double dare me

June scoffed, all too aware of how she could lose the track of time when sitting before a computer. Thank God for Shadia, pulling her away from it on this occasion before another one of the hacker’s rabbit hole descents. She hugged her friend back, feeling a small sense of relief in having someone else around who was very important in her life. It was an added bonus that she could also get Shadia’s take on the whole maddening issues within the group. “If it was we’d beat the fucking AI in the end,” she sighed, moving a hand to her temple. G.A.I.A. had given her more headaches than she could count; both figuratively by making her try to think to exhaustion about solutions, and literally as the AI’s programs put up so much of a fight within the Grid.

“Yeah, I am at least. Sebastian does too from time to time. Most of the group stepped back because they’re actual sane people with lives outside this thing, or to avoid any fights. So I guess they’re dealing with it by not dealing with it”. The hacker sounded rather indifferent because she was beyond the point of trying to sway anyone into joining every new ‘mission’ into the virtual reality. Jack had been there some times. Elena and Sal as well, though with less frequency than ever before.

When Shadia asked about Kishan’s program, June shrugged and waved her hands. “I don’t know,” she admitted, saying those few words she hated saying. “But I’m clearly not the best person to be making decisions here,” she said somewhat bitterly. “It’s my fault G.A.I.A. is on the loose. I brought a fucking psychopath into our lives because I thought he would be of help”. Fuck Jacob, for real. The fact that she’d gotten a cryptic message from him a few days back only made her worry that she’d be fighting on three damn fronts now: inside the Grid with every twisted thing G.A.I.A. put in there, with the group for every opposing ideas there were, and against Jacob out here in the real world. “I don’t want to see Kishan go. I really don’t, losing one part of him was hard enough, I don’t want to see what’s left of him be gone for good. But I don’t know what the hell to do at this point”.

"Okay, if I’m going to help you through this, we need to get something to eat. No more sitting in this boring old lab. Come on,” Shadia said, packing all of June’s things. After zipping up the backpack, she took her friend’s hand, pulling her out of her seat and handing her bag to her. “Also, it still definitely smells like Funions in here, doesn’t it?” she said while opening the door for them to leave. “You would have thought they would have solved that problem, but I guess not....” Shadia spun around to walk backwards so she could talk to June at the same time for a bit. “I’m thinking the dim sum place down the street we used to go to?” She waited for a nod of approval from June before going back to their previous topic. 

“I wish Kishan were still here. He really knew how to galvanize the group and get us into it,” Shadia said with a sigh. She considered going back in with June to help her out and try and form a plan. June needed all the help she could get and it didn’t entirely seem like Sebastian was trustworthy at the moment with everyone having opposing views. She could never trust Bas the way June had begun to trust him. She wanted to trust June because she always trusted June, but something was keeping her from trusting her when it came to Sebastian. “Babe, you cannot blame yourself for letting GAIA free. It would have found a way out regardless. And who would have thought Jacob was a fucking psychopath...other than every other woman in the world because he is a man after all,” she said, tilting her head to the side. 

As they reached the restaurant, Shadia held the door open for June and they headed for their usual seats by the windows in the front. Their favorite server was still there and still remembered their go to alcoholic beverages and appetizers. “June, please tell me you’re not going to go with what Reyes wants or thinks is best. I know you trust him for whatever reasons, but...I don’t know if we can trust him on this. I mean...I hate to bring this back up but he is a criminal and I don’t know if he’s one of the ones that reforms. A tiger can’t change its stripes.”

June and Shadia had been texting and the hacker gave her friend all the details about the new gathering spot they managed to secure in the new building. Jonas had worked on some new hardware that was portable and much easier to conceal in case any unsuspecting staff member of the academy happened to walk in. “Hey. Oh, it’s 6:30 already?” she glanced down at her computer screen to see the time and saw that time had flown by, with Shadia showing up right on time at the hour they agreed. “I mean, I would have begged for you not to go. But I’m an actual good friend who wanted to see you fly away and do your thing,” June replied with some evident sarcasm. “Well, where to start?”. She gestured towards the chair by her side and began giving a summary to Shadia of the suspicions Sebastian brought forward, how Kishan fit into all of it, the way everyone had wildly different opinions on how to go about the mess… “What’s a mission to take down a tyrannical AI without a bit of civil war to spice things up, you know?” she said with a sigh, a tired expression taking over. It was hard enough to deal with The Grid as it was, even more so with a group divided…

"Um, yeah, it’s already 6:30,” Shadia said, laughing. “Time flies when you’re hard at work, huh?” She walked over, wrapping her best friend in a huge hug. It had only been a few months, but it felt like it had been years. Finally, she pulled away and draped one arm over June’s shoulders as she sat down next to her. “Oh, what would I do without you,” Shadia replied. She leaned back in her seat as she listened to the summary of everything that had happened since she left. “A civil war? What is this? A Marvel movie?” She furrowed her brow and tilted her head to the side as she contemplated what June told her. Maybe the whole “civil war” thing was why she hadn’t heard or gotten much info from her friends when she would call or text them. Shadia had never been Sebastian’s biggest fan and she was a little hesitant to agree with his suspicions. “Are you all still going in? If it’s been like this for months, how is everyone handling it?” Everything seemed to have gone south when Kishan died. They called him the anarchist, but maybe he was actually the glue that held them all together and kept them levelheaded. “You don’t agree with Sebastian about deleting Kishan’s program, do you?”

