"Hey mum, I'm home," the words came from the front door of the Kagome household as Akio walked through the entrance only to be greeted by the gentle scent of dinner coming from the kitchen, the smell of spaghetti bolognese simmering in a cooking pot filled the house and was simply irresistible. Moving through the front hallway he could see his mother in the kitchen with a wooden spoon giving it a gentle stir ensuring that it wouldn't boil over.

"Put your bag in your room and come when you're ready. Dinner is pretty much cooked," she greeted him with a smile and watched him walk past before pulling out two bowls in preparation for the meal.

Akio stepped into his room and placed his pack on top of his desk chair before pulling out his laptop and connecting it to the charging lead at the back of the table. He saw the orange LED on the front of the unit light up as he set it down and left the room to go eat.

---

After dinner Akio helped clean up the dining room and kitchen, all while having a small talk with his mother about how his day was at college and some of the assignments he was given over the end of semester break. She in return told him about her day at work and some of the problems they had to deal with in the computer system that they had running.

"...It was weird, it was almost like the computers were infected with this virus," she spoke to him as he wiped dry the dishes.
"But you don't have it connected to the internet," he replied with a puzzling expression.
"No, so we called for an IT consultant to visit us tomorrow. He better fix it because I'm not going in to input all those invoices manually. We stopped doing that a few years ago."
"I hear you... Anyways, thanks for dinner," Akio spoke as he folded up the towel and placed it on the kitchen drying towel rack, "Just gonna head off to my room."
"No worries dear."

Re-entering his room, Akio admired the orange hue that entered through the window. He could see the sunset off in the distance on the other side of Westbay giving the whole town a bright finale for the day. Pulling out his chair he sat down, flipping up the lid of his laptop and plugging his headset into the side he began to zone out from the world by loading up some songs to play. As he listened he studied the web page that had had him curious for most of the day.

>Enter The Hack
>Input Username _

Rumour had spread about this website through college and people had been trying different ways to access the following page with everyone claiming it was just simply impossible, even to the point where people were posting on social networks hash-tagging #trollwebsite in the beliefs that it was some stupid college stunt.

"Let's see what all the fuss is about..."

Akio positioned his fingers above the keyboard and began to enter the user name that he used on a couple of forums.
>'R..a..w..r.._..P..w..r'
He pressed Enter and saw the screen brighten to to a pure white before making a popping sound and completely shutting down laptop.

"Really? What the fuu..." In frustration Akio had tipped his head upwards to look at the ceiling, but instead of a white painted roof, he was staring at an iridescent black and blue surface. He tilted his head over to the side and began to look around, noticing that all the surfaces of the room shared the same properties. Looking back to where his laptop should have been positioned he noticed two Knucklebuster like grips floating ever so slightly above the table surface.

Alex stretched, reaching for the clouds, even though the roof was all she was likely to get in here. Yawning a little, she wandered over to where her father was, boots clomping gently, and found him halfway under a car, even though his latest thing was supposed to be fixing up a mantle-piece clock.

“Those tyres over there” one of his grey stained pants and a old sneaker gestured in a wild ark to a stack of about six tyres, “Put ‘em with the others, thanks love.” She nodded, even if he couldn’t see her, and headed over, lugging them two at a time, one under each arm, around the barn-like door of the workshop, and out into the tyre shed. Yep they had a whole shed for tyers, stacked round the inside walls, most piles nearly touching the ceiling. Shoving the ones she was carrying inside she added them to the next layer of tyers on the inside ring.

When she was done, after popping her head round the door to yell that she was going, Alex headed back to the house. A bit ramshackle, the door to the house was peeling, blue paint flecks strewn everywhere, and a few of the windows needed replacing, but all in all it was a nice place.

Heading inside she clomped into the kitchen sticking her nose in the fridge and getting a good, but soft, wallop from behind, “Dinner’s nearly ready, twenty minutes, change and fetch your brother, kay?” Alex rolled her eyes but pulled her head dutifully out of the fridge. “Yes mum.” She monotoned before high-tailing it out of the kitchen.

Changing out of her greasy work-clothes, into her normal gear, Alex ditched her face-stompers and padded over to the entrance to the ‘den’.

The ‘Den’ was in the attic, right at the very top of the old house, and filled to bursting with stuff. Two of the walls had computer desks against them, with all sorts of technical equipment scattered on and around them. The walls above and around had bookshelves cluttered supreme with books of all shapes sizes and genres, ranging from how-to books all the way to; cheesy romances, serious brain-busting Sci-Fi, Mega kick-butt action, and dragon-filled fantasy.

