Chapter Three, A :: The Risk Involved

[Zacke]

"FUCK."

Zacke's shout echoed off the metallic walls of the room.

This is great... This is really fucking great.

He had to seriously resist the urge to send his foot quickly and violently swinging into the nearest Hyne-forsaken shiny piece of DotNA technology. Not only were they now locked within this compound against their will, but Hadrian tore the shit out of his all his laptop hardware, effectively giving up any chance at gaining control of the situation they ever had. He threw up his hands and let out an embittered laugh. "Well guys, I guess now that we have no good reason to guard our hacker, he's pretty much fucked."

He shook his head, positively fuming as he turned to address one of the blue monitors.

"So I'm guess you're affiliated with DotNA, right? Is there a point to fucking around with us before you go for the kill?"

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Matching wits? Hadrian thought, staring at the closed doors. He watched Zacke throw a tantrum. It was his turn to do a Blaze this time.

"What the? And I was beginning to acknowledge this hacker and crap." Hadrian muttered, scratching his head. "He's nothing but another idiot afterall."

What did he mean he might've stood a chance if he didn't bail out? He wasn't stupid enough to even give another hacker a chance of stepping inside his world. That was the only reason why he corrupted the laptop before its firewall went down. To a hacker's--his--point of view, the most important thing was to give everyone 0% chance of stepping in his sanctuary. It contradicts the purpose of hacking if even his turf gets threatened. It was all or nothing from the beginning. He didn't come here to prove himself afterall. He only was after one thing, and that didn't work out--for now. Well, it wasn't like he couldn't reproduce all the files that he lost.

"Really, what idiot would tell his enemy how to blow up their headquarters?" He shook his head. "Heard that Gemma? Your bugs can just blow up any of these computers and the compound will self-destruct." He felt like laughing again. There was no point cursing, or screaming, or punching the stupid metal walls. He just had no interest in interviewing this unknown hacker now.

"Zacke! Can you contact the others?" Hadrian asked. "Tell them our team got the files and we're about to leave this place." He looked up to the monitors. "Last thing, dude, it's not 'possibly defective flashdrive.' It is defective to begin with." He grinned. "See you later." Noone was asking questions so he'd leave the logic up in the air.

Summoning his GF, Hadrian called her name, and in a second, the space divided and a figure of a cyber being pushed herself out. Coming to her feet the GF stood straight before Hadrian, wires and cables covered her naked body in a weird fashion.

/Corpora Quadrigemina detects a huge amount of metal machinery in the area./

"Get us out. Don't destroy anything." Hadrian told her, grabbing his bag. Not yet.

"Mechanical Armageddon!"

The GF's eyes shot open and a strong wave pulsated out of her frame, hitting the mechanisms of the metal doors and any mechanical transmissions in the room. A few seconds have passed, nothing happened. The locked doors didn't open.

Eh...? Hadrian blinked.


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Ah, I'm sorry ^__^ I only did that because it was in her job description, so I thought it would work out.

[ST]

Ack, okay, sorry but I gotta intervene here.

I know she's all supa-high-techy, but CQ can't just POOF unlock the doors. The DotNA compound is WAY more advanced than that.

Not gonna be that easy!

[ST]

The man laughed.

"Okay, first of all, I don't know what flash drive you're talking about. You didn't hack into my flash drive, you hacked into my system. Big difference there -- I don't know how you can call yourself a hacker and then mistake the two. Anyway, I'm not even talking about anything of mine, I'm talking about yours. Do you think you can plug something into this mainframe, pilfer confidential and protected files, and then not pick up any little bugs on your way out? Especially considering the way you just jerked your shit out." He laughed again. "Check your shit, man. Half of it is probably corrupt right now.

"Secondly... Are you really considering triggering the self-destruct program? Aside from certain death for you and your entire team, you'll also lose what little bit of information you even managed to get. Good plan! Hyne, you guys are such fuckin' tards... "

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Confused, Hadrian looked up to hear the man laugh on the other line. He was talking about him confusing the flashdrive and about the self-destruct system. How many flashdrives were they talking about? Wasn't he just talking about his own flashdrive? His own flashdrive had a built-in virus programmed to attach itself to everything that goes inside and mimics it. Besides, it didn't matter if half of the files still ended up corrupted. It wasn't like he was given an exact quota and crap. Even one file would do for him. Clearly, the dude and him were talking from two different planets. He didn't feel like bridging the gap between him and this idiot.

"Hey, calm down man, you don't need to try proving your point so hard. Don't wanna make you cry." He shook his head, eyes fixed on his materialized GF. Why didn't it open?

