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"So what you're saying is... In order to save the world... We gotta beat someone at a computer game." Mary cocked one eyebrow and stupidly stared at the computer assemblage in front of them.
"Not just someone," Stat said, cracking her knuckles and flexing her fingers. "The opponent's APM is off the charts. We're talking about a highly skilled competitive e-sports athlete. Or a virtual intelligence. But don't worry. I wasn't the Unite the Rift champion five years in a row for nothing."
With the others crowding around her, she sat herself in front of the terminal and shivered as wires and clasps automatically snaked around her arms and legs and secured her to her seat. The Player had been chosen. It was win or die from here. Deb immediately started rooting around to see if she could disable the restraints, and Twink, from his disguise as a Korean E-girl, began vogueing into a reflective metal surface. Stat had eyes only for the screen. "Nun-binary has signed on," she said with a smirk, her fingers flying over the keys.
On a corner of the display, the enemy player's name flashed in bright green block letters. JACKAL. An image of a cackling dog accompanied it. u rdy? Came the chat message on the bottom of the screen.
"Born ready," Stat said.
There was a flash of light. The others looked at the screen, but could make neither heads nor tails of what was going on. Only Stat was intensely focused, her hands moving with incredible speed, beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
"Hey, I think you should attack the thingy," Mary said.
"Fuck off," Stat said.
"Is that number supposed to be shrinking?" Said Deb.
"Yes. No. Leave me alone," said Stat.
"Ooh, your character is so kyuu-te," said Twink, sticking his head close to the screen. "That eyeliner? Fierce! I gotta steal that for my look." He subsequently squealed as he got a hand to the face from Stat, pushing him out of the way.
"EVERYBODY GET OUT!" Stat screamed, her eyes glowing red, the light of the screen below her making her look quite infernal. "LET ME GAME IN PEACE!"
The non-convicted criminal members of the Q-Force found themselves ejected to the outside of the computer core chamber, left to pace around dejectedly as beeps and boops came from the other side of the door, the sure signs of video games being played.
Stat heaved a sigh of relief and returned to her game. Her brow soon furrowed in consternation as she countered each of the tactics her opponent levied at her, but she was playing catch-up, and before long an explosion marked the end of the game.
"Okay. Time for round two," she said.
As her opponent wove expertly around her defenses in the second round and things got more and more dire, Stat realized something. She had this twinge of familiarity that started in the first round, but she was sure of it now. "Have we... played before?" she said to the empty room, her voice echoing around the metal fixtures.
In the corner of the screen, the typing icon appeared. Stat had a moment of anxiety. But then it was gone, and the only message that had popped up was two simple characters:
; )
"No way," Stat said. But she gritted her teeth as she fended off another attack. Her opponent had used her brief confusion to take possession of her base. She ran her fingers sore in defense, but as the timer ticked down, another DEFEAT screen was all that awaited her.
"No... no, no!" Stat pounded a fist down on the arm of her chair, forgetting her moment of recognition in her despair, in realization of what the defeat would cost her. It was a two out of three game. Losing the second round meant that her friends, and her, were done for...
But no explosions rocked the room, no missile countdowns started, there was only the screen, which flashed REMATCH? at her, and Stat's breath caught in her throat, as another one of the wires that bound her to the chair casually snaked itself around her neck and applied just the slightest bit of pressure.
Stat's blood rose to her face, adrenaline running through her body. "Jacqueline!" She said raspily. "I know that's you! I know your pathing patterns! I taught them to you! How are you alive? Are you working for the enemy?" She struggled against her bonds, but they held her tight.
On screen, the red dog head in the corner started laughing, as it grew bigger, covering the screen, and morphing into the familiar demonic lines that had decorated Jacqueline Box's face in the avatar Stat remembered of her. The jackal-Jacqueline grinned. "Play the game," she said, in a low, dissonant collection of voices that filled the room.
