THE LONER

Sal didn’t say anything at first, though the tone already had him feeling uneasy. Had June said something? The school probably didn’t actually even know all of what was in that old building, they wouldn’t know if some old computers were missing. He could even maybe forge a paper about donating it all to somewhere that recycles old technology. 

No, he couldn’t be doing that. He didn’t want a paper trail, nothing that might lead him right back to the reputation he’d been running from for years. The mention of Jonah’s apartment did nothing to settle his nerves, and he remained there still as a stone until she was done talking. “I don’t think the school’s going to miss anything,” he said finally. He needed the Grid. Thinking of it now, all he wanted was to go back in. It’d been too long. But there’d also be no shot at it again if the computers were gone or destroyed. “Anyone else got a car?”

“That was pretty much the consensus we had,” she mentioned with a nod. All those things inside that room had been in there for almost three years, if not more, and no one paid attention to them. Turing Laboratory was a glorified dumpster these days, a storage space for old and forgotten things. Who would notice if a 90′s era computer and other ‘obsolete’ hardware went missing? “Jonas does, but I don’t know how useful that will be. We can throw the smaller things in it”. A fancy Porsche was hardly the sort of vehicle they needed for their little heist. “We could really use your truck,” she added, tentatively. Part of her felt a little guilty for being the one to suggest he jump into this crazy idea. “But I understand if you don’t want to get involved, Sal”. Elena knew he was committed, he appreciated The Grid as much as she and the others that remained did, but he had his history and that was something to be considered in a feat like this one. No one wanted to get caught, of course, but she kept asking herself ‘But what if we do?’.

Sal frowned and nodded. “Uh, yeah, I got the notice about the plans,” he admitted. “I don’t…” It’d been some time since he’d actually had a few hours to spare to go to the old computer room, even if he needed it now more than ever. “I don’t know what we should do.” He’d never been religious, but it seemed blasphemous to ruin this.

“Yeah...” she sighed. It seemed like a massive hit of bad luck that their little sanctuary was about to be demolished to build some shiny, new building. “Well... some of us aren’t thinking of staying with our arms crossed,” Elena mentioned with raised eyebrows. It wasn’t so easy to persuade someone into- well, steal stuff from the academy. And Sal already had a record, so if anyone had to be careful in case they got caught, it was him. So she didn’t actually try to sell the idea to Sal, she just briefly went over the fact that she’d just met with a few members of the group and that Jonas had suggested they move the equipment to his apartment. He was their resident tech guy, mastermind of the hardware and all, so in a way it made sense. And being a rich kid, he had the space to spare, probably. “What do you think? You want to help?”.

shadia-abassi​:

jack-vargas​:

“Yeah, I know,” Jack replied. “But maybe it’s a sign…you know? That we should leave it behind. No one really comes down here anymore.” Although, they felt that maybe this was a sign that they should give up the Grid. Maybe they should start living life in the real world instead of in a computer. It was something they’d started thinking about since learning of Kishan’s death and “resurrection” in the Grid. It was why Bailey kept going into the Grid. It wasn’t because she felt like helping them or about fighting an evil program. Jack could debate that maybe the evil program wasn’t as bad as they thought, considering they hadn’t seen any damage yet. “A heist? Seriously?” Jack said, raising their eyebrows. “We’re not bank robbers, Shadia, and last time I checked, neither are you.”

“Um, okay, calm down, Jack,” Shadia said with a laugh. “Okay, fine, it’s not a heist heist, but we can’t let anyone find this equipment. Sure it looks like junk until someone looks at all of Jonas’s stuff and realizes someone’s been down here tinkering with all of this,” she explained. She walked over towards her friends and sat down in one of the chairs. “It won’t be easy if there’s only three of us, but with everyone on the team coming in, we can do it.” She raised her eyebrows at them and smiled. “All we need is a U-Haul van, some handtrucks, and access to the building after 12 AM. Then, we just need a place to move it. Obviously not my place since I’m moving. Did Zara move out of her apartment that she had with Kishan? We could use his old bedroom as a new headquarters. Otherwise, I’m sure June would be more than happy to have the equipment at her place.”

