Work Text:
After Ambrose unplugged Martin Truax, Len took over the company. Ambrose was given Len's former position as he saw his "brother" was more than capable of taking the role. After eating a BetterLife cinnamon roll, Ambrose popped a BetterMint into his mouth and shimmered to work. Though there was no longer a need for users to chew BetterMints, the process was still habit for Ambrose.
A minor update was made a few weeks ago regarding the acidic taste and throat tickling side effects from shimmering which were removed. There was also the addition of temperature to Unison. Depending on where the user was, they'd be hot or cold. And with this update, many people didn't like the idea of being hot with pants or cold with short sleeves.
So, Unicorp was working on holofashion for Unison users. They could purchase, jackets, caps and other items with the new Unistore. Many Unicorp employees were expecting to see an increase in profit. And hopefully, an increase in pay.
When Len was within seeing distance, Ambrose was quite baffled to see he looked almost exactly like a spitting image of Unicorp's founder. Len noticed Ambrose and gave him an I got to work before you smirk. Ambrose smiled as he shook his head, not letting anything cause him to forget the reason he was there. As he walked over to Len, Ambrose felt a slight tinge of regret in the dark tresses of his mind as thoughts - he felt would be best left buried - resurfaced.
The discovery of Martin Truax's location, his plans of Unison 3.0, pulling the plug on him (literally), finding out he ordered ex-employees of his to build himself and Mistletoe. Mistletoe, the thought of her name made Ambrose curious and depressed at the same time. Last time he heard from her was when they parted ways. But not before telling the other of their future plans. Mistletoe said she was going to repair her Aunt Dita's house to live in and continue Jiri's junk shop in memory of him.
I wonder how that's working for her. Ambrose thought.
"So, look who finally showed up. I thought I'd have grown a beard by the time you got here." Len teased.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner then?" Ambrose huffed.
"I only found out about this fifteen minutes ago, no need to act like I suspended your account or anything." Len commented.
Earlier that morning, Len noticed a peculiar line of code in the system. One of which indicated a potential threat. Further research revealed that Martin Truax (who was previously presumed dead) managed to enter the system as a data file labeled Unison 3.0. Through this method, Martin Truax was able to dowload himself as a Unison user.
However, to make sure nobody could delete him, Martin Truax saved his data to his old mansion, which was turned into the core of Unison. Luckily, Len was able to trace Martin's location. Unfortunately, he couldn't delete his code because it would cause all user accounts to shut off. It appeared that the former Unicorp president was up to his old tricks again.
Unison users that were online at the time of the hacking were victim of wrongfully suspended accounts while they were still online. If anyone tried to exit Unison before the problem was resolved, their account would be deleted. After an announcement was made, nobody logged out. Account management made sure no new accounts were created while the issue was being dealt with.
"I need you to help me go through all these old files and see where there's one with the new coding in it." Len informed.
"Alright, I'll use the Process Flow and get right on it." Ambrose notified.
After sitting down in his Temperfoam office chair, a multitude of different possibilities entered Ambrose's mind.
"One thing's for sure, we'll have to find the code. It has to do with Unison updates so we can remove anything else. But he tampered with user accounts too. Since it says 3.0, maybe it'll have a three or zero. Ambrose pondered.
"You got any ideas yet as to what file we need?" Len hoped.
"Since the file was labeled as an update, we can take out any non update related files. We can also eliminate anything that isn't related to user accounts." Ambrose stated.
After filtering the hundreds of files, they were down to 250 possibilities.
"We can eliminate updates-" However, Len had a different idea.
"But it's affecting users, we should look into anything involving that." Len interjected.
Len was right, there was disarray. Everyone in the office and Unison was panicking. Yet they had to stay strong, not just for themselves, but for everyone else involved as well. After taking a deep breath, Ambrose was ready to see things through.
"You hired more people after the incident to handle situations like this right? They should be able to finish it." Ambrose remarked before walking off.
He wanted to go after Ambrose, but Len knew he was right, there was more than enough employees now to deal with the remaining files. He just wished he could apologize for everything. After getting into a hovercar, Ambrose's mind began to wander again.
"Where to?" the driver asked.
