[COLOR=GRAY][INDENT][INDENT][i] [img]https://i.ibb.co/vbJr3Rd/carbon-2.png[/img] " Elek?" [img]https://i.ibb.co/BVNr7hFp/carbon-3.png[/img] [img]https://i.ibb.co/ksXtxPtT/carbon-4.png[/img] " Elek, yo, are you listening to me?" Elek blinked as the whirlwind of code faded from his head and he returned to reality. The hospital was white. Overwhelmingly so. It stank of antiseptic and the linoleum floors were scrubbed so clean that he could see his reflection on them. . Elek felt out of place in his baggy sweatshirt and the stink of Panda Express that had sustained him through many late nights of programming. Part of him felt that he shouldn't be here next to Nicole, especially when she was in this state. Her single left arm was no linger in a sling but still woven in a thick cast that made her movements slug-like. The blotches on her tanned face had faded. She was currently looking up from a copy of the Boston Globe, leaning on her cast arm to compensate for her missing right arm. Her brown hair was knotted into a french braid that snaked down from her shoulder onto the linen. " Yeah, of course." " I can tell when you're lying." Nicole said, a smile in her tone. She set the newspaper down on the blanket and her pale blue eyes searched him. She nodded towards the heart monitor hooked up to her chest, the green line of the ECG flowing up and down like a mountain range. " That's the only thing in here that you could listen to. What's it like?" Elek struggled with his words for a moment. There really was no answer. It changed everyday. He thought it sounded like the voices of the dead during his childhood but it changed every year. " Like being near the edge of a waterfall," He lied. Tried to. Nicole hummed in thought before returning back to her newspaper. [i]" Schiebe."[/i] " Nicole, what's the matter?," Elek asked. " This." Her finger tapped the headline " MIT SORORITY GROUP EXPELLED" several times. " Elek. Don't lie to me," She hissed. "You did this, did you?" His silence was an answer already. Elek tucked his chin down at his neck, shying away from her look as the edge of the newspaper crumpled between her fingers. " Goddamit, Elek. If the police find out what you actually are and they connect you to this......" " I hid my tracks well. They won't find out ," Elek said with smug satisfaction. Well, technically, he did. Anyone with a smidgen of computer security knowledge would look at the news article and suspect foul play immediately. Police didn't have the resources or capabilities to crack into Apple firmware. It was more relegated to the likes of the feds. There was no trace, no evidence that would have linked him to their arrests. Nicole apparently didn't agree. Her glower made him shrink and he spoke again, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. " Look, Nicole. I did what I had to do...." " Dammit, that's not the point! " Nicole reached out with her cast to pound the railing on her hospital bed before Elek could stop her. She yelped in pain as Elek reached out to clutch her shoulder. " They hurt me and that's the end of the damn story! You didn't have to get involved." " I got involved the moment they put you in danger," Elek spoke, an edge of passion entering his voice. " Because you're my friend. And that's what friends do for each other." He then paused. " But if you think I should tell them..." " Don't do that. I just...don't know what to feel right now. You're my friend, yes. But friends don't go out of their way to hack other people. " A small, brief smile crossed her bruised face. " I suppose they had it coming but......." Her smile had evaporated quick like a puddle on a hot summer's day and was now replaced by a quivering frown. " I'm not staying here." " I don't understand,," Elek asked, confused. What was Nicole talking about? " D-did I do something wrong? What about your short-wave range transmission project? We're still working on that for the confer-" " Elek." Nicole interrupted again, his pitch more forceful. " It's not you. It's my parents. I'm leaving Boston. Permanently." [hr] He wasn't surprised by the letter on his desk when he came back to Boston General late at night. The throes of anger and frustration had left him with no energy to feel anything at the moment. He picked it up, glancing past the stamp of a snake eating its own tail, and unfolded the letter to read it. [i] > YOU TOOK YOUR FIRST STEP. > DISTRACTIONS ARE A WEAKNESS IN OUR LINE OF WORK. > INVITATION STILL AWAITS. > MAKE THE WORLD MOVE. [/i] Elek stared at the paper for a while before wordlessly scrunching it up into a ball and tossing it into a paper waste bin. He rummaged around in his cupboard, eventually taking out a paper box of matches. He brushed the match head slowly against the abrasive strip, setting it aflame. Elek watched stonily , letting let it burn until the flame danced near the edge of his fingers. He then threw the ember into the bin and watched as the note caught fire. [/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][/COLOR] [hr] [img]https://i.ibb.co/27Jt9mf6/carbon.png[/img] [hr][CENTER][img]https://imgix.bustle.com/inverse/d6/0c/60/5a/5468/41a8/ba9a/f130d5fd97d1/hacks-mr-robot-elliot-fsociety-destroyed-evil-corps-data1280x600jpg.jpeg?w=1200&h=630&fit=crop&crop=faces&fm=jpg[/img][/CENTER] [indent][sub][COLOR=SILVER][B]Location:[/B][/COLOR] [I] Base Alpha, Dundas Island [/I][/sub][sup][right][COLOR=SILVER][b]Time of Trouble#1.006:[/b][/COLOR][I]>sys.call[/I][/right][/sup][/indent][sub][hr][/sub][INDENT][sub][color=SILVER][B]Interaction(s):[/B][/COLOR] [I]N/A[/I][/sub][SUP][RIGHT][COLOR=SILVER][b]Previously:[/b][/COLOR] [I]N/A[/I][/right][/SUP] [INDENT] [hr] " I'm being permanently reassigned to the Enforcement Division?" It was late afternoon at Base Alpha and Elek was still feeling the jet-lag from flying all the way from the other side of the east coast. Instead