#::documentation

< @vxcprk >

Somehow he had stumbled before the 302 Studio. More than once in the past month, if he had to be frank. But Damian never managed to walk past the doors or to call the tattoo artist, even though he had his phone (scribbled on a paper somewhere in his lab). “Aish, seriously...” the black haired hacker muttered under his breath in English, with his hand covering the binary tattoo on his neck.

What he had there was done years ago. It was one of the things he didn’t think through and did when he was drunk, still in his university student years. Now he regretted it on some days, mainly for the fact that it was done in an extremely visible place, and because it was written something exposing him for who he really was. The hacker Phenix. The good side of it was that the nickname was written in binary code, so not everyone could read it. But Damian still felt, on those rare days he regretted it, that he could have avoided making it like that, inking his skin there.

The man was lying on the grey couch in the room he would come to call his lab in the future, his black loosely knitted sleeveless vest falling at the side and barely touching the floor; his left arm outstretched above him and holding a book, which didn’t fit the male’s image at all with its bright and pinkish cover. His eyes looked tired, the white of them slowly transforming onto red, the skin under them showing how the male had skipped a day or two of sleep. His right arm was tucked under his head, sometimes coming out to change the page of the book, or to fix the black rimmed glasses slipping on his nose.

Damian didn’t like wearing glasses, but with his eyes like this, or rather his state, he preferred avoiding putting on his lenses. “So, are we funding your reading nights?” a hoarse male’s voice disturbed the young male, indicating him that he was no longer alone. “Kinda?” the youngster replied in his own childish way, closing the manga book and sitting on the couch. He reached to the side, to leave the book in the pile (which was not exactly small), and stood up to greet the elder male properly. As he walked to him, he subconsciously pulled his black sleeves up, showing the colorful wired bracelet that was a present from his current companion.

“Sometimes we wonder why did we choose you.” the man breathed out when the two shook hands, at which Damian simply laughed. “Because I am rather handsome and extremely smart?”. At those words the man took a bit of time to stare at Damian, then chuckled and shook his head. “We’re still debating the handsome part.”

The black haired youngster laughed off the response and moved to the desk, which even if still not used properly looked overly chaotic with even more manga books scattered on it, different diagrams that were printed, and some more sheets of paper with incoherent for just everyone data on them. There were a few disks, quite the handful of flash drives, three screens along the wooden desk’s length, and two folders lying over the keyboard. One red and one blue. Damian picked up the folders and walked back to the man, handing them to him. “The red is what you asked for, the blue is all the administrative details.”

“This.” the grey haired man started, taking the folders and using them to tap with them the top of Damian’s head. “Is why we choose you, mainly.” 

“I know.” the youngster replied, giving a faint hint of a smile and looking down at the floor. It was because of that he knew. Of course he knew. You create one grand thing and everyone is after you and that creation of yours. At least with them Damian knew his creation will be safe.

“You don’t look serious, but you are.” the old man’s eyes pierced Damian, causing the young hacker to feel shivers all over his body. “Will a week be enough?” he then spoke again at which Damian just nodded, his hand moving to fix his glasses in vain hope that the rims will hide his black circles at least a bit. They knew his means and were understanding enough to give his body time to recover after every assignment. “Get some sleep, Mr. Jones.”

“I will... after I finish my ‘book’.”

What was the chance for this to happen? 0,00001%? Less even? Damian had no idea, but the minimal chance coming to ring on his doorstep was certainly what caused the blond to choke on his burger. It was just a few hours ago when he got the data wasn't it? He was handed a few phones and a laptop to analyse from a crime scene where someone had killed a whole drug dealing gang, and while pulling the data out something caught Damian's attention, but he kept quiet about it. Sure, they had to find the person behind it as soon as possible, because vigilantes were not looked good upon from the governments, but this was Damian and he was not just another suited lad who followed the rule letter by letter. ... As bad as it may have been.

What he saw in the lab, was a picture of the person responsible for the slaughter, or more like a side profile of the person. Dark hair, glasses, small head, pointed nose and full lips. It was a profile, that the hacker was not directly familiar with, but it was also a profile of someone the blond was too used to seeing. It was a person whose profile Damian had to sort out by hand when it came to the data collected by ASH, because the computer couldn't separate the features of the man, because of the constant wear of glasses. That build an automatic face identification of the male in Damian's head, and the male in his mid twenties was sure he can recognize him even if he was just out of bed. Which in fact, he couldn't but that was still part of his exaggerating behavior. And of course he didn't have to be told to search for the male to know what to do. An hour of scanning and digging and they found out that their mystery killer was no other than a boy who had barely any information about him since after his high school years. Whereabouts — unknown; relatives — unknown; education — unknown; education same as the listed before. But there was something the rest didn't know. All the crimes he was searched for, and they were not just 2 or 3 attacks on gangs.