Rick, Alex’s skinny brother, was currently occupying one of the multiple computers blinking colours in here, it was, as her mother had said countless times before, “lit –up like a Christmas tree”, with all of the screens displaying something utterly different to all the others, and all of the blinking lights of things charging, things running, and things just saying “I’m here!”

Plopping herself down in one of the empty, roller, office chairs, Alex wheeled herself up to a lap-top, ‘her’ one, if anything is this mess could be defined as a single persons. Passwording it in, she opened up her email account, tapping her fingers on the desk as she waited for it to load. Humming to herself, she glanced across to see what Rick was working on, and getting a face full of meaningless code for her efforts.

“Hey, Lex?” Rick asked in a distracted sort of way, using his pet name for her. She stopped her humming, “Yeah?”

“Could you do something for me?” He was focused intensely on the little black letters on his screen, “Grab the Desktop and type in what I tell you, kay?”
Shrugging and glancing at her email, it having finally opened, Alex rolled her chair over and woke up the Desktop, a brand-spanking new desktop computer of Rick’s, he’d been saving up a lot of money to get this and, so far, Alex had not been allowed to touch.

“Ok!” She grinned, “shoot.”

Rick listed a series of numbers, letters, and symbols, taking her to a particular page, of a website, one belonging to one of Rick’s cyber-buddy friends, “There should be a link, click it, and you should,” he scooted over to another computer showing more lies of code, “End up on a screen, Yup that one,” he had glanced over and seen her screen as she followed his instructions.

>Enter The Hack
>Input Username _

Alex blinked, The Hack was a rumor Rick had been talking about for a few day’s, and she thought, but wasn’t sure, that he was trying to crack it.

“O……kay, pick a name and type it in.”

“Like what?” she asked, trying and pulling a blank.

“Lex?” He suggested, receiving a death-glare in return, “Okay, then, how about ‘Anonymous’?”

“A…n…o…n…o……………, how do you spell that?”

“Get rid of the O and replace it with a…………”

Alex started re-typing, but hit the enter key without meaning too.

>Anon

Before Rick could finish, or Alex could completely register what she had done, the whole deck of computers, flashed bright white, but only The brand new Desktop, shutdown.

Propelling herself backwards, as if being away from the computer would change something, Alex heard Rick’s voice, fading out then cutting off, sharp as glass; “Bloody Hell, what th………………”

Glancing at him, or where Rick should have been, Alex frowned, the wall, normally a dirty shade of grey cream, was…… pulsating blueish-black, the shelves empty of books, and made up of the same late-night colour, the chair was the same, frayed fabric no longer visible, like the world had been swallowed in blue-black goop. Although not goopy.

She jumped out of the Attic, it couldn’t be called the Den without the computers, books, bean-bags and moth-eaten couch, now it was just another empty room in a empty mirror house. “MUM!!! DAD!!! RICK!!!!” She pounded into the kitchen, not even bothering to question when her face-stompers had appeared on her feet.

No one. Rick had vanished right in the same room, so why would anyone else not? Slouching her way back up to the attic, hoping to find a way back, although without a computer, she had no idea how to go about that, Alex spotted something she had missed before. Right where the new computer had been was a pair of gloves, made of what looked like a fairly thin material, the wrist encircled by a thick band of bright Spanish-red metal that also laid along the back of each glove in a solid lump.

Unable to stem her curiosity, Alex reached a pale hand out to touch them.

The sound of wood hitting wood drifts from the small building nestled away on the outskirts of Westbay. On the outside, it just seemed to be a small gym. However, if one were to walk inside, they'd swear they were just transported to a Japanese dojo; wood paneling lines the floor as racks of samurai armor line the perimeter of the room at regular intervals. Toward the back, where the sensei stands, a sword rack stands on either side, each laden with swords of varying lengths.

Out on the floor, several people, garbed in black bogu, strike at the air in front of them as their sensei calls out strikes, smiling as he watches the more senior students help out the newer ones with their stances.

The sensei is a young, black-haired, golden-eyed man who, even as he watched his students practice, had a wide, friendly grin on his face. His clothing was made up of a simple black kimono with matching hakama, the sash around his waist the only bright spot on him, being white.

After awhile, he calls out, "Sei retsu," or 'line up.' After going through the end of lesson procedure, he watches as his students file into the changing rooms to get out of their bogu. Sighing, he then turns around to walk away, only to stop when he hears someone call, "Uh,sensei!"

Turning around, the man watches as one of his students, a teen boy, walks up to him. Smiling, the man says, "Like I've told you before, the one thing my teacher didn't pass onto me was the need to stick to formalities. I'm just 'Zac' to you guys."

The boy nods and says, "R-right, Zac! Anyway, I was wondering if you could take a look at something for me?"