of retiring to the comforting safety of his office room to sleep it off, he responded to the summons of Deptuy Director Executive Morris. It was as the director put it, 'a meeting of the utmost urgency'. Morris's office was spartan. There was a sense of organisation that Elek could begrudgingly respect, although, he found it all so restricting. His table, carved out of glistening oak, laid in the centre of the room. A series of filing cabinets imprinted with metal labels occupied the left wall whilst a small squat shelf filled with folders and various books sat on the right. There were few affectations, only a small photoframe on his table showing Morris sitting on a couch alongside his wife and a few small figures which Elek assumed were his children. The walls were bare and two 24 hour analog clocks were in the room, one above Morris's head and the other above the door. There was enough space to walk but not enough to do anything else. Compact and efficient. Morris replied to his question with a glum, tactiturn demeanor, flicking through sheafs of departmental forms to sign off on. His peppery hair was cropped flat and thin, knobbled fingers held a blue fountain pen. His movements were quick and deft, writing with the vigor of a man twenty years younger. " Wasn't my decision. It was Dunusque. Departments are doing some restructuring. Apparently, your newest detail requires you to step away from O.T for quite some time, Elek. Almost permanently." Frustration wormed inside Elek like a fever. This was what he got after spending five years in Operational Technology as one of its best agents? It wasn't out of enjoyment. If he was relegated to the Enforcement Division, he would have less free time to pursue some of his other activities. Activities that would be increasingly harder to hide under the scrutiny of some departmental bureaucrat from Enforcement. Elek coughed and spoke, forced politeness in his voice. " I think that my appraisal for the position of Executive Assistant Director in O.T was being reviewed." " And it's been summarily rejected," Morris said plainly. " Not until I get an explanation." Elek waited for Morris's reaction but the department head didn't even raise an eyebrow, simply continuing to sign his documents. "I still think I deserve to have some measure of responsibilites in O.T-" Morris's fist slammed on the desk, sending a few papers flying. " For fuck sake's, Elek, do I have to spell it out for you?! " Hearing Morris, the stickler for rules and decorum, swearing was akin to seeing a solar eclipse for the first time. " My work on HypeOS was allowed the department to radically improve H.E.L.P's servers and -!," Elek was on the cusp of a incensed rant but Morris cut him short, now standing up and looking down at him with barely disguised anger. " Yes, brilliant work that you've done with HypeOS. I'll admit that you've driven down costs, pushed our logistical infrastructure to the next decade and kept our cybersecurity on the forefront. However, no engineer that I've been able to recruit has been able to read through your fucking code or firmware! You refuse to train any agents to pick up where you left off. Your insistence on working as a one man team has made our digital forensics team lazy and worst of all, no one knows how to maintain it except you! " Morris took a breath to compose himself before continuing on. " You are an asshole to work with. Even those that praise you admit that about you. It's not a quirk. It's not some sign of your genius personality or a maverick. You are just a pain in my ass." Morris's gaze softened, breaking the sternness in his lecture. " It's much of my department's fault for relying on a hyperhuman as it is yours. One man isn't an island, Elek. Especially in our line of work. " Elek watched his superior sit back down and return back to signing the ever growing pile of paperwork on his desk, signalling the discussion was over. " You are an invaluable asset. You are one of the most talented programmers of this generation. Your powers are without compare. But that's useless if you can't work effectively in a team. Until you learn how to work well with people you do not like, I will not let you back into O.T. Now, get the fuck out of my office." [hr] An hour later, Elek closed the door to his office, his fingers peeling off the door knob slowly and then, despondently returned to sit on his desk. His office was dotted with piles of books, papers and disassembled computers, circuits and wires pouring out like roadkill. He gingerly stepped around them until he reached his desk. It was a behemoth, two desks joined to the sides of one disk perpendicularly. There was only a single CRT monitor, flickering errantly,, but a thousand cables and wires grew out of the back, connecting to a tower-like structure at the backwall. It was a monolith of whirring fans and blinking diodes and possibly the most powerful computer he could create on H.E.L.P's budget. His desired one would have. There was no keyboard and mouse, not with his abilities. How the hell was he going to move this all later? Elek's stomach growled and he realised that he hadn't eaten anything for 24 hours since returning from New York. The CRT monitor whirred to life with a momentary thought from his mind and a few mental system calls to his computer summoned his latest pet project to life. >>elek: transmit scheduleled call for cheese pizza to following address at Alpha Base. >>eric2: what is cheese? >> elek: processed cow's milk. >> eric2: . . parameters seem to fit butter. parameters fit curds. parameters fit milkshake. >> elek: stop, eric2. Shut down. >>eric2: will begin analysis of all dairy products. entering EPA/USADA/AFFC Repository. beginning analysis of all bovine products... Elek groaned and cradled his face into his hands. Artificial intelligence was a bitch. [/INDENT][/INDENT]