But Damian let it slide with his silence, deciding to do a small research on his own before he came to any of the field agents with a folder full of information. They had enough work on their own for him to give them just assumptions. And now, now the black haired male was standing next to his table, looking at his phone with the same glasses Damian saw him in not one or two pictures— or maybe the glasses were different. They were never the boy's passion, so he had no idea, but he was wearing glasses alright.

The male leaned back in his chair, his concentration being at the top as he listened to the other end's words. It was really late for him to be having this call, but there was no other way for him to have it, when the other party was in another continent and the talk was essential to have. It concerned ASH, and the maintenance around it while he was gone. Apparently there was a minor problem with the air conditioning of the storage and the big heats the past two weeks, but there was nothing to worry about and no data loss.

"So, all is good, nothing was deleted?" he asked again, his tone even and his usually southern draw accent vanished into thin air. The other end confirmed that there was no data loss and that had the blond hacker sigh in relief and place his free hand over his tattooed neck. It's not like he didn't safe guard himself and backed up all the data in another place, but he still worried that there will be some changed made into his project. After all he left it in the hands of the American Government, and they were going to be in charge of the transfer too... of course because they were afraid the hacker would leak one or two of their dirty secrets. It was amusing how a few hires of a hooker can work so great in his favor.

"You know what to do before the transfer, right?... Yes, you save the data, you turn off the system how I told you, then you unplug them in the order I left. yes, the blue sheet. ... Yes." a deep, annoyed sigh followed his lips and Damian turned around in his chair, standing abruptly and loving to the bookshelf he had occupied and that was piled with more of a folders and sheets than with books. "How the fuck did you lose it?" he asked, pulling out one of the folders and opening it up to be met with a pale blue sheet, equal to the one that the other person lost. "Your— ... Okay, okay. Don't worry, I have a copy of it. I will fax it to you later. Yes, just— don't lose it again, I want ASH in Korea as soon as possible, okay?"

He looked at the writing on the paper he had to fax to the boy on the other end and kept on listening to the apologies. It was not such a big problem that he lost it, he just hoped that the young kid, who was currently a second or third year in university and Damian met once he got back to it, was not put under pressure from the government to postpone the sending so they can crack the program. Which was not going to happen anytime soon, because they needed a code and Damian was the only one who could write it. No one else could manage to figure it out, because it was not something people just guess. "Jason, you do know I am scarier than them, right? ... Okay, good. Send ASH as soon as possible, I found where to place it. ... Yes, thank you, you too. Heard from you later."

It was a daily job for Damian to look around the hacker's chat rooms and forums to see who wrote what or to try and pick on some tracks. Such sites weren't easy to find, especially when the admins changed the host daily, but if you've been visiting them for years, their finding turned from a treasure hunt to a child's play. You just had to visit the right sites and find the right hints and you were in.

But still being at work, then searching for the hidden sites and reading all of the new info drained the male's energy. "I want to go four years back... Why was sleeping not so essential back then?" the male whined and removed his glasses then rested his head on the desk; near his black think keyboard. His dark orbs moved to the white glass bottle that held on his storage of modafinil, but he told himself he won't use it for now. Not while he lived with his brother, and not until some big job came up from ATHENA. Otherwise his bosses will start to question his two to four day absences, and he wouldn't have a way to explain. Now, tracking a terrorist and not sleeping a week, then taking two days off to rest is normal. But what he was looking for at the moment was not something he could explain... It was regarding his biggest secret, and the higher-ups didn't have to know about it. After all, if they knew, they wouldn't keep him in ATHENA. Even if he proved himself innocent, he also proved that he is capable of committing illegal actions to reach his goal.

A blurring vision made the blond blink and with that put an end to his haze. He reached with his hand and pushed the bottle back, taking a deep breath and releasing it soon after. "You are growing old, pal... Do one last check and go to bed." he murmured under his breath, rising his eyes to look at the screen again and seeing a new post in the chat room of one of the forums.

→ Anyone has information about the Jumping Jack?

Now, wasn't this having a greater effect against sleepiness compared to the modafinil pill? Damian have been waiting for months to get a fresh track on that small parasite. He was not the most careful person, in fact he was too boastful to not leave a track where he hacked, but that made him the easiest to rack of them all. Sadly, just like his nickname, that person was jumping from one place to the other, and getting a fresh lead was hard. He always moved, once he knew someone caught on to him. The only time he stayed in one place was when he was in university, when he was with Damian and the rest.