Zac nods and watches as the boy pulls out his smartphone and shows him a screencap. In the picture is several lines of code, the last two being:

>Enter The Hack
>Input Username _

Seeing those two lines, Zac says, "Don't go to that site, anymore."

The boy raises an eyebrow before Zac adds, "I've heard stories of people logging into that site and getting a terrible virus on their computers. Trust me, sating your curiosity's not worth the money you'd have to shell out to replace your computer."

The boy looks back down at his phone, then nods. Smiling, Zac says, "Alright, now go get out of your bogu. I'm giving you guys the next week off, but be sure to take your bokken home with you so you can keep your skills sharp."

The boy nods with a smile and walks off. Sighing, Zac turns around and disappears into a hallway in the back of the dojo. Instead of having an apartment or a home, Zac had decided to make the dojo his home, using one of the spare storage rooms as his all-purpose room. Stepping inside, he sighs, shutting and locking the door behind him. Walking to his desk, where, very out of place in the entire building, was a top-end gaming computer, a gift from himself after graduating from his sensei's mentorship.

Typing in an address, a familiar screen appears: the same lines of codes the boy had shown him.

>Enter The Hack
>Input Username _

Seeing those two lines, Zac types into the second:

>John Doe_

Sitting back as his computer shuts down, he closes his eyes. When he opens them again, he finds himself in an iridescent black-and-blue copy of his dojo. His clothing had changed color, the kimono becoming white and his hakama having become blue. On his right shoulder lays the kanji "嵐". Storm

Rising to his feet, Zac walks over to the object leaning against his wall: a long katana. Wrapping his hand around the sheath, he picks it up, curls his fingers around the hilt, and pulls, revealing part of the gleaming blade. "Hello, beautiful," he says, smiling. Clicking the sword back into its sheathe, he slips it through his sash and leaves the room.

The two grips slowly rotated in opposite directions as they hovered on the table surface. Cautiously Akio got up from the chair that he was sitting on and stepped backwards. If there was one thing he knew it was that you always had to be cautious when presented with a scenario that you didn't understand, and frankly this had topped the list by a country mile.

"What the hell is going on?" he whispered to himself as he looked around the minimalist room. "This is 'my' room?" He stepped towards the window and examined the outside world. It held the same properties as the surfaces that surrounded him; clean, crisp, and all with a slightly neon hue. As he got closer he heard a faint pinging sound coming from his table behind him. He twisted around to see a small yellow aura emitting itself from the knuckle-buster grips with every chiming sound. They were almost begging him for their attention.

Akio held a puzzled look as he began to admire them. They did look impressive for some reason, especially with their black, gloss surface, edged with a red trim. He was about to head over and inspect them a little further but the tapping of something on the window threw off his train of thought. Instantly he spun around and was greeted by a curious little figure on the outside. It looked like a little round mechanical eye with a long wired tail just floating there.

"Heh... So I'm on camera now?" he spoke out to the bot as he noticed the tail began to move and reel in something hidden behind the wall. Slowly stepping out onto the surface of the window was a large mechanical arachnid, each step emitting a digital pulse as it came into contact with the window surface.

"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!!!" Akio swore as he lept back stumbling over his feet and falling to the ground. The arachnid seemed to have spotted him and the extension eye quickly zipped back into the body. Lifting one of it's legs it began to stomp it on the window. Faint cracks could be seen expanding out from the point of impact and Akio began to panic. "Wait... is mum still downstairs?"

"Mum?!" He yelled out at the top of his voice as he watched this creature crack it's leg through the glass. "Shit! Mum!? You there?!" Stumbling towards the doorway he bumped into a force field barrier. Upon hitting it he heard the ping of the knuckle-busters. He looked over and saw them glow with that familiar aura at the same time the creature broke through window. He wasn't going to have enough time to reach them but at the same time the room began to pulse a vibrant red.

"MUMMM!!!"

Akio felt his desk chair slip out from under him as he fell to the floor. He felt the familiar carpet feel under his hands. His head pounded from an excruciating headache and his stomach turned. He ran, ran through the darkened house and grabbed a hold of the porcelain bowl, heaving up everything inside his gut.

"Is everything alright?!" The light switched on and Akio's mother stood there in a dressing gown wondering if her son was alright.
"I'm ok... Just a stomach... bug," he quietly replied.
"I didn't think my cooking was that bad..." she spoke as she sat down on the edge of the bath in order to comfort her son.
Akio laughed quietly,"Your cooking is fine mum..."