Seeing what had been posted on The Epigram meant the group would have do to something about The Grid, and be quick about it. Jonas didn’t believe any of the people who had gotten themselves involved in this would just let that old computer be taken away before the building was demolished. He wasn’t sure what the others might be planning to do about it, but he’d already pretty much made up his mind to anything to keep his mother’s creation in safe hands. And the gang would also be in need of a new HQ after Turing Laboratory was no more. Now, that he could offer to the team.

He could barely make up quiet voices as he approached the door in that empty hallway of the deserted building. He slipped his key in and was greeted by the faces of Shadia, Jack and Elena looking his way as he opened the door. “Hey,” he said, closing the door back with the lock. “You read the news too, huh?” he easily guessed, considering the snippets of the conversation he caught as he entered.

“What? No, we can’t just leave this behind,” Elena quickly shook her head, looking at Jack. A few months ago she might not have felt the confidence to counter someone who seemed so sure of themself as Jack did. But the lonely, quiet girl had been slowly learning to speak up and step outside of her corner. “It’s just something that’s meaningful to us, it’s an important piece of tech. We can’t just abandon it and let fall it anyone’s hands”. Sure, The Grid had been their playground for years now, but it was also their to protect, especially after they learned just how powerful it really was.

The door opened and Jonas emerged from the other side then. Elena smiled a little to greet him. Having someone else show up was reassuring too. Someone else who cared. And who might care more than the son of the genius who created all of this? “We’re thinking about moving all these stuff from here. A heist,” she added with a playful note, turning to Shadia. Maybe calling it ‘a hesit’ was a little too out there, but the general plan was in fact to take these equipment away from here.

Two months of shit nonstop. There came another promotion, which apparently involved more paperwork, which had him strapped to his office as much as he was out supervising. All time outside of work was now fully dedicated to academics, and what came next. He was just heading out through one of the most populous parts of the Academy one day when he recognized a familiar face. Had he not been so deprived of interaction, he might not have even said anything. “Hey, what’s up?”

Even living under the same roof, Elena and Sal had been having only brief interactions lately. Their schedules didn’t quite match and most days they only saw each other for dinner, a brief chat, and then they both headed to bed after exhausting days. “Hey,” she waved a hand from where she was and jogged a pair of meters to reach Sal’s side. With her pursuit of dancing at the Boston Conservatory and no longer a Turing student, the members of the group pretty much knew that if she was around the academy it was Grid-related. And it surely was this time. “Have you been keeping up with The Epigram?” she asked. “Because they publushed Turing Laboratory will be demolished,” she pursed her lips. The news had been shared recently and that had been the reason of the meeting she’d just had with Shadia, Jack and Jonas.

jack-vargas​:

Jack sat down and handed a cup of coffee that they got for Elena as they all met inside the room. “I guess the plan is to…I don’t know,” they said, furrowing their eyebrows. They didn’t exactly know what to do next. With all the equipment, it wasn’t just going to fit in a dorm room. They’d never thought about the possibility of the older building being demolished, even though they should have considered it since all the buildings were getting renovated or rebuilt. Being in a city, it only made sense that the philosophy would be out with the old and in with the new. Plus, the computer lab wasn’t one of the original buildings so it didn’t have the same “charm” as the older buildings. They turned their head to the side to see Shadia coming in. 

“Hey guys,” Shadia said, holding her hands up. After her last encounter with Jack and June almost getting into a fight, she didn’t want to be Jack’s next target. Although, Jack seemed much more chill this time around. She was sure it was the frustration of being out of the loop for so long, GAIA getting out, and the anxiety of such a new and dangerous program being out in the Grid that caused them to lash out like that. “Oh, hey, don’t shoot, Jack. I’m unarmed,” she said with a laugh. “Look, I know I’m leaving soon, but I couldn’t go and leave you guys hanging with the building being torn down,” she added. She looked over at Elena as she asked about what they should do next. Being the daredevil, the next few steps were obvious. “Well, it only makes sense to move all of our shit somewhere else. And you know what that means?” She raised her eyebrows and a sly smile crossed her lips. “A heist.”