"How about one of you help me break open this damn door?" He looked at his teammates. "Surely you can do a better job offline, right?" he deliberately challenged.

[Gemma Ridean]

She changed her mind. Hadrian was good hacker, but obviously not a good SeeD because he was slowly butchering the remaining bits of this mission with every second he spent time yelling at that Hyne-forsaken screen, when clearly, he had no idea what to do. Worse, she couldn't believe how someone could possibly be so stupid as to reveal to someone, obviously affiliated with Dotna, that they had bugged the room.

Not that it even matters now..

This mission was a failure. It was like Hadrian was blinded-folded in the dark, but still trying to attack someone. Blaze and Zacke, she was sorry to say, were throwing tantrums in their corner. And Rayden..well Rayden was frankly, rather useless. She was the only person that accomplished something useful, and now that was even irrelevant in their current situation.

When Hadrian had summoned GQ, for a fleeting second, she could have sworn she saw the steel doors bend. This was the same GF that had the power to manipulate the metal of an aircraft into a shower of spears against Adel. How could it not work this time?

"How about one of you help me break open this damn door?" There was an angry, almost desperate, strain in his voice as Hadrian seemed to suddenly began to vent his frustration on the rest of them.

There were so many things she wanted to say to him at that moment. To tell him that it was not his lack of ability, but simply ego that they had been hacked into. That it was sheer incompetence that he couldn't re-access a situation and simply resorted to retreat without even considering that he might be jeopardizing the lives of others. That she couldn't believe that they were being told by a man who designed this system that all the files they were supposed to retrieve had been corrupted, and that there was a self-destruct mechanism within the mainframe, and all Hadrian D'arcell, in all his infinite knowledge, could do was stand there in defiance and pass petty insults.

And yet she was absolutely terrified.

She cautiously walked towards the door to examine it. Not a single scratch od dent. "If you're wondering why it didn't open," she murmured, "it must be that Dotna has implemented some type of electrostatic shield around the compound, which might explain why CQ was able to penetrate through to break down the steel."

She suddenly wondered what kind of surveillance they were under. Obviously, their voices could be monitered. But were the videocameras still disabled?

She wanted to test something. Grabbing a sheet of blank paper and a pen, she scribbled the words: WHO ARE YOU?

Standing in front of one of the blue flickering moniters, she held up the paper.

"Answer me."

[Hadrian D'arcell]

AHAHA Gemma's so right. He DID reveal they were bugging the place LMAO XDDD He tends to blow everything away once his perfect plan gets screwed.
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"...it must be that Dotna has implemented some type of electrostatic shield around the compound....."

At this point, any logical explanation would be sufficient--or else it would tick him to death. Hadrian noticed Gemma walk over to one of the monitors and hold up a piece of paper.

"Huh?" He looked at her weird. They should be breaking out here not playing charades.

Hey...don't tell me she's still playing games with that fool? Blaze told him her "favorite color" so here he was getting transmission from this room. Everything was already out in the open. What was the point in this? Snatching the piece of paper Gemma had in her hand, Hadrian read it and clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"WHO...ARE...YOU?" he read out loud. Then, he crumpled the piece of paper and threw it behind him. What? Was she actually trying to see if the cameras weren't working? Even the security locks reactivated. They know what they were up to.

"Hey idiot, she said she wants to know who you are!" he mocked, glancing at the monitors. "Doing pointless things like this..." he grumbled as he moved he past Gemma. This room wasn't under their control anymore. The only way out of here was force.

Stopping in front of the metal doors, Hadrian sat on his knee and grabbed the miniature satellite from his bag. If it was really an electrostatic shield, then his satellite's opposite frequency would detect it.

Now... He placed the thing in front of the door and waited for its small dish to blink a red light.

[ST]

... And all I can say right now is: wow @ Gemma.

That was a seriously awesome post Mya. Thank you.

---

The man's throaty laughter cracked through the dull static.

"Ms. Ridean," he said her last name with sneering emphasis. "If you're wanting to know whether or not I can see you; well, I'll just tell you -- I can. I confess, my picture quality isn't quite good enough to read what was one that paper you just had, but since you have such a loud colleague I guess I now know, regardless... "

"So, who am I, who am I... " He trailed off as if in thought, his voice dying behind the static. Then suddenly he came back to them loudly, as if hit with a bright idea. "Ask Sanaku and Mercutio!" The smile on his face could almost be heard. "We've met."

[Zacke]

Now that the doors were locked and Hadrian's equipment ruined, this entire mission was not only becoming a quickly realized failure, but it was also becoming some scary shit. Coping with the level of anxiety he was under was definitely not helping Zacke control his temper. He cocked yet another 'what-the-fuck?' angry eyebrow at Hadrian after the hacker obnoxiously threw Gemma's paper aside and stalked away angrily.

