeting.
Aelita: "Jeremy, Maya, guys! Is everybody all right?"
Maya: "We're all in one piece!"
Ulrich: "You told us to come as soon as possible, what's going on?"
Jeremy: "You'll say it, Richard." There was pride in his voice.
Richard: "Oh, nothing happened. I just found and recovered the file that will allow us, at least in a major way, to re-trace XANA into the supercomputer!"
Yumi: "Really!?"
Aelita: "Are you saying we have a chance to erase XANA and Lyoko for good?"
Jeremy: "Yeah but there's a" but." "
Richard: "The file is decoded in a different and more complex version of Hoppix, the language used to write Lyoko, XANA and the supercomputer OS. So it's going to take quite a while before we can use it 100%, and we're also not totally sure about it."
Odd: "Estimated time?"
Maya: "Definitely more than two months, with the knowledge and resources we have."
Jeremy: "Yeah, it's a real nuisance!"
Ulrich: "Oh well, look on the bright side, at least we're a lot closer to ending this. After quite a lot of years."
Aelita: "That's right, we'll try our best!"
Syl: "Richard, did you get any information on that hacker?"
Yumi: "What hacker?"
Richard: "The one I competed with to get the file on the NCP server. *write various commands and check various system logs.
...There you go, I've got some data! First of all, his location: although not precise, seems to be in Switzerland, closer to the French border. Also, there have been network connections from the Czech Republic. However, the data are incomplete and contradictory: the current age is declared to be about 38 years old, but the date of birth is in 1958. The calculations do not add up. "
Maya: "It could have just corrupted the data, couldn't it?"
Richard: "Who knows...anyway, I can't figure out who else might want that file: it wasn't XANA, otherwise he would have attacked us directly and the towers would have been activated under his control; it could be the government, but I don't think it should go so far as to illegally enter an American server, and then steal a file that doesn't deal with military material or anything like that. So let's take out Green Phoenix for the time being, because they were in cahoots with the government in Project Carthage."
Edward: "Wait a minute: you said the hacker was also connected from the Czech Republic, right? Well, at the beginning of the month, on the news, there was news of a dangerous individual who had escaped from the Czech Republic! It could be him, right?"
Richard: Mh...possible...wait, more information has appeared! This person, since 1994, is affiliated with a certain...no, that's not possible!"
Jeremy: "What, Richard!?"
Richard: "...Affiliated with "Project: New Carthage". This could mean one thing: probably he knew the file was in a particular version of Hoppix; maybe our hacker was part of Project Carthage, aka Lyoko."
As they say in theatrical jargon, that silence was a real "Russian pause". Not for the mind of Aelita, who was immersed in chaos, thanks to one number:1994. Someone had disappeared that year. And not just anyone...
Jeremy: "Aelita, are you okay? You've turned pale."
Aelita:"...Yeah, don't worry Jeremy, it's just a lot of information to sort through, that's all."
Yumi: "So, what are the future plans?"
Richard: "Decode the file and find more information about this hacker. He gave me a hard time, I admit it."
Edwin: "Anyway, now that we're done here, what do you say we go back upstairs? It's still Halloween, and today's curfew is moved to midnight!"
Syl: "That's right. At least then we can all get some rest, especially you, Richard."
Richard: "Mh. All right, everyone to the surface!"
They left the supercomputer on standby, going to celebrate what was left of the night of horrors.
IN THE MEANDERS OF THE INTERNET
Attacking as usual wasn't working enough.
So XANA was thinking of a more devious plan: it's easy to destroy humans' psyches by evoking the darkest recesses in their minds, which AI could very well turn into simulations.
The whole thing would take place in November.
19.