Elena smiled and nodded, thanking Jack for the coffee. “We can’t just leave this here, though,” she ventured into saying. There was some gray area there. Technically most of the hardware inside this room was property of the academy... so she wasn’t sure if she wanted to be the one to suggest- well, stealing it. But the possibility of just leaving it all be, waiting for everything in the room to be cleared and very likely be disposed of, before the building was torn down was just out of the question.

She was expecting more people from the group to show up after the news was dropped and some frantic texts began to pop up in their group chat. It was nice knowing those that were still involved in The Grid didn’t want to just sit with their arms crossed. So it wasn’t at all surprising to see Shadia walk in after a moment. “Hi,” Elena greeted with a grin. With their resident daredevil willing to do something to save their virtual world, the very thing that brought them all together, she knew things were about to get interesting. And maybe a little reckless. “A heist?” she repeated, not sounding against it at all. “Okay, but how on Earth would we pull it off? It’s not like this is small, easy-to-transport equipment”. A lot of the hardware -with the exception of the stuff Jonas had installed later- was straight out of the 90′s. Bulky as hell, not at all something they could sneak out discreetly.

“Good,” he said with a nod. It fit what little bedroom furniture he had, which was all that mattered. “I dunno what that means,” he mumbled, caught off-guard by the hug but quickly returning it. Amazing might’ve been a stretch, but it was within budget and he hoped the heating would work well during the cold Boston winters. “You want me to make something to eat? You hungry?”

Elena nodded, content that his bedroom had also turned out to be good and he was happy with his new space. “It means we have a new apartment!” she said excitedly to her friend before she pulled away from the hug. “Yes, I’m starving” she admitted. While they were hauling boxes and unpacking she sort of didn’t think about eating or drinking anything, but now that they were done she realized just how much she needed something to make up for the energy spent. “Can I help chopping anything or something like that?”. Sal was considerably better at cooking than her, but she could definitely give him a hand in whatever he wanted to make.

Sal nodded to confirm. He looked around, letting himself smile as he took in the scene. It was definitely a bit more like a home than the loft apartment, but he still felt it was empty. It was an old habit after growing up always surrounded by stuff. “Your room okay?”

“Yes, it’s great. Yours?” she asked with a smile. Sal’s couch had been a good enough place to crash for a while but now that she had an actual bedroom and a matress, Elena was over the moon. It felt so nice to have a room of her own and to be sharing this space with one of her closest friends here in Boston. Things really had been looking up for her in the past couple of months and it still felt a bit surreal that all of this was actually happening to her. “Hostia, ¡tenemos un nuevo piso!” she said with a chuckle and went over to hug Sal. “This place is amazing!”. She knew he wasn’t as much of a hugger as she was, but hopefully he wouldn’t mind that she saved the hugs for special occasions like this one.

@elena-arias​

“So,” Sal huffed as he set down the last of his boxes in the living room that was currently empty of any real furniture. “This needs a couch.” He’d sold the last one to make moving a little easier. And provide a little money that he and Elena could use to start furnishing the common areas. 

Elena put down her suitcase on the bed -well, the matress, really, since she had yet to buy a bed frame- and walked out of the room that would be hers to join Sal in the living room. “That was the last one?” she asked, glancing down at the box he put down. “It does, but it’s looking pretty good, if you ask me” she told him with a grin, happy that they had found this place. It was a nice, cosy place, and it wasn’t even that far from Sal’s last apartment so they didn’t have to change their routines that much when it came to routes, transport and all that.

Sal was drinking a coffee as she looked over some things for school on his laptop, still sitting at the kitchen table. “Put some stuff in the fridge, shouldn’t need too long in the microwave,” he said, using his coffee mug to gesture toward the refrigerator where there was some French toast and fruit was waiting. “Last I checked there’s no set time anyone has to be up. Sleep all you want.”