The laptop flashed a brief message.
===WARNING!!!===
>Firewall breached!!!
>Initialising immediate log-out procedure

Alex poked the floating gloves, leaping backwards to avoid anything that might happen, although aside from a slight bobbing form the glove-thing she had touched, nothing changed. Slinking closer, Alex climbed onto the desk, getting a good look at the objects from all sides, and really, they seemed to be nothing more than gloves with a strange red metal attached. Grabbing one she peered inside, looking for…… she wasn’t sure what, but probably anything that looked like it shouldn’t be inside a glove. Placing the glove back on the desk, or five centimeters above it, she picked the other one up and examined that one thoroughly too. Finally deciding they looked safe enough she tucked each one in a pocket, one of the benefits of having her cargo pants, even if they were no longer quite the same khaki colour, now being more of a purple-black, like obsidian in minecraft, a game her brother played excessively, not that she didn’t, just that he played it more than her.

Turning and surveying the room, Alex frowned, grimacing at the empty surfaces, the couch was actually still there, but a mud puddle looked more inviting to sit on than its solid, black with neon edges, slab.

Sliding down the ladder out of the attic, she clomped softly to her room, scared to look, choosing instead to peer cautiously round the door to Rick’s bedroom, right opposite her own. It to was empty, spartan, just like the attic. His bed was there, as soft looking as the walls, with no blankets, and no pillows. There was just the bed, side-table shelves and desk; it was like someone had ransacked the house taking everything that was not furniture.

Finally having worked up the courage to search her own room, Alex paused at her door, yanking it open in a sudden rush, she found her room, just like Rick’s; empty void of all but the basic furniture, and all of it the same shiny-but-not-shiny solid slabs with pale-morning-blue neon streaks outlining everything.

Pinching herself as the reality of where she was, or more accurately where she was not, set in, Alex wondered if this was a nightmare, certainly it wasn’t her worst, that position would always be held by a set of double dreams back to back, but this was awfully real. Too real for a dream, she decided.

Backing out of the not-her room, she started to wonder if she was dead. It hadn’t felt like she had died, but how was she supposed to know what that felt like? But if she was dead, then this would probably be the equivalent of purgatory. Although neither Alex nor her family was religious, she had a fair idea of some of those sorts of beliefs, not a good one, just an idea.

Really hoping she wasn’t dead, Alex explored the rest of the house, finding every room consisted of the same freaky stuff. Reaching the front door, she paused, not really ready to go outside, but deciding to anyway. Overriding the little voice of caution, she snatched the door open, revealing a mechanized, blue-black, neon outlined, empty world.

Well, almost empty, the door to the mirror workshop stood open, just a bit. And a slight rummaging came from inside. Creeping closer, scared terribly, Alex peeked round the door, finding a mechanical looking dog-like creature, probably knee high, a metallic silver colour. It’s large face was squat and boxy, and its legs slightly stubby, but the fangs lining its open maw were certainly worrying, more like knives than fangs, and with the way the jaw attached if it bit something, it would chomp out a massive hole.

Slinking away Alex thoughtlessly shoved her hands in her pockets, straight into the odd gloves. She yanked her hands out of the pockets, as the gloves weren’t coming off that easily, just in time it seemed as a blade materialized from the front of the gloves, although materialized wasn’t really the right word, it was more like the red metal had started……opening. Small bright red flaps folding out and merging, forming a guard for her hand itself, a piece growing from the bottom forcing her hands into fists, and a knife-like piece extending in a roughly six inch blade, the sharp side facing up.

Distracted by the manifestation of the blades, Alex didn’t see the dog-like creature come out of the workshop, but she did hear the grating that came from it opening it’s jaw as wide as it might go. The noise was horrible, and certainly enough to drag her out of her mesmerization.

Jerking her head up, Alex freaked, and who wouldn’t with a knee-high, mechanical looking dog-like-thing, that is cranking open its maw-full of deadly sharp shards-that-pass-for-teeth, in all probability to try and swallow you whole?

Alex tripped backwards in an effort to get away from the thing, which in turn leapt at her, jaw gnashing wildly. Slamming her fist at it, Alex kept pummeling the creature, leaving large gashes in its side. She might not normally fight, but she had been taught to throw a punch, as every girl should be, and so even full to the brim with terror, she didn’t stop hitting the thing, not till it dissolved in blue and black pixel dust, and even then she took a few more swings at it, making sure it was gone.

When not even the dust remained, she turned and dashed back inside, slamming the door and collapsing in a shaking heap as the adrenalin caught up to her. She didn’t know how long she sat there, it could have been an eternity for all she cared, but somewhere along the way she ran out of time.

Sliding off the seat, Alex hit the floor of the Den with a thud. Blinking she looked round. What? Everything was back to normal, the books on the shelves, the computers blinking away on the desks, the couch in all it’s multi-coloured, moth-eaten, glory. It was all there and all …… different, just as it was supposed to be.