“Are you fucking serious? NASA?” June said with surprise and excitement in spite of the nagging melancholy about Shadia leaving all the way to the West Coast. It shouldn’t be that surprising to learn that Shadia had the brains and skills to get a position at the JPL- she was a freaking genius, even if the ‘official’ title had always belonged to someone else in their little group. At that point June got up from her seat and went over to give a hug to her friend. The hacker rarely did that -touch people, even less embrace them with such open appreciation- but this situation surely warranted it. “Congratulations,” June said again, pulling away and looking at her friend with undeniable pride. “It might have always been Kishan’s thing, but if anyone was going to be a badass engineer, it had to be you,” she nudged her friend lightly. “It’s not going to be the same with you gone- I guess I’ll have to start planning trips to LA,” she chuckled softly, the sadness of knowing Shadia would leave making itself a bit more present. June didn’t show it. “And you better come and visit us too”.

Shadia laughed and beamed at June as she could hardly contain her excitement. “Yeah! I know. NASA. I really didn’t see it coming, but I saw an opportunity and had a connection there. I decided to take a chance and see where it could take me,” she said. She opened her arms out wide for her friend as she was pulled into a hug. A rare occurrence, and a very appreciated one. She made so many friends in Boston and she would miss all of them dearly. “Aw, thank you so much,” she said. “I can’t believe it’s been two years since he...” Shadia looked away for a moment, searching for her drink. She held up her drink to June as the subject changed. “It’s not going to be the same pulling all nighters without you. That’s for sure. But yes, plan a trip to LA and I’ll show you everywhere I like to go. All hidden gems and maybe a few tourist spots,” she told June with a grin. “I definitely will come back. Promise. Let’s have a toast to new adventures.”

jonas-hartmann​:

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.

“Yeah. I think everyone knows about it by now,” Jack said. They smiled at Jonas as he came into the room. They wondered where Maya was and if she’d be joining them too or if she was permanently done with the Grid. “We’re trying to figure out what to do with the equipment and Shadia here has suggested a heist,” they added. They knew Shadia was a little batshit crazy, but they didn’t think that she was let’s steal thousands of dollars worth of equipment crazy. “Personally, I think this might be causing us more trouble than it’s worth. I think we should leave it behind. Let the workers toss it.” They leaned on the armrest and spun around in the chair a little. “But I guess in the end it’s up to you since this is all your mother’s work. You’re technically the rightful owner of this property,” they said, not even thinking about Wes and his attempt to claim the project as his own.

"Hey! I said I’m using the term ‘heist’ very loosely,” she said with a laugh. “It’s not a heist heist. But no one’s going to miss this equipment. We’re the only ones who have been down here to use it in ages. No offense, Jonas, but your mother wasn’t some spring chicken. This tech is going to be way too old for anyone else to use it or even be curious to turn it on now that everyone has the next best thing in their pockets,” Shadia added. She took a sip of her coffee and listened to what Jack had to say. She frowned and furrowed her eyebrows as Jack mentioned leaving everything. “If you want to move on, you can go. You don’t have to be a part of this anymore. But we can’t let this tech go, especially now that GAIA is getting more and more dangerous. If we don’t stop it, who else will? Who else could?” she pointed out. “Besides. This is my last chance to do something wild here on this campus before I have to move back to LA. What do you guys say? Let’s call everyone up and get this party started!”

elena-arias​:

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.

“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.”

elena-arias​:

“So,” Elena began, taking a seat on one of the scattered chairs inside the old computer room. “This place’s getting demolished in no time. What’s the plan now?”. Even though she was no longer a Turing student, she read The Epigram from time to time, mostly fond of the time she had collaborating within the academy’s newspaper. And now she’d gotten the new: good ol’ Turing Laboratory would be demolished and a shiny, new building would be built there. For the Grid group that meant they had to make some plans to take out their equipment -was that even something they could do…?- and find a new HQ.

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.”

June sat there between Zara and Elena on Shadia’s couch, quietly expectant to hear what it was that her friend had to say. She could be wrong, but everything about this little get together had an air of ‘there’s some big news coming’ to it and when Shadia began speaking that initial suspicion was confirmed. The hacker cupped the mug of hot chocolate as her friend handed it over to her, smiling for a second. When Shadia announced that she’d gotten a job, June raised her mug as if toasting to her friend’s badass genius, silently congratulating that accomplishment. But then that other key part of the story dropped like a freaking bomb. “Congratulations,” she said, breaking the silence that settled in the room. “But… in California?” June repeated in disbelief, leaning forward to set the mug on the coffee table. She was glad that Shadia had gotten that job but the part about her moving all the way to the other end of the country was… well, unexpected. The hacker looked around, seeing the expressions of the of the others. They were equally shocked by the news, still processing the fact that another one of their friends would be gone soon.

Shadia, even though she was sad, couldn’t help but break out a grin. “Um, yeah,” she said. “At JPL.” It wasn’t something she was looking for and didn’t think she’d ever get a job there, but by sheer coincidence, an old friend of hers encouraged her to apply after a position opened up. She did like the idea of going back to California and returning to Los Angeles. The warm weather, the beaches, the city, old friends. The one thing that held her back was that the city brought back the memory of her now long gone family. She told herself that it was time to return home to Los Angeles and create new memories so she didn’t always think about the bad ones. She didn’t totally hate the idea of getting back to real life and leaving the Grid behind, especially after her last encounter with the Geists. But the guilt of leaving June and everyone else behind ate at her. It was one of the many things holding her back because she loved all of her friends so much and she was sure she could find another job elsewhere in the area, whether it was Boston or New York. But, so many people in the group were gone and it didn’t seem like it’d be possible to put it back together...so Shadia figured it was time to make a graceful exit. “I’ll be working as an engineer there with some of the robotics that go to space. Kind of funny that out of all of us, I’m going to be the one who works with stars and planets.”

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”.

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!”