Elena smiled at him and went over to the fridge, seeing what remained from breakfast. She thought there would only be bits and pieces from what the others had, but there were a couple of delicious-looking French toast and a small bowl of fruit. “Thanks for saving some for me. It looks good” she said to him as she put the French toast in the microwave. “Yes, I know, but I don’t want to spend so much of the day asleep. And this looks like a nice place, I bet there’s more to do here than just sleep” Elena told him as she rummaged through the pantry to look for the maple syrup.

Shadia passed over her bag of chips to Elena as they sat on the half wall on the green of Turing. “Me too. I was ready to sneak into his apartment and look through all his shit,” she said with a laugh. “I’m pretty sure I still looked through his shit without him knowing.” She took a chip out of the bag and licked off all the seasoning. “Although, now he’s dating Maya and they’re so gross,” she said, rolling her eyes and sticking out her tongue. “It’s like when Sebastian brings May around and I swear they’re about to swallow each other’s faces. Like two seals who don’t come up for air,” she added. She swung her feet over the edge and swung them back and forth. “Yes! This weekend! Good thing I’m free! I can’t wait. This is going to be my last hurrah so we gotta do something big!”

Elena smiled a little and accepted the bag of chips, grabbing a few before handing it back to Shadia. She cupped her hand and kept her little stash of chips there and tossed one into her mouth. “Wait, what?” she chuckled and finished chewing her chip before asking “What do you mean you looked through his shit?”. She hadn’t actually considered that anyone in the group would have gone beyond just trying to find out basic information about Jonas back then, but now that she thought about it, if anyone did, it made sense it was Shadia or June. Elena laughed again as her friend showed her distaste for Jonas and Maya dating so openly. “I think they make a cute couple” she admitted with a little shrug. Maya had always been very nice to her, back when she was brand new at Turing and had no one to talk to, Maya had been there. And she seemed happy with Jonas, so in general, Elena was pleased with that unexpected outcome. It was true that the group was getting increasingly more ‘couple-y’, with Javier and Zara being that steady couple no one thought they’d ever be, Jonas and Maya going from their lowkey crushing to actual dating, and now Sebastian bringing May along most of the times. Elena ate another chip and then grinned at Shadia, glad to hear she was coming to Nantucket. “So you already have anything in mind?”. Though knowing Shadia, with or without a plan, there was a guaranteed good time waiting to happen.

sal-rizzo​:

Sal knew there was only so much he and the others could do with their avatars to avoid being touched. The landscape fo the new sector was fairly barren and desolate, but he had an idea that might be worth testing out. “Do we know if they can sense us or is it by vision only?” he asked Sera and Elena both, unsure if Elena might’ve been told more about the Geists by someone else. “What if there was a way for me to mimic another surrounding? To give us space?”

“That is correct” Sera said, confirming the Geists were in fact invisible programs and that as long as there was no physical contact, the users should be safe. She glanced towards Sal and waved a hand in the air, a holographic screen appearing before her. Kishan and her had been collecting all the information they had regarding the Geists. A depiction of a shifting humanoid figure was seen there along with a list of characteristics. “No, they cannot sense you. They hunt by vision, but their spectrum of visible light is larger. They see infrared as well”. She warned them, so they would be aware of that.

Elena paid attention to Sera’s holographic screen as she explained some other characteristics from those eerie programs. It was a bit of a relief to hear they couldn’t sense their presence and that they hunted by sight. “Wait, that could actually work” she turned to Sal as he suggested using his mimicry skill. “What were you thinking? A way to provide cover?” she asked, wondering if that was what he had in mind: shifting to mimic their surroundings to hide them, or mimic something else from the environment to provide a way to block the Geists’ path.

“So I heard we’re going to be crashing Jonas’s place in Nantucket?” Shadia said with a wide grin on her face. Her time was just about up at Turing Academy and maybe even Boston, but that wasn’t going to stop her from having a good time at the beach. With her PhD program just about finished, it seemed crazy that her academic journey was nearly over and soon she’d truly be thrown into the real world. “Who else is going? When are we going?” She hoped that spending some time out of town with friends would have take her mind off of waiting to hear from places about jobs. Especially after the fight between Jack and June, it’d either be good for them all to spend some time together or really terrible if the two started arguing again. 