Rick wasn’t there but that didn’t register, as a headache set in, a dull throb, ringing muffledly throughout her head.

She didn’t see it, but the Desktop had a message on the screen,

===NOTICE===
>Overtime
>Log-out procedure activated

His footsteps quiet in his waraji, his hands clasped in front of him inside the sleeves of his kimono, Zac slowly walks through the streets of the virtual copy of Westbay. He didn't even know what brought him back to this empty shell of his city, only that he would log in every day after kendo and fight the strange creatures roaming around.

Zac isn't sure how long he had been walking. It had to have been for a couple of hours, at least, when he finally found himself in front of an old building and an adjacent workshop. A pack of strange, robotic dogs were prowling around, sniffing the air and ground, as if investigating something. Strange, he thinks. I don't remember ever seeing these things behaving like this.

Just then, one of the dogs notice him and lets out a metallic howl. Sighing as the dogs begin to close in on him, Zac says, "And here I was, hoping to just have a peaceful walk."

One of the dogs pounce and, in a flash, is cut down by the katana that had suddenly found its way out of its sheathe and into Zac's hand. As the dog disintegrates, the others back off, but don't run away. Instead, they seem to be planning their attack, having seen how dangerous this intruder was.

Crouching low, both hands on his sword, Zac smirks and says, "Well, then. Who's next?"

The dogs begin to circle him, just like wolves in the real world would do to their prey. Zac's eyes follow the beasts as they come into his field of vision, but he doesn't turn to keep track of any single one. One of the dogs behind him pounces. However, ready for the attack, Zac side-steps and slashes with his sword in one hand, cutting the dog down in a single movement. One attacks from the front, but Zac cuts it down with an upward diagonal slash.

Three down, he thinks. Two to go.

Wielding his katana in one hand, he flips it around and stabs behind him, stopping the attacking dog in its tracks. Pulling his sword out of the disintegrating body, he watches the last remaining dog as it crouches, it's metallic growl echoing eerily from its maw. Holding his katana in both hands, Zac levels the tip at the beast, his golden eyes sharp and focused.

The creature stays in its spot for a few moments before charging. Before it gets within range of Zac's sword, it dashes to the side and attempts to attack from its new position. Once again, Zac sidesteps and slices at the same time, cutting the beast in half at the waist. The dog gives a mechanical whine before disintegrating into pixelated dust.

With a sigh, Zac sheathes his katana and bows at the the vanishing dog. "Thank you for the fight," he mutters as the last pixels disappear. Straightening up, he looks back at the old house and workshop. Something happened here, he thinks. But what?

Sighing, he says, "I'll just come back tomorrow." Holding his arm out, an orange, holographic display appears around his hand and forearm. A screen hovers above a holographic keyboard. On the screen are two words, followed by two options:

>Log out?

>Yes
>No

As soon as he taps the 'yes' option, the world goes black. A few moments later, he opens his eyes to find himself back in his room, his computer monitor reading 'log-out successful.' No light was shining through the window, telling him he had been in for at least a couple of hours. Rising to his feet, he mutters, "I was in there longer than I thought...I need food."

Akio had woken up the next day feeling a bit more clearer in the head, but still ingrained with the thoughts of what had happened the previous night. He got out of bed and prepared for the day by cleaning himself up, changing his clothes, and headed down stairs for some breakfast. As he sat down at the table he calmly poured some cereal and milk into a bowl and he watched his mother duck around the kitchen like a tornado.

"I'll be back a little later this afternoon. Are you feeling better?" she spoke while doing a thousand things at once.
"I'm fine, thanks. Where are you heading off to?" Akio began to eat his breakfast.
"I've got an urgent meeting with one of our clients, Ai International. Seems like they're having computer problems too. Oh, you still alright to pick up your car from the Fletcher's today?"

Akio nodded, considering his mouth was full of food, and saw her smile as she went out the front door off to work. The door made a quiet thud as it closed leaving him alone in his home and allowing him to take the time to have a look around the room. He sat there eating the final bits of his breakfast when his gaze was drawn to the microwave which for some reason was flashing 88:88 on the clock. Carefully he pushed his seat out and walked over to the unit, taking a small moment to examine it and attempt to reset the time.

Nothing worked. It was almost like the buttons didn't even recognise his input so in order to prevent anything happening out of the ordinary he leaned over and unplugged it.

*Beep*

The microwave shut down completely and the numbers on the screen vanished from sight. "Must have had a power surge last night," he thought to himself as he turned back to the table, gathered his plates and cleaned them up. He was about to leave through the front door when he stopped for a moment and had a thought about his laptop and the world he entered the previous night. Something about it felt off. It felt too real for it to be a dream and yet it seemed like there was something more sinister about that place then what it was letting on. Wondering if it might be best for him to worry about it after he picked up his car, he left the house and headed down to the closest bus stop. Knowing that his mother wouldn't be home til late tha afternoon, he knew that he would have plenty of time to search around online and find out exactly what this "Hack" world was about.

