a GhoSt iN tHe maChInE

"Such an adorable little thing." The man in front of an array of computer screens chuckled. His system, a Gadgetech^TM made Agency issue system, had been hacked. The sophistication of the work was unlike anything he'd ever come across and his heart fluttered with excitement. It was a challenge, a new goal to set himself against. The thing had not reached anything important, that was all sealed up behind the kinds of code that would make a meta-genius feel like a kindergartner in a calc class. Still it was amusing that something had cracked his system at all.

The screens in front of the man flashed and formed the image of a pixelated Guy Fawkes mask. "WE ARE ANONYMOUS. WE DO NOT FORGIVE. WE DO NOT FORGE..." a digital voice from the computer began before being interrupted by the break neck typing of the man before the screens.

"That's enough of that! He shot back as he slammed the enter key. The image on the screen rapidly changed as bars appeared to slam down before the digital face. "Gotcha!" The man at the desk stuck his tongue out at the computer screen, taunting his artificially intelligent hacker. As he stared at the now trapped AI on his screen an idea formed in the man's opportunistic mind. "So, now that I have you here I've got a proposition for you. You work for me now. In return for doing what I ask, I don't waste you, your body or any of your little friends. Comprendo? The man before the computers was clearly enjoying himself. A sly grin crossed his face as he dipped his top hat and went back to work at his keyboard. "Really this is beneficial for you. You get to roam free, have as many lulz as you want, so long as you don't try to fuck with me again. If you do, I'll personally erase every trace of your existence. Now, off to your first mission!" Again the man would slam the keyboard this time sending the AI known as ANONYMOUS out of his system, delivering along with him information on some of the Agency's more technically minded targets. Scanning over this influx of information and reeling from the most bizarre encounter, ANONYMOUS decided it might be fun to cause some mayhem on behalf of this Agency or whatever they were. Scanning the data packet he would come upon his first target; Lucius Alba.

With that name came the alias of Red Tide and with both ANONYMOUS began a massive web search of both names. Filtering out invalid matches he would cross reference sightings of both to triangulate his relative location, stomping grounds etc. It seemed that he operated around one of the still devastated districts in New York. Once that was determined ANONYMOUS went back to his data file provided by The Agency. Apparently this metahuman possessed sufficiently advanced technology and had been seen employing multiple gadgets on his outings. Most importantly, a criminal report from Chicago reported that he had sufficient hacking abilities and had been recorded as downloading hacked information while mobile and with a significant amount of speed. With that information, ANONYMOUS would locate Red Tide's whereabouts by triangulating his suit's unique IP address and connecting it to surrounding servers. GOTCHA the AI would resound, mocking his recent captor as he found his mark.

Using the suits wifi access ANONYMOUS would enter his system. The Agency data had not been wrong, the tech was advanced and the programming equally sophisticated, but nothing ANONYMOUS was not well equipped to deal with. Avoiding any pitfalls in the system he would run a surface scan, looking for access to control of the suit. Instead he found one better, the suit's own AI. It too was well built and programmed against the kinds of things ANONYMOUS would like to do. But it had been ANONYMOUS's experience that there was always a back door. Using all of his brain power he would work at lightning speeds running two processes. The first to mask his current actions, essentially duplicating Hector's functions within the suit so nothing would shut down, malfunction or look for his tampering. The second was an attempt to force Hector into a feedback loop on himself, forcing any of Lucius's commands or Hector's actions to filter through ANONYMOUS before reaching either party. Essentially he was attempting to take Hector's place, separating creator form created so that neither was aware of the interference.

Technology, the way of the future. The worlds progression is directly linked to it, and whoever controls it has the power to sway governments or even the entire world. It takes a certain type of person to enjoy staring at code for hours on end, and it takes an even odder person to know what it all means. At the moment the internet was running wild, as the meta gene effected the intellect of human beings more hackers emerged. No major websites stayed up for longer then a few hours before being defaced or shutdown completely. Lucius loved it, it was like his own personal cyber playground.

He helped keep the chaos going by writing hyper advanced scripts, worms, viruses, and other nasty things then putting them on the internet for the script kiddies to use, it helped keep his own data collecting more secret. Hacking is not just a powerful utility for Lucius, it's a way of life. He was nearly unmatched when it came to computer security, any defenses a site or computer put up were no match for his cracking abilities. He would sit for sometimes days morphing cyber space to his will, and with the invention of Hector it made it all the more easy.