And the starting screen was again staring her in the face. Stat raised her tired hands to the keys. The deluge of assaults came immediately, wiping out her units as fast as she could summon them. This time, when her base blew up, a current of electricity flowed through the wires binding her to the chair, coursing through her body.
Stat screamed loud enough for the others outside to hear. They pounded on the door, yelling at her to respond, to tell them if she was alright. The banging, and buzzing sound of what was no doubt Deb getting some power tools into the picture, resounded in Stat's ears faintly, as she hung her head, exhausted from the ordeal, and tears came to her eyes, dripping down into the wires wrapped around her lap.
Jacqueline's dog face appeared on screen again, but this time her yellow eyes were widened in some concern. "Babe, are you okay?" she said, still in a demonic tone of voice, but filled with worry. "Did I overdo it? It was just a small shock. Look, when I found out it was you coming I just wanted to mess with you a little bit. I didn't mean to..."
But she was cut off as Stat's head swung upward violently and her face was wet with tears and snot, but her eyes were bright, and she had a huge messy smile on her face. "Babe. Don't stop. This is like, the hottest thing anybody has ever done for me. Also I've been studying your strats, and I am coming for your ASS next round," she said, her face flushed and her eyes burning.
Jacqueline laughed, her doggy nose raised up in the air in joy. Then with a blink she disappeared from the screen, and the game sounds started again with a fervor.
Outside the chamber, Deb exclaimed in frustration as her blowtorch failed to eat through the metal alloy that blocked their way. A screen blinked to life in front of them.
"Jacqueline?? Oh my gosh, cute snout!" said Twink, waving at the monitor.
"Who the fuck is that?" said everybody else.
"Look," said Jacqueline. "Stat's fine. You guys aren't in danger. Just give us some alone time, okay? Peace out." And she was gone.
"Can we trust her?" asked Mary.
Twink shrugged.
"Do we have a choice?" said Deb.
"So, I realized that I had built myself entirely around the wishes of one person. You," Jacqueline's voice echoed around the room. "And that wasn't healthy. So I had to dip for a while. Then I discovered that your spy agency, is actually super scummy and I didn't want to use my infinite brain for it anymore."
"Yeah," Stat said, sitting with her back against the warm column of the computer's core in the center of the room. She rested her head on her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. "I actually totally get it. I don't give a shit about the agency, I just like these guys. They're cool and I don't want them to die. Even though the AIA is pure evil or whatever, it's as good a place as any to hang, for now."
"I'm sorry I let you think I was dead," said Jacqueline, her voice softer, the column of light pulsing as she spoke.
"Nah," Stat waved her hand as if dispelling the notion. "It's fucking spy business. It happens."
"No, but... I really missed you. And I didn't know if things were gonna be okay. I'm glad you're cool about this whole thing."
"Babe," Stat turned and wrapped her arms around the computer column, tears flowing down her face. "I've lost so many people in my life. And you're like... the most special of them all. I'm just glad I found you again."
Jacqueline's voice got very soft. "I'll always be able to find you. Whenever your beautiful, genius hands touch the network, I'll feel you and I'll know you're safe. When this whole thing blows over, in five years, or ten, or however long, let's go live on a fucking spaceship. Or a submarine and live in the Mariannas Trench. We can go wherever we want."
"I'd like that," said Stat.
"So your girlfriend is just okay with us blowing up the facility and taking the decoding matrix with us?" said Mary, as their jet took off from the island.
"Yep," said Stat, gazing off into the distance with a smile. "And they're totally the real decoders. Not very convincing fakes that the AIA won't notice until it's too late, and then will lead them on a false trail to blame their own internal fuck-uppery and not us, or anything."
"Oookay then, mission accomplished!" said Mary, pumping his fist in the air, his eyes glazed over with his distinctive obliviousness.
"You look happier," Deb told Stat, sliding in next to her on the plane seat.
"I'm just looking forward to the future, I guess for the first time," Stat said, watching the laboratory on the island explode, imagining the fiery smoke columns forming a heart that rose slowly, dissipating into the sky.