He opened his mouth to say something, but realized he didn't even know what to say, and there wasn't much point in saying anything anyway. Even Stardust wasn't this fucking obnoxious. He closed his lips and inwardly fumed, trying in vain to force his thoughts away from Hadrian, away from the fucking DotNA voice, away from his frustration... and think clearly.

We're trapped. We're trapped. We're trapped.

His gaze swung upward, eyes quickly scanning the ceiling and locking onto an eight-by-eight inch vent in the corner.

Way too small.

Just as he looked away he heard his name spoken by the voice, which of course drew his attention. He glanced over in Blaze's direction and frowned deeply. "Met him?" Even though he was aware they were probably just being toyed with, he couldn't help but give it a split-second's worth of thought. Who the hell would only he and Blaze have met... ?

He looked at Gemma. "I don't know who the fuck this guy is or what he's talking about. I don't recognize the voice."

He shrugged and turned away, then pressed a finger to the small button on his earphone. Going into this mission, he never once thought his group would have to ask fucking Reese's group for help. Now, Reese's group might be their only realistic hope at getting out of this room...

Fucking hacker...

[Hadrian D'arcell]

I have a guess. Is it Nirkit? LOL j/k XD
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Hadrian tapped the small satellite to see if it was still working. Apparently, it wasn't responding. Nothing was absolutely happening. He couldn't even figure out what kind of state this room was in anymore. It was beyond his power.

He rubbed his forehead. Funny. If Hyne was real, she definitely doesn't like him. He smirked. Can't help that.

The hacker noticed Zacke had finally decided to contact Reese. Inside this room. While the other hacker was already receiving transmission from this room. He was going to talk to his earpiece and lure attention to the other team who was supposed to be incognito. Asking for the other group's help was the last thing on his mind. Coming to his feet, Hadrian grunted and thought, 'Screw it.' Noone seemed to want to even try forcing their way out of here. They could do what they want.

"Hoh? Blaze and Zacke know you?" Hadrian went back to the monitors to have a chit-chat with the dude on the other line. "Just the two of them? Not us?" He placed his hand on his pocket. "And I thought you sounded like that sugar junkie I know back at Garden," he mocked again, smiling.

"Say, I hope you don't ignore me for asking, but why haven't you killed us yet. You can do it, can't you? Poison gas? Laser beams? Suffocation? Etcetera etcetera." His smile grew. "Afterall, you're smart enough to know you're not getting anything valuable out of our breathing bodies. So...why?" He sounded curious. "Aren't you the "supreme ruler" of this room? We're at your mercy, right?"

[ST]

The man laughed.

"Supreme ruler... Nice."

He cleared his throat, his voice taking on a slightly more serious tone. "Actually, you're right to question my motives. Why haven't I killed you? Hmm... Maybe I don't want you dead. Maybe I'm not a bad guy, ya know? Maybe I locked you inside to keep you safe from threats outside the room?"

A few seconds of silence...

"Mobile bugs... Those are cute, man. A little ghetto, though, don't you think?"

And then he laughed again.

[Gemma Ridean]

"Ms. Ridean," he said her last name with sneering emphasis. "If you're wanting to know whether or not I can see you; well, I'll just tell you -- I can. I confess, my picture quality isn't quite good enough to read what was one that paper you just had, but since you have such a loud colleague I guess I now know, regardless... "

Gemma faltered in her words. How could he know her last name? She tried to recall if Hadrian..or even someone else had mentioned it ealier....her first name..yes...several times...but last name....

Never.

The next thing the man said was even more perplexing. Something about already meeting Zacke and Blaze...?

As if he could sense her bewilderment, Zacke stared back at her replied, "I don't know who the fuck this guy is or what he's talking about. I don't recognize the voice."

"I-I believe you." she stammered, swallowing back the small tremble in her throat. This wasn't some ordinary Dotna personnel. No...this situation had personal written all over it...

He saw me write the paper, watched Hadrian crumble it to bits, and...and he had responded...he is watching us...

The sudden movement of Zacke's arm caught her attention. Curious, she watched as his hand trailed upwards to switch on the earpiece he was wearing. Already, she knew that he was contacting the other team for help.

As she waited in silence, bits of conversation floated through her ears.

"..why haven't you killed us yet? .... you're not getting anything valuable out of our breathing bodies....I don't want you dead... not a bad guy....Maybe I locked you inside to keep you safe from threats outside the room?"

Threats outside the room.