Alex tripped backwards in an effort to get away from the thing, which in turn leapt at her, jaw gnashing wildly. Slamming her fist at it, she winced pulling back a small pale fist, dripping blood, dark and sticky, too thick for normal blood, and a pulsating purple-blue colour, definitely the wrong colour to be blood, but oozing from her shredded skin none the less. The gloves were gone, like they had never existed. The dog-thing’s massive jaw wrapped itself round her other arm, crunching down with bone tearing impact, more of the goopy blood spraying everywhere, it’s jagged teeth shards sawing through her, tearing at her skin. She opened her mouth to scream, no sound coming out, the dog thing’s nonexistent eyes glowing colours she couldn’t see, it opened it’s maw for another bite coming closer and clos…………………

“Lex, Lex??”
“Mmmuuummmppphhhh.” Rolling over and grimacing, Alex, opened her eyes, blearily looking round, trying to work out where she was. “Lex?” Rick was sitting on her bed, ……no not on her bed, on his. Which meant… she had slept in his room? “Huh?” she mumbled, still not fully awake, “Why am I here? Where’s the dog?” Pulling her arms up to her face she examined them, proving to herself that they were still there and intact. Tucking her hands in her armpits she glanced at Rick waiting for an answer, even though she probably knew it. “You came first thing in the morning and snuggled in. That’s all.” Slumping down Alex vaguely recalled something like that: slipping out of her coldly lit room, past the night-light, and into Rick’s room. She hadn’t done that for a long time, not since she was much smaller. She would come and snuggle with Rick whenever she had had a bad dream, a nightmare she didn’t want mum and dad to know about. She didn’t remember what she had dreamed, and that was probably a good thing. “You okay?” She blinked, looking up at Rick, “Yeah, thanks.” She clambered out of the bed, pausing at the door, “Don’t tell mum and dad?” Slipping away once she saw him raise a single finger to his lips.

After changing and a bird-bath in the bathroom sink, Alex felt much better, heading downstairs, she grabbed a couple of hash-browns from the freezer, dropping them in the toaster after guiltily checking that no one was watching. According to her mother cooking them in the toaster would ruin it. The toaster, not the hash-browns, which came out all nice and crispy.

Predictably it was just as she was hooking the hash-browns out of the toaster that her mother walked in. “Alexa, what have I told you about hash-browns in the toaster?” Her mother was in full teacher mode, even calling her Alexa, her ‘official’ shortened name, although she preferred Alex. “Sorry.” Alex muttered, mouth mostly full, earning her a disapproving look. “Well, I’m off, love, school texted, one of the teachers called in sick. Arr, why can’t they at least warn me the day before? I gotta dash, love you.” And with that she was out the door, the car engine starting up and then disappearing down the street.

Shrugging Alex stuffed the last of her hash-brown in her mouth, chewing furiously as she headed out the door, and over to the workshop. The barn-like building that housed the workshop really needed a new coat of paint, she decided, tugging open the heavy wooden doors and sliding inside, a slight shiver passed through her, as she remembered the dog thing that had been in here in the mirror world. whoopps, she had been trying not to think about that, most dreams were better forgotten, even if they had been exceptionally real. But even so, she wasn’t likely to get back on the computer for a day or so.

“Morning love!” came a call from her father further back in the workshop. Clomping over, she always wore her facestompers in the workshop, Alex yawned, she wasn’t much of a morning person. “Morning” she called, still yawning, so it came out more like; “Moooaaaaing.”

Her dad was tinkering with a ……something or other, Alex really couldn’t tell what it was, thanks to it being strewn across the workbench in a million multiple tiny pieces. Frowning she queried, “so you’re done with the car?”

Her farther shook his head slightly, absent-mindedly answering, “No, gotta fix the thingie, and attached that other bit to the something.” Alex stared at him disbelieving, “You do know it was supposed to be done today, right?” He looked at her, frowning, “yeah on the XX/XX,”

“Yep, today.” She headed off, deicing what needed doing today. Hearing a multitude of bad language from behind her, Alex figured her dad had finally checked the date.

He’d have the car fixed on time, probably, but only just. There was, she decided, something disconcerting about the way her dad never seemed to use names for things, it was always ‘the something’, ‘that bit’, or ‘thingie’, which often made it hard for others to work there; the main reason Alex helped round the place.

Skirting the car, for once there was only the one crammed in, she headed for a work-top, preparing to clean it up, it having not been used in quite a while. Flicking one ear of her headphones on, she picked a song, singing along quietly, as she pottered away at the bench.