"Eastern Seaboard City apartment complex 27 please." Ambrose responded.
The driver nodded as he revved the engine. On the ride back, Ambrose felt a hint of guilt for not attempting to visit Mistletoe in her new abode below around the 'fancy' neighborhood of Little Saigon.
"Stop."
As the vehicle came to a halt, there was a reflection of the elevator to Mistletoe's region below Seaboard City.
"I'll get out here, I'll pay extra for the trouble."
The driver accepted the payment and drove off. Ambrose looked the elevator up and down, remembering what he and Mistletoe saw the first time down below. People, frozen people, displayed as trophies of Eastern Seaboard City's dominion over Little Saigon and Rio 2. Luckily, since he held a high rank, Ambrose would be safe from becoming another frozen statue victim of the security system.
As the elevator went down, he realized that the security system most likely didn't activate since he and Mistletoe were robots. Since the system didn't detect life it refused to waste resources. When the elevator finally opened, Ambrose realized that Little Saigon remained the same. He saw an old lady pushing a grocery cart filled with old machine parts; most likely belonging to unusable or outdated Unison tech.
Finally reaching his destination thanks to his memory of the strange albeit rather amusing encounter, Ambrose saw the house he was looking for. Surprisingly, the house looked as it did right before it was detonated. The banana yellow exterior, the well trimmed shrubbery, everything appeared normal. It was as if nothing happened at all, giving Ambrose a slight sense of calm.
However, he was far from calm. He hadn't talked with Mistletoe for months, causing Ambrose to feel guilty. Though he had no reason to, work was far from lacking for the vice president of Unison.
Mistletoe understands, she's busy keeping up Jiri's workshop.
Finally, after mustering all his courage -which was very little- Ambrose knocked on the door twice before backing up. A few moments later and there was still no answer. nervousness and fear took over Ambrose.
Did she get kidnapped? Is she? No, there's no way that happened; someone would've told me if that was the case.
So, Ambrose knocked again, thrice this time.
"I'm coming, I'm coming! Yeesh, some people." Mistletoe complained.
Ambrose could hear banging and clanging on the other side of the door; most likely from parts she stored at her house from lack of room at the junk shop.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity for Ambrose, Mistletoe opened the door. Her hair was in a braided ponytail reaching down to her waist, her goggles were on top her head. She was wearing a dirty brown shirt with blue jeans that had slight tears in them, her black slip on shoes appeared to have a few grease spots.
"Hey Mistletoe, it's been a while." Ambrose greeted.
"I guess now I can say it was your fault what happened before, considering your new position for Unison." Mistletoe teased.
"Actually, Len's the president now, I've taken up his position as vice president."
"Still, that guy was probably looking to take you back up there. So, what did I miss?"
"Nothing much really, today Len told me Martin Truax breached Unison by encoding himself into the mansion."
"He what!? There's no way he's getting away with that!"
"He's not, Len's got some people working on it right now. I had to use my Process Flow to help him out. Luckily we've shortened it down to enough files that the other employees can solve it. Since I have some free time, I thought I'd come say hi."
"If I ever get my hands on him, he's going to pay with his life. After all he's done, killing him would be merciful."
"So, how's managing the junk shop going?"
"It's good, I'm getting by. You know, got enough to keep the lights on and food in the cabinets so I can't complain. What about you? How's work been other than that backstabber going back to his old tricks?"
"Everything else has been great, It's taken a bit of time to adjust to the new position though. It feels like so much is expected of me."
"Why don't you sit down and tell me everything? I want to know ALL of what's going on; and don't skip on the important details."
After accepting Mistletoe's offer, Ambrose sat down and told her everything that happened since they parted. When he was finished, it appeared that it was time for him to return home and rest up for the day of work ahead. Even though he went through the operation that would deem sleep unnecessary, Ambrose still had a habit of laying in be to stare at the ceiling and closing his eyes.
"Thanks for letting me stay and talk, it's been nice catching up with you. Maybe we could do this again sometime?" Ambrose smiled.
"Sure, just don't knock the door off it's hinges." Mistletoe agreed.
Ambrose waved goodbye as he shimmered into his apartment, falling into a deep and peaceful slumber.