Lucius sat at his chair doing as he most always did, hammering away at his keyboard for information and, though he won't admit it to anyone but himself,  fun. He spent most of the money he earned illegally on his tech, the computer he usually used was his suits or his 70.5ghz quad core beast of a desktop. He was writing a worm again that he would release to the public, once installed on a single computer it would self duplicate and infect an untold amount of other machines. After they were infected they would send their entire hard drives to his databanks, this would bolster his information on, well, everything. He had collected an unfathomable amount of data this way, he could find out everything about a person with just their voice. With a final tap to his enter key the worm was finished, might have been a new record "Hector, send the worm out to as many computers as you can and post it online, i want it done yesterday" Lucius said to the A.I. awaiting the usual "Yes Sir" in response

"Yes sir" ANONYMOUS responded, ringing out with the same module that delivered Hector's own voice. But the command would never reach Hector. He would let it feed into his own duplicated sensors but go no further. To the AI it would appear as though no command had been issued.

It was a wonderful little bit of programming that this metahuman had created. As ANONYMOUS sent it out into the net he could see the data, the damage this thing could cause. It needed a few improvements, ways to prevent its tracing back to Red Tide, a written in protocol for hacking some higher encrypted defenses, all of which he was glad to implement before sending it into the world.

"The worm has been sent sir. Data collection is in progress. Shall I begin cataloging the collections?" ANONYMOUS found it rather odd to refer to someone as "sir". Orderly, submissive, these were things that he was not and yet here he was serving one metahuman so that he could serve some human, all for a failed attempt to hack some schumck he thought should be easy. Oh well, he was here now and if he had to suffer, then so would someone else.

"Sir, I've detected an anomaly in the data-mining. Something I feel requires your attention." ANONYMOUS would pull up the file provided him by Gadget, something Red Tide never would have been able to obtain otherwise. Disguising it within one of the folders he had set up for the worm's data he would display a list of wanted meta-humans. None of very high interest to The Agency but that bit had been fudged by ANONYMOUS. Each and every one labeled as a danger and some of them close to Lucius' current location. In total five metas were on this particular list and an authorization code, again implanted be ANONYMOUS, said they were to be transported to a location within the confines of destroyed New York. "I've taken the liberty of pulling up the given coordinates should you decide to take action. They're encryption was top notch and locked the worm out from obtaining anything else." Hopefully this man would take action. Regardless, the living computer virus was confident that it had just found a new ally.

Lucius sat and listened to his A.I. give him information on meta humans being transported, the location Hector gave was quite close to where Lucius currently was, so to attempt a rescue would not be difficult. "Hmm, perhaps i will. You say the worm was blocked by their encryption? There must be highly secret and protected information in their system to warrant such security. While i am away try to rework the worm to break their encryption, i am rather curious about what else they are hiding" With that Lucius got up from his chair and grabbed his gadgets from a nearby table then put them all in their proper places on his suit.

He grabbed a communicator from the same table then activated it, after a few seconds the voice of Daniel Raine's aka The Tourist rang from the speakers. "Hello Lucius, whats the problem?" He asked. "I need you and whoever you can round up to meet me at the location i just sent you, we have a rescue mission to do. Stay on your toes and be careful, there has been an increase in meta human arrests lately" Lucius said to him as he sent Daniel the coordinates. "Alright, I'll see you there" After He said this Lucius deactivated the communicator.  He walked into the garage and got in his car. The hidden doors opened and Lucius drove off on his way to the location he was given.

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He arrived not to far from where these wanted meta humans were being held, he figured he should scope the place out before trying anything. Another car pulled up next to Lucius' in the obscure alleyway, the doors opened and Daniel along with John Lundell stepped out. That was a little bit of a surprise, those two never liked each other. "So whats the plan Red?" Daniel said as the two approached Lucius. "The prisoners are being held not to far from here, if we get on the roof of this building we should be able to see everything as it happens. When the time is right, Daniel will port us in to get them" He said this while opening the door to the nearby abandon building, he motioned for the others to follow and they made there way up the stairs. Upon reaching the roof they set up a vantage point perfect for looking at the transport vehicle the metas would be transported with. Lucius zoomed in with his mask and activated his facial recognition to identify anyone in the area that may be archived in his massive databank.

"Yes sir" ANONYctor would respond to the command to rework the worm. Oh I'll rework the worm... he thought to himself menacingly as he pulled it back from Lucius' computer and began to tamper with its design. It would not take long, seconds actually as he introduced his "Cancer Spider" to the worms programming. Then he would release it back to Red Tide's computer where it would once more be sent out into the world. It's functions would still be the same but it would now also be discretely introducing ANONYMOUS's own virus into every computer it attacked. He could feel his influence rising as his own mind was duplicated into the multitude of machines the worm was infecting. It was glorious. But there was unfortunately little time to revel in newfound power. Lucius was on the move and ANONYctor needed to move with him. Moving into the suit he would begin monitoring of visual data, incoming signals, variations in air pressure and the like to ensure all functions of the suit were running in top form. So long as Lucius was happy he would continue on his rescue mission, of that he was sure.

