Kyle Smith, was an avid gamer fan.
Though companies would rather, he was a fan of something else. He was a cracker, going under the name as Ultimix. His trade was very simple. All he did was try to access the latest games and upload them on the internet for people eager to get a sneak preview. Sure a few companies detected him, some even protested...
but he suspected he was never prosecuted, because the teasers actually increased their own revenue.
He had a bank of playstation 2s, all networked together to break any encryption. He didn't want to brag, but it usually took him only a few weeks of constant run time to break into a server. He also took advantage of a malware system to hide his IP among hundreds in a network.
He was an unclean, unshaven mass of a man, in his late twenties bordering on obese. When the sun changed, he thought.. oh well. Order more pizza online.
He rarely came out of his house anyway. That's not to say he didn't edge out a more legitimate living. He tended to play stocks online, and was actually quite good at it. He earned a modest living creating programs for other people.
That was when he stumbled, onto a secret server, for a game he had never heard about.
He kept on poking it, getting the little bits of information from it. He figured it had to be some kind of MMORPG? Code existed for different rooms, and there seemed to be some element of character creation in the system. Probably the most curious aspect of this game though, was the 'clippy' type helper with it. He called himself Daemon, and it was such an easy interface to work with. It had some minor security on it, but all he had to do to fool it was call himself the admin.
Such a basic mistake!
The daemon had the key's to the castle. With it's help he accessed everything on the server, including the backup server. This game must be awesome if it had a helper like this!
He typed a few queries to the daemon
admin: What is this room called?
Daemon: The workshop
Kyle rubbed his hands gleefully. Okay, so this must be the start of the game? Was it incomplete? This was definitely the character creation system. He panned the camera around, to see what was going on. His firewall detected an attempt by the system to 'call out'. He carefully re-routed the call so that it just bounced back into his own system. That was close...
The system seemed to run in its own virtual environment. It didn't even need an operating system... it was its own system?
Admin: what run time does this need?
Daemon: There are three in the workshop. Process is running at 5% on current system.
Sheesh! Even with all his playstations linked together, he was only running at 5%? That was insane! What kind of game was this? One thing for certain, this thing required colossal processing power. Time to over clock... he pushed all the playstations to the limit.
admin: what is the system running at now?
daemon: Process is running at 15% on current system
Well.. that was a little better. It had to be the most awesome game ever!
But how was he possibly going to get it running under his own network? He would need hundreds of playstations to reach 100%... He wasn't sure his nitrogen cooled processor would be enough, and that cost an exessive amount of money to run. one minute probably cost fifty dollars last he checked. He needed more answers... off hand he typed his question into the computer.
admin: How do you run at 100%?
Daemon: Network computing
Kyle couldn't believe how... seamlessly this program responded to his queries. It was clearly a program based on the responses, but sometimes it almost felt real. When other players get access to this game, they were going to freak! He couldn't wait to leak it... but how? Every time he tried to copy it his system hit with an error. Maybe the daemon could help? Time to see how sophisticated it was..
admin: Make a copy of everything and put on my hard drive
Daemon: Unable to. There are 3 non-copyable items in the workshop.
Darn it! Okay... so he couldn't copy it because the characters were there? Hm... should he delete them? It might help his system run the thing if there was only one or two of them. The company might even appreciate that he didn't leak 'all' the characters...
admin: Delete one of the characters. he typed.
Weird... why isn't the daemon responding? Must be lag...
Daemon: Are you sure? the question came back, as if typed very slowly. Creepy...
admin: Yes. he typed back, as he made sure his parallel network systems were working correctly. he didn't want the thing to drop out on him.
Daemon: Specify character: Dennis, Effie, or Admin?
Kyle chuckled at that. So the administrator had his own avatar in the game? Well he is the administrator now... it was possible that this avatar had special codes to the rest of the game as a game tester. It was normal practice for game developers to have a super character of some kind, to test out all the bits and pieces in the game. Clearly he could not delete that one, it was too valuable to test out the system.
He wished he could see what they looked like though. Maybe he could ask the daemon...
Admin: Show me the characters?
Daemon: Creating visual display
Sweet! His screen flickered as he saw them... mm.. sexy girl character or strong male character. Maybe they were lovers in the game? A pity he couldn't detect any script or text in the system for a story. Which one to delete? Well the admin was clearly male, so he might as well get rid of the other male.
Admin: Delete Dennis
There was a long pause. He wondered if his system was dropping out again. He looked at his processing clock to see if there were any changes to the run time.
It wasn't long before the daemon responded.
Dennis sighed. "I've tried the random IP program, but I just get bounced back here," he said frustrated.
Effie nodded with similar luck. She stuck close to Dennis, glad that he was around.
Janus was not taking this well. He felt quite humiliated and pissed off at whoever took his entire server. He put a huge amount of security into it, how could it possibly get hacked? He had gone over every corner of it, and couldn't figure it out...
he glanced up and saw a spark of light on the ceiling, hovering over Dennis. It was the clean slate program! Someone had activated it!