The bus came to a stop and Akio got up from the seat, placing the phone that he was playing with back into his pocket. He made his way to the front of the bus and thanked the driver as he stepped onto the pavement outside. The hissing sound of the doors could be heard as the bus closed it's doors and moved off, leaving the passenger alone in the street. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and re-examined the web page that he was looking at.

It was 'The Hack' homepage, but as he looked around the screen he spotted a link down the corner to a downloadable app called Hack Live. Curiosity got the better of him and he honestly didn't feel like waiting til he got home before finding out a bit more about last night, however, risking entering that world while he was out in public did somewhat scare him. He had no idea what was going on and felt that it was best to just simply observe until he was in the safety of his room.

Akio made his way down the driveway and towards the workshop. He had known about the Fletchers for a while but it was only until he had bought his own car that he needed someone to work on it. Basic oil changes and maintenance was easy for Akio, but a fuel pump... well that was a different story. As he approached the open door he could see his car sitting there in the workshop with a man leaning over the motor making some final touches.

"Hey Mr Fletcher. How is it all going?" Akio spoke out, ensuring that he didn't catch the man by surprise, but at the same time he heard a clank sound and looked over to the workbench to see a younger girl listening to her music.

----------

"What if it's Anonymous?"

"Please. They probably couldn't even hack an open WiFi network."

A female voice spoke out as she was passing Zhou, "Sorry, I'm on my way to see the department manager about our accounts and I couldn't help but over hear." Passing next to Zhou was Mrs Kagome, Akio's mother, and she realised it may have been a bit rude to interrupt. "But you think that the company was hacked?"

Zac slowly opens his eyes as his east-facing windows flood with early morning sunlight. Groaning, he sits up and runs his hand through his hair. Although he had gotten used to logging in and out of the Hack by now, he still awoke with a dull throb in his head, which would usually be fixed with a couple of aspirin chased down with a nice glass of milk.

Looking at the time as he stands and stretches, he nearly panics, seeing it was nearly time for his first class to arrive. However, remembering that he gave all of his students the week off, he relaxes with a sigh. As he walks into the adjoined bathroom, he turns his television on, deciding to listen to the news as he goes about his daily ritual. As he stepped out of the bathroom, his hair wet from his shower, a toothbrush in his mouth and a cup of water in his hand, the reporter was talking about Ai International. "Huh," Zac says around his toothbrush, "even they're having problems?" Must be those things, he thinks, recalling the monsters he'd been facing in the Hack, as he rinses his mouth and spits back into his cup.

Once his morning habits were satisfied, he turns his television off. Dressed in a pair of baggy jeans, a white shirt, and a blue zip-up hoodie, he laces his boots and grabs his keys. Stepping outside, he looks at his ride: a black motorcycle. Climbing on, he turns the key in the ignition, making the engine roar to life. Once his helmet was in place, he revs his motorcycle and pulls away from the dojo, following the same path he took the night before in the Hack.

A dizzy spell palm-heeled Alex in the face, throbbing through her head. She grabbed the bench where she was working, gritting her teeth for the few seconds till it had passed, this wasn’t the first that morning, nor was it likely to be the last. When it passed, fleeing just as quickly as it came, She shook her head and refocused on the task at hand, and her music, in which she was so engrossed, she completely missed when the young man, who had just walked in, or at least up to the door, spoke.

As it was she only heard when her father replied; “Ay, Akio, Howsit?” He was almost always amazingly informal, her father that was. Hearing that, one ear wasn’t covered by her headphones, enabling her to hear if her father needed anything, she quit the soft singing, leaving only the ticking of some unknown source to consistently fill the air.

Turning her upper body round she looked at the man who had walked in. Picking up a spanner, screwdriver, and a chisel or two, without looking at them, she made her way to the back wall and bench where tools were supposed to be kept, even though they were usually spread throughout the workshop, like some kind of ‘spot the pliers’ game, or something. Sorting them out, along with other tools she had picked up on her way over, she watched as her father explained what he had done, or at least tried to, using a multitude of “This thing,” “Something” and pretty much every abstract word relating to things. Finally, after the third ‘that bit’ in a row, Alex came over, tugging off her single headphone, even though there was no music coming through it, she had paused it earlier to listen in.

“What dad is trying to say,” Her voice was soft, and a little deeper than you might expect, “is that, he’s fixed up whatever was the problem, although you might need to give him five…ten more minutes to finish up completely.” She was standing next to her dad now and he was looking at her, half grateful, and half pooped that she had taken over. But really his explanation was going nowhere, and the poor young man at the door, Akio according to her dad, would be very luck if he could keep up with even half of what her dad had been rambling about.