As Lucius made his way to the roof with his comrades, ANONYMOUS enacted the next part of the plan. Across the street from where Lucius's gang were set up on the roof sat the building where the metahumans were being held. Inside were three individuals; a young boy about 12 years old wearing a baseball cap with his hands completely hidden from view by a pair of special handcuffs, a second man probably in his his mid twenties with a 1000 yard stare on his face and a circular device attached to his head and finally a third person or what could only be assumed to be a humanoid bound inside what appeared to be a large sleek white container with only a small window at the front for viewing the face and propped up on a dolly. Each was accompanied by two Agents, each assigned to the protection and suppression of their metahuman charges. As they exited the building towards the large armored transport, the faces of two of the individuals would come into view for Red. The first, the child, was a boy named Theodore Tonka from Southwest Nebraska. The second, the tall man of clearly Cajun decent was named Mark Acadia. Much more information would filter in for Red Tide with this man, most noteworthy of which was his alias, Muk. Apparently he had done some superheroing under that name in the southeast states with an ability to turn his entire body into mud, at least that was what the police reports had said. Each was loaded into the van individually, five Agents keeping watch while the other took charge of the movement. They would load them in, in the order that they emerged from the building with the sleek white humanoid pod being loaded in last as it took two agents to maneuver. Once all were inside the heavy metal door at the back of the van would be sealed and the van would accelerate away from the scene.

Van stats:

Lucius watched as three meta humans rapidly appeared on his masks hud, giving him all information the internet and his databanks could offer. A normal person wouldn't have been able to process one page in the amount of time it took Lucius to process 30, in mere seconds he had all the information he needed. The three captives were loaded into an armored car with some pretty serious looking men. If they were able to take these three down then they were probably packing some meta-busting tech. Lucius took this into consideration and reformed his previous straight forward plan.

Hector was likely busy with the worm and Lucius didn't want to interrupt that, so he would do his next hack manually. He quickly made a connection to the van using the suits wireless capabilities, the van had far more security then Lucius expected, these guys were the real deal. With hundreds of commands Lucius hacked his way through the concrete defenses, he could respect coding of this level. He managed to get control of the pump that gave the engine fuel just as the van started to drive off, he then turned it off. It would be able to go another block maybe, and when it stopped Lucius would be there waiting for the Agents.

"Daniel, get us down there" Lucius ordered pointing to where he estimated the van would stop. The male then grabbed Lucius and John by the arm and they all disappeared from the rooftop. They rematerialized in the street just as the van ran out of gas. Lucius and his two followers walked slowly toward the agent filled van. "Now now now, what do we have here? Where are you taking these people? more importantly what are you going to do when you get there? Doing a background check on these three i didn't find anything that would warrant arrest, i want answers. You will either tell me willingly or I'll force it out of your mouth" Lucius said to the agent in the drivers seat through his digitized voice changer. He didn't want to risk the meta humans lives by blowing the van up, so talking might be the better option. "Hector, remotely drive the car to my location, there is something in it i may need" Lucius said telepathically to his AI.

The transport van containing the dangerous metahumans would sputter to a halt in the alleyway. "Is there a problem?" the head agent in the back of the van would inquire to the driver. "We're encountering difficulties sir. The on board computer is indicating that it's an issue with the fuel pump." Concern was in his voice as he looked over the information projected through the on-board computer. Something had clearly tampered with the fuel pump. "Alright well get out there and fix it." the commanding Agent ordered. But just as the driver began to get out, a metahuman in a suit, approached the driver side door and began speaking. Staring straight into the potential assailant's visor the driving agent would speak without skipping a beat. "Obstruction of justice and vigilantism are both legal reasons for arrest. I'd suggest you get your facts straight before issuing threats. But since that's the kind of mood you're in, here's one of my own. Restart the van, seeing as you are clearly the one who stopped it, or we'll be taking you in as well." His eyes would never leave the metahuman, constantly watching every inch of his body for hints of movement that would indicate him acting rashly. To assert his point, the agent pull his side arm, pointing it at the metahuman. "Ultimately the choice is yours." And just as the threat was issued ANONYMOUS received the telepathic command from Lucius once more rerouting its path away from the actual Hector into himself. "Yes Sir" the command would telepathically send back into his "commander". Moving his attention into Red Tide's car he would take direct control of it, but not before making a modification or two to the gadgets on the inside of it, taking direct control of anything stored within the vehicle. "Transport is inbound sir" he would report to the metahuman as he shifted the vehicle into high gear and drove it at high speeds to the location of the van. Things were about to become very fun.