He ran as fast as he could and pushed Dennis away, just as a bolt of code shot from the ceiling into the ground.
"W-what was that!" Dennis said alarmed.
"Clean-slate. er.. it.. deletes code. I made it," Said Janus not feeling too proud about it now.
"S-someone tried to delete him?!" Effie said in alarm, standing closer to Dennis. She was angry now... whoever was doing this was going to pay!
"Still trying to..." said Dennis as he looked up at the ceiling. Sparks of light were being generated, all aimed squarely at Dennis.
"Run!" Effie said as she and Dennis took off across the workshop landscape.
"Daemon, activate write protect mode." Said Janus quickly.
"Activating," the daemons said politely. There was a moments pause. "Deactivating write protect mode."
"W-what!?" Janus said quite irked by this turn of events. How could the hacker get this much access? Time for another way around it. "Delete the clean slate program!"
"Deleting... Delete complete."
Denis and Effie both heaved a sigh of relief as the ceiling became a normal glow.
Janus was really fuming now. Who the hell was messing with his programs!
Steve sat on the bedside of the hospital, dejected with herself. Her mother had gone to talk to the doctors.. but in her heart, she sort of knew it was over. There was just nothing more to do...
she imagined what her life would be like now... and shuddered. A flower-girl? her? She saw a few flower types in the school, and by and large Steve still looked more human then plant... but for how long? There had to be a way to delay this... this... thing for longer.
She looked at the petal around her waist. It looked like a skirt, and seemed to emphasise what little hips she had. The legs though... that's what made her really shudder. They were so alien... as much as the petals, even if they were human. They were the legs of a.. a... dancer? They were so toned yet flexible... she couldn't bare to look at them for long. Looking back to the petal she was already contemplating how she might hide it... cutting it was a huge mistake. However it was quite flexible. Could she maybe fold it back on itself? It was worth a try, but not until she was healed.
Her mother walked in taking a few papers. "I think we're about ready to go now," she said. "They've given me a few things we'll need."
"T-they.. have something?" Steve asked hopefully.
Her mother shook her head. "Not.. exactly Steve. They are doctors notes.. so that we can make new identity cards for you"
"I don't want a new identity! I was happy being me!" She said punching the sides of the bed with a fist. Why did it have to rain! Why couldn't she be allowed to get away with it? It was just the briefest glimmers of sunlight.. and she had avoided it ever since! She was exposed for maybe a second.. maybe less... and she avoided sunlight- heck any light from that point.
"You're alive and healthy Steve... that's more then many people can say." Her mother chided a bit.
Steve was fuming. Honestly, why wasn't this a big deal to her mother? She was turning into a plant.. didn't she care? She wiped her eyes tearfully, even as her mother hugged her.
"You'll be okay... come on, you'll feel better when we get home." Steve's mother said with a gentle smile.
Steve reluctantly nodded and went for her clothes.
"Remember what the doctor said," her mother reminded. "You can't wear pants over those petals until they are healed."
"How long will it take..." the plant girl wondered.
"About two to three weeks. If you heal quickly, maybe half that time..."
so about a week and a half? Steve was generally a fast healer. She hoped she had not lost that... The flower girl jumped up from the bed, to get her clothes. The motion made the petals around her hips move upwards, fluttering outwards. She cringed slightly realising that she could 'feel' that. She gently pushed the petals more downward. She hoped the doctor's were wrong...and that these petals won't get bigger.
She very carefully put the pants under those girlish legs, shuddering slightly at the sensation of it. She tried to place them just under the petalled skirt around her waist, finding the task to be a little trickier then first imagined.
She pulled the petals up gently, to get a better look at where they met her hips. She had to wear the pants a little lower then she usually did, and the floral skirt hung itself over the clothing. She felt a slightly more unusual discomfort though from the petals of her changed genitalia. The pants pressed upon those petals and rubbed them harshly as she walked.
Still, she felt she could handle it for a little while. If only to get to the car, and then walk home. If only she could stop smelling like- like- whatever she smelled like. Maybe if she put on some cologne she could disguise it? She certainly hoped so..
She took out the sweat top, placing them over the tiny breasts, wincing slightly at the sensation of the stamens touching the cloth. It didn't feel quite like that before... but now...
"M-Mom?" Steve asked quietly.
"Yes?"
"T-thanks... I..." How could she say it? keeping this secret for weeks was killing her! Even if this was bad.. she at least had her mother knowing her secret.
Steve's mother just hugged her daughter. "Don't worry... We'll get through this."
"I... I don't want to go in the day side of the school. All my friends..." All her friends were unchanged. "C-can I take a week off school? Please? If I'm healed up I can go back and nobody would have to know... Please mom," the child was almost begging.
The elder woman's heart was starting to break as she saw her daughter plead like that. "We'll talk about it later..."