Every frequency sent outside this room was being tracked. Zacke's call was going to reveal the precise location of the other team.

"Wait." She gripped his shoulder. Softly, she muttered, "It's not safe. You might..." she paused suddenly. Then, leading him towards the table, she wrote another message on a sheet of paper--this time, in much smaller letters..

She flipped the paper over for him and the others to read.

_{be careful. everything is being traced. don't say anything. don't mention 'the others'. he doesn't know everything.}

"Mobile bugs... Those are cute, man. A little ghetto, though, don't you think?"

Mobile bugs....

Gemma stared at the eight-by-eight vent in the ceiling. A plan was forming in her head.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian crossed his arms in front of the monitor as if to listen attentively. Maybe this guy really wasn't a bad guy like he thought he was. Maybe the world really was a parallelogram like those lunatics said. Maybe in a few seconds clowns would pop out of those metal walls to toot their horns and say, "You've been Punk'd!" He could bet this guy was running out of smart things to say. The things he just said didn't even match the things he just did.

Well, atleast in this way, he was getting something out of him...

"Wow...I never noticed you were really helping us after claiming this DoTNA mainframe is yours." Hadrian replied in a sing-song manner. "Such a good Samaritan, despite us attempting to steal your files and killing a few DoTNAs on the way here. You want to protect us from outside harm." He shook his head, trying not to laugh again. "You even complimented the bugs I developed. I was getting a lil depressed and was thinking of triggering the self-destruct system by having those ghetto bugs bomb these monitors." Then, he laughed.

"5 SeeDs? Over your whole DoTNA laboratory plus those juicy files in your system? Not a bad ratio. We'll be called heroes." Now, who really was on the shorter end of the deal here.

"So, come on," Hadrian cocked his head to the side. "Use your "supreme" control over this room and eliminate us already before we do that."

What's the end to this jerk's capabilities? That was what he wanted to know.

"Or is it true you really can't touch us from here?"

[ST]

"Alright," the man sighed in an exaggerated way. "You know what? You're right. I should probably stop attempting conversation with someone who has no idea what the fuck he's talking about.

"You know, your reputation is kind of misleading, D'Arcell. I've heard about you and how smart you supposedly are. But I guess intelligence and common sense aren't always one and the same... ?" He let out a chuckle. "Go ahead and destroy the mainframe. Blow the whole compound to hell; most of our operatives have evacuated anyway. I have backup files. You don't have backup friends. You don't have a backup Maricella, either... do you?"

"Anyway... Take care. I'll be seeing you guys later."

All of the monitors went black and the static died away instantly.

Then, four small nozzles positioned in different areas of the ceiling elongated slightly and began to spray. Their appearance was of standard emergency sprayers in case of fire, but the mist they sprayed was green in color and of a putrid chemical smell. Not water.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

LMAO now he's done it!

*edit* I'M SO SORRY I READ THE LAST ST POST WRONG. I was half-asleep >___< sldkfha;h I thought liquid was being sprayed. I'mma look for my brain now.
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"You don't have a backup Maricella, either... do you?"

Hadrian was left gawking at the screen as the sprays from the ceilings went off. It wasn't the answer he was expecting from the dude, but who would've thought the idiot would throw him something that finally have use to him. He just confirmed it. He found her.

It's true then...what that Reese guy said. The ends of his gaping mouth twitched. He felt angry, confused, but at the same time relieved. Those hellish days he spent earning the SeeD title didn't go to waste. The woman was really alive. And she was close.

But you know...

"Sheesh..." Hadrian smelled the chemical that was being sprayed on them. "That sucker really did buy my taunts, huh...What a pain in the ass." But thanks to him, Hadrian didn't feel like they were going to die here. How could they?

The hacker looked at his teammates, checking to see if one of them was ready to jump on his throat. Since the dude merrily told them they could activate the frame's self-destruct system from here....That would also mean that the server was still active. If the monitors seemed to have run out of power, he could get CQ to generate her electromagnetic waves again, so temporary power shouldn't be a problem.

"Hey, I have an idea before we all die," he told them. "So don't kill me just yet." He smiled obnoxiously, holding up his palms. "I'm going to directly hack into the ports here and see if I can open these metal doors from there again. We've already been busted so I'll force my way into their security system to atleast open those doors. How's that sound?"

/Caution!/ CQ's voice echoed loudly in his head. /You are about to engage in an exposed operation. The number of instances you have pulled such stunt is approximately 0%. Success rate is unknown. Corpora Quadrigemina advises you to cease such incalculable attempt./

In this situation, why would that matter? Besides, this time was special so he would give some extra effort.

"That's what hackers are good for, right? Opening doors."