“In the meantime ……” But she was cut short by the slamming of a car door, she had heard the car come of course, but hadn’t paid it much attention, not until her mother stuck her head round the door, “Hi love, I’m back. Malfunction with something, accidental text……” She then noticed Akio, “Oh, sorry. Well I better go, …Alexa, you have work due in this weekend.” And with that she smiled and headed out of the workshop and up to the house.

Cringing slightly at the use of ‘Alexa’ Alex mumbled something about doing it later, before refocusing on the conversation.

The young girl, 'Alexa' according to her mother, was mid speech in explaining what had happened to the car and how long it was going to be until it was completely finished when she was interrupted. The expression in her face when she heard that name mimicked that of someone that swallowed a lemon and didn't realise it.

"It's all good, I understand," he chuckled in response. That was the good thing about Fletchers, they did quality work and waiting 10 or 15 minutes wasn't really going to matter in the long run. The main thing was just to get the car working again otherwise Akio would be back here again in a week time. "Umm, if it's not too much to ask, could I have a drink of water while I wait? Had a crook rough night sleep and I'm a bit thirsty."

Akio looked around the workshop and saw a stool along one of the side walls under a bench. He turned towards Alex's father while giving a gentle point, as if asking for permission to sit, only to receive a slight nod of approval before he went back to work on the car. Akio pulled out the stool and rested himself on it while leaning back in order to use the bench to prop himself up. Given the time to relax for a bit he looked around the workshop and noticed all the tools and utensils hanging on the peg board organisers.

He turned to look towards his car and admired the gloss red paint work. The car was a sort of half gift from his mother with him saving up the rest with his part time job. It was an older model car with little electronics that could cause problems, but that usually just meant all the problems were more mechanical. It didn't stop him though and he had spent a bit of money on the machine modifying it, much like most young males his age.

After pondering round for a bit he pulled out his phone and began to tap away at the screen in order to kill the time until his car was ready.

Zac was driving down the road until he began seeing the bright yellow signs and black text. Eventually, he was forced to come to a stop. In front of him, tearing up the road, was a construction crew repairing a broken gas main. "Damn," Zac mutters. Seeing the detour sign in front of him, he sighs and turns down another street.

He was entering the business district when his phone had begun buzzing. Pulling over to the side of the street, he pulls his phone out and sees that his screen had changed. Although it was still black, as if it were off, every now and then, a green blip would appear on the top-left side of the screen. "There's one near here," he mutters.

Pulling his helmet off, he climbs off of his bike and looks at the sign resting outside of the office building. "Ai International, huh?" he muses. "Guess their problems make sense, now."

Walking over to a nearby bench, he sits down and pulls up his phone's browser. Immediately, the page for the Hack appears.

>Enter the Hack
>Input Username: John Doe_

As he sits back against the bench and closes his eyes, looking like he had been out for a leisurely stroll before deciding to take a nap, Zac's world goes black as his mind is transported back into that mysterious copy of the world.

“There's been a lot of stories relating to electronics going haywire both in business enviroments like Ai International and around the home – especially in the Westbay area.”

"Oh, I think I somewhat understand," Akio's mother replied somberly, "It's just that our network isn't even hooked up to the internet, and yet we are getting some problems too." She looked away from Jian and noticed the manager she was after had walked past the end of the corridor. "Oh! I'm sorry to be abrupt, but I so have to go. Thank you for your time."

With that she hurried off to continue down the corridor for her meeting with the department manager, leaving Jian to her co-workers.

"Seems rather odd that a closed network would be having problems similar to us," spoke out one of the workers.
"Maybe she doesn't realise that Wi-Fi ports can still be left open even when not connected to a network," replied another a technicians.
"And my TV?" The worker shrugged as if to say he didn't know what was going on and wanted someone else to hand out the response.

Unbeknownst in an adjacent room one of the computers had performed an automated reset and booted up into a black screen. A subtle tap could be heard from within the monitor as if there was something trying to get out.

"Umm, if it's not too much to ask, could I have a drink of water while I wait? Had a crook rough night sleep and I'm a bit thirsty." Alex nodded at him, "be right back." And with that she dashed off to the kitchen where she grabbed three plastic cups and a pitcher witch she filled with water, not out of the tap, but rather from a container situated on the bench, cleaner, non chemicalized water. Striding back to the workshop, she cleared a space on a workbench, and set the cups down. Filling two of them, she handed one to Akio. “Here” she grinned slugging down her drink before grabbing a few lose tools of the bench, “Whatcha doing?” She couldn’t help but be curious. Stretching she headed over to her dad, offering him the choice of tools in her hands while still watching Akio.