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Hardison’s on the wrong side of thirty to not call these kids, “kids,” but he also has to be pretty impressed with the software they’d built. All he has to do is tweak a bit, here and there, make it a little more tailored to their specific access, and voila – instant apocalyptic landscape!
(And it’s real-world apocalyptic, not medieval, or overly Christianized, or anything like that, just a long, rolling landscape of rock and dust and debris, which Eliot had certified definitely looked real enough to pass. Hardison doesn’t think they’ll try all that hard to see if this is real, not after all the news they've been feeding the marks these past few weeks, but it’s better to be thorough.)
The reddish dust catches the light of the setting sun in the simulation, and the air burns with fire as their marks wake up.
“Elle!”
“Meg? Meg!”
“I’m over here!”
“Oh thank god you’re alive!”
They hug, and it's a very touching moment…if one ignores how they wanted to scam millions from their investors, potential crash the internet and/or lock the majority into this game-scape, and the initial codes were stolen from a half dozen different people, including a kid or two.
“Elle, are – are we in the game?” Meg whispers into Elle’s ear, in perfect range for the microphone on their glasses to pick up the noise.
“I – I don’t know. You know the news was looking bad recently…”
“But, this isn’t what a post-nuclear world would look like, right?” Meg pulls away, slightly, hand waving at the burning sky and dust filled air and the wasteland around them. “How are we still alive, anyways? We’re not near our bunker, and I remember going to bed last night in our bed….”
Then they see the banged up car next to them, covered in dust and grime, and clearly recently wrecked, even if they can tell it’s their from the charm hanging from the front mirror.
Elle, laughs shakily. “Oh, I guess…I guess we must’ve had a crash?”
“I guess…” Meg agrees, halfheartedly. “But what did we hit?”
Elle shrugs, “Not like you can see much in all this goop – I’m impressed we’re breathing as well as we are.”
“Speak for yourself,” Meg mutters, burrowing her face into her shirt.
With a sigh, Elle points out, “We can’t just stay out here – who knows what’s around…and with the car out of commission…”
“Yeah….”
They tangle their hands together, and move the direction the car is pointed.
(Perfect, Hardison almost wants to coo at them, because, really, when has a plan ever gone this well? Since never, that’s when.)
They reach the stoplight, though they hear it creaking before they manage to see anything more than a vague shadow ahead of themselves.
That’s Parker’s cue.
“’Stop,’ says the Red Light.”
The girls stop, and Hardison obediently changes the color of the light.
“What’s going on?” Meg hisses. “Are we being trolled? Where are the cameras?”
“Uh, Meg? If we’re being trolled, I don’t think it’s…”
“’Go,’ says the Green.” The light changes.
Elle and Meg stay where they are, a good ten feet from the traffic light, and wait. They don’t bother with more whispers and useless speculation, this time.
(Parker, Hardison is sure, just shrugs.)
“’Wait,’ says the yellow light, twinkling in between.” The light blinks repeatedly.
“Wait a minute,” Meg starts, “it’s that –”
The blinking increase in frequency.
BOOM.
And explodes.
“’KNEEL,’ says the demon light, with its eye of coal. ‘Sauron knows your license plate, and stares into your soul.’”
While, under other circumstances, the two of them might scoff at the ridiculousness of the scene in front of them and the words accompanying it, the dust swirls, and slowly a gigantic flaming eye is clearly visible in the distance, where they had thought the sun was.
They collapse.
(“Yes!” Hardison whispers, lightly tapping Eliot’s wrist instead of his fist, since he’s dressed up as an orc as part of their backup plan.
“Alright, alright. Let’s get the rest sorted and get out of here before the cops show.”
“Yeah, yeah, like I’m not already on it….”
Eliot raises an eyebrow at him.
“Man, I can see the camera in your hands. You’re not even trying.”
Hardison pouts – even if he’s smirking inside. Thanks to the kids’ security, he’s got all the pictures of Eliot cosplaying as an orc from LotR. All of the pictures.)
That's a wrap for today!
Kudos, comments, and concrit welcome. Feel free to poke me on tumblr -- I'm fins-illusion.
~Fins