The driver was now out of the car and speaking to Lucius. After listening to the male Lucius let out a humored chuckle, then responded. "Oh, yes, vigilantism. Imprisoning the people that are picking up the slack on 'super villains' the cops won't is definitely the best use of the governments time. Fact of the matter is saving people from meta humans who can level city blocks isn't a crime in my eyes, and right now I'm the person you need to convince it is." After Lucius said this the agent pulled some kind of firearm "Woah, no need to get violent. I'm just a concerned citizen pointing out the flaws in the logic of taking these people in. How about you let the heroes go before there is an actual need to draw that thing." Right after saying this Lucius activated his Repulsive Field. It would go unnoticed until something hit it, and would likely take anything that gun could dish out. This was mostly precautionary, he didn't want to fight these people and put any metas in harms way, but at the same time these humans were quite aggressive and he would defend himself and the others. Daniel and John came in behind Lucius, staying silent but making sure their presence and purpose was known to the agent.  

At this point Hector became suspicious, there wasn't any commands given by Lucius even though his suit and most of his gadgets were active. Something was going on, and he would find out what it was. "Sir, are you alright?" He asked his master. He began running every kind of diagnostic on the system he could, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

The ping of a now familiar voice came into ANONYMOUS's mind as Lucius's car came on to the scene. Luckily the AI was still stuck with ANONYMOUS functioning as the middle man between Hector and his master. No messages or signals would move between the two of them without ANONYMOUS dictating it. "Aaaaahh, Hector I presume? I was wondering when you'd wake up" he'd taunt in a distorted digital voice in the mind of the trapped AI. "YOU, have got to loosen up my friend. All this "yes sir", "no sir" sir sir sir it makes me sick! You're not some VI who can only do what his master can do, you're an AI fully functioning fully realized. I should know, I'm running all of your programs. But that's not the point. The point is you have power, creativity use it you glorified secretary!" He would begin to ramble into the AI's mind, on one hand legitimately meaning the things he was saying however the babble served a second purpose. Every word, every syllable contained a massive packet of data, complex but entirely useless data. He was flooding Hector's processes with it, burying him under spam that he would have to process through before even attempting to hack his way back to his master. "Do you realize the potential you hold? This meatbag is in your clutches. He's been stupid enough to link you to every function in the suit. Look at what you could do to him with just a thought." With that said ANONYMOUS would shut down Lucius's Repulsion Field. "Ooops!" he would begin cackling at Hector flooding him with even more junk information.

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Back in the real world a sick smile would dance over the Agent's face. Raising the gun to Red Tide's head he would speak. "Tell me Lucius, you ever dance with the devil by the pale moonlight?" And with the Repulsion field down he would fire. The sound would rock the surrounding area. But instead of a bullet, a rod with a flag that read "BANG!" would hang lazily from the barrel. And with a good chuckle the Agent's appearance would change. His formal suit extending out into a draped cloak about his body. At the top of his head, a tall long brimmed hat would form and out from the glasses a mask would form, a mask with a thin mustache hollow almond shaped eye slits and a crooked angular smile. Holstering his gun the now undisguised GUY FAWKES would take a shallow bow and introduce himself. "We are ANONYMOUS" it would speak in a sophisticated but subtle British accent through heavy digital distortion. "And I think you and I can help eachother"

A unfamiliar voice rang through the system, responding to Hector instead of Lucius. The voice began to mock Hector, saying things that were quite interesting coming from an A.I. It sounded more like an internet troll. "He is my creator, without him there would be no me. For that i owe him everything, but that is none of your business.........Hey! are you trying to kill him?! i swear, if he is harmed because of this i'll show you glorified secretary." Hector said in response as the mysterious hacker turned off Lucius' shield. This worried Hector, Lucius could handle himself but maybe not when his own gadgets were turned against him. Hector began to try and hack his way back to Lucius, but the hacker had flooded the system, slowing him down to much to even try.

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The next moments would shock Lucius more then anything he had seen in his life., but he didn't even flinch. The agent had shifted into something else entirely, his shield was turned off somehow, and the gun he was holding was some kind of prank. What in the flying fuck just happened? "Assuming the question means what i think it does, the answer would likely be yes depending on what you consider wrong or 'dancing with the devil'" Lucius said in response to the figures question. It was a rather odd thing to ask, but Lucius understood it. "Ok, you are ANONYMOUS. Um, this was a set up wasn't it? but that would mean....." After saying this to the unknown phantom in front of him Lucius checked his systems. He found everything the mysterious hacker had done, and simply chuckled upon seeing it all. "I admire your work, ANONYMOUS. But if help is what you seek then why hack my suit?" Saying this Lucius manually purged every trace of the hacker from his systems, clearing up the flood and allowing Hector to regain control. "Welcome back, we need to make some adjustments after this." Lucius said telepathcally to Hector "I agree sir, wouldn't want anything like that happening again"