Elena’s whole body was sore from dancing. Her classes at the conservatory hadn’t yet started but Elena was attending contemporary courses at that studio she used to go to last year. A little trip to Nantucket was exactly what she needed right now and it was a nice thing to get to spend more time with other members of the group. “I wasn’t sure how to feel about him at first, but now I’m glad he’s on our side” she said jokingly. She still recalled how freaked out she’d been when she found Maya had been texting with him when they all thought he was public enemy #1. It wasn’t too shabby that he turned out to be a friendly genius who also happened to be rich and had a nice house in Nantucket. “Uh, I think it’s this weekend?” she said, phrasing it like a question. She pulled out her phone to check the last texts in the group chat. “Oh, it’s this weekend. And June says she’s coming. Sal too. Javi told me he’s staying because his brother’s coming for the summer and he arrives on Saturday”.

sal-rizzo​:

“And something was different with Kishan?” It was difficult to shake the thought that there clearly had to be something different about him and his connection to the Grid before his death. It was unnerving to think that computer programs could have full access to his mind and the mind’s of the others, and he didn’t want to even try to guess what that could lead to. For all he knew, his guessing could be held against him. “Yeah, nothing’s invincible.”

The program tilted her head to the side after Sal’s question, some of her pixels glitching subtly as they sometimes did. “What do you mean?”. Kishan the user and Kishan the program were two different entities, she was sure his friends might say, though for Sera he hardly was any different now. She hadn’t known him in all his human fullness, and the piece of him that she knew now became the new whole, became all that was left of him. Her attention went to Elena then and she nodded softly. “They are weaker when they are on their own. Geists usually move in packs and when one absorbs energy, it links itself to the others so they all absorb more energy as well. And if they never touch you then you’re not in harm’s way. If you can find a way not to be touched then you could potentially pass the level without trouble”.

“Okay, no contact, no harm” Elena easily summarized, nodding. It didn’t sound too difficult, though by what she’d heard about these Geists, that was probably easier said than done. “And they’re invisible, right?” she asked, just to corroborate the information she’d been told about the dangerous programs. “If we can’t see them it might be a bit tricky to avoid being touched… unless we can somehow be able to track their movements even when we can’t see them”. A motion tracker or some sort of thermal or infrared gadget. Wesley’s avatar had X-Ray vision and Maya’s could create various gadgets so it wouldn’t be too bad of an idea to ask them back… but Elena wasn’t so sure they’d agree to come just because their skills could prove useful.

sal-rizzo​:

Sal still clearly remembered how bad June looked when he saw her after she took part in Level 41. “How much of our brains get digitized?” he asked. It was something he’d been wondering since the first time he saw Kishan. He wasn’t even sure what part of his mind could be used against him, but he had some ideas and he didn’t want to confront it. “Do you have any ideas on how to block them out?”

“All of it” Sera stated matter-of-factly. The users existed fully inside The Grid, which meant all of their consciousness became digital for as long as they were logged in. “It’s not saved in here, though. It only exists while you are inside The Grid”. Except for Kishan, of course, whose consciousness became a permanent copy after he uploaded it before his living self died out in their world. “I’ll have to think of something” she admitted, since she hadn’t come up with a solution just yet. She had managed to include certain helpful mechanisms in some levels -such as the Ouroboros’ gem and the power of the stone Idol- so she knew she had to find a way to incorporate something like that in level 41.

“All of it?” Elena repeated in disbelief. It made sense, if she really thought about it. She always felt fully herself whenever she was inside The Grid so that had to mean all of her was really in here. But it was disquieting to think that all her mind -past traumas, fears and all- would be there for these Geist programs to access. It sounded like the perfect strategy to destroy her and her friends from within. “Well, what are their weaknesses? They must have some weaknesses” she mentioned as she looked at Sal and then at Sera. If blocking them out wasn’t an option then they’d have to learn how to best fight them back.