Getting up from her desk, Sasha closed her laptop and moved over toward the window where she had a perfect view of the foggy, drizzling world outside. London was a dreary sight come winter but Sasha had a fondness for the chilly months. Most fashion icons did not enjoy the challenge of a cold climate but Sasha took pleasure in helping people stay both cozy and cute. She had moved from her small town to London, when she attended university and since then, she couldn't bring herself to go back to the middle of nowhere, where nothing of interest ever happened. Her Corrector job, being in London, also made sense but she couldn't exactly explain to her very critical parents.

Her dark purple hair had once been a light chocolate brown but as soon as she began university, she dyed it purple as an act of rebellion or perhaps an act of freedom. She glanced back to her small corner office, amazed by how well her venture had taken off. She had been able to design clothes that integrated technology into the fabric and application. Her passion was making clothes that had not just style but also purpose, clothes that any body type could feel comfortable and better yet, confident in. Sasha had been surprised that she had taken the Corrector job, as it seemed like only yesterday she had been learning to fight in such a cold environment like the DgtWld.

Still, Sasha knew the cause was a good one and so she took the plunge.

And now, so many years later, she had great wealth which allowed her to travel and to live in a good flat which settled between the London HQ as well as her job as a designer and blogger. With her flow of funds, she wished Charlie would allow her to pay for him to get some kind of education but, like their parents, he was stubborn. A tough nut to crack. Moving back to her desk, she sat down and glanced down at the small clock in the corner of her desktop, noting it was almost 11, still to early to take a lunch break. Tea would be good though. Sasha got up and headed into the break lounge and began to pour herself a hot cuppa.

In the background, she could hear those she worked with, chatting about the recent pop culture news. Sasha used to care so much about who was doing what or where some famous bloke was going. After a while, as her life became hectic, she stopped caring about the little things. She learned that life was only enriched by those around her, not those that sort of revolved around a newsfeed or gossip column. Her friends and family were what she cherished most and she stopped bothering to know what actor was dating what model. Though she thrived in fashion, she didn't want it to define her, to have it consume her.

It was interesting, with age came perspective.

Someday she hoped to pass along her wisdom to Charlie or even to Riley or Avery if they liked. Sasha finished adding the perfect amount of sugar and milk to her tea before she wandered back to her desk and checked to see whether or not the boys had gotten make to her email. She heard a small jingle, London Calling by The Clash which signaled they had work to do. She quickly silenced it and took a few gulps of tea before she passed it to a wandering doe eyed intern. "I'm catching lunch early today." She said as she headed out, grabbing her purse and jacket on her way out the door. The application, Cnnt, was alerting them to a Collision taking place. She supposed they could talk Unification Day plans while on the job. It had been about a week since they had to slip into the DgtWld so she wasn't sure when they'd be called back together next.

"I probably jinxed us." She muttered as she started to walk towards London HQ, not wanting to deal with the headache of midday traffic.

Sitting with his legs crossed on what was no doubt intended as a footrest Avory peered at a slowly scrolling screen of text up on his computer. It was the newest research on repressed memory dredging. In the early nineties Freud's work and hypnosis had largely been stamped from existence as dangerous as there was nothing of merit in the studies he had conducted. The newest research seemed to suggest that Freud wasn’t as wrong as people had initially thought. At Least not wrong about the brain's ability to fully bury certain memories. Memory was such a touchy subject though since it was possible that the memories in question were still as reconstructed as the original hypnosis studies. Suggestion was a powerful thing, in this case though it seemed like what they had discovered where encoded synaptic pathways which had been wired around by the brain or rewired in such a way that the memories had been re-purposed for something else entirely.

A email ping popped up in the lower right corner of Avory’s screen. The time stamp on it made him blink. Was it really already 11? Shasha. Scanning the tag line Avory decided that it was safe to ignore the email until his reading was done. Swiping the piece of glass shot through with circuitry sitting in his lap Avory tapped the speed up on the scroll. Glossing over the analysis he went straight for the conclusions section. Pursing his lips Avory uncrossed his legs and stood up from the foot rest. The article really had little bearing on his own research since Avory’s Honors Thesis was on replication of consciousness. On paper it was a theoretical process for replicating an individual's consciousness in another neural net. The practical applications were far ranging but its implications also opened up a whole new field of bioethics and techno ethical questions.

Closing out of the paper Avory considered the tagline of the email before sorting the files he’d left cluttering the desktop. The flat he rented in London proper was neat, clean, gloomy and properly dapper in terms of interior decoration. The cultivation of the isolated genius trope was something he took a mild amount of pleasure in given that he no longer needed to impress Maria. Shooting a look at the portrait of the Spanish foreign exchange student that he’d never gotten around to disposing of Avory reached over and placed it face down on the desk his computer sat on. It really was time to move on. There were plenty of women who made eyes at him. With a sigh Avory went back to the email considering it again.

Double clicking on the email button Avory opened Sasha’s email and scanned over it. Unification day. Huh. Originally he’d planned on finding somewhere to go dancing but the suggestion of finding some place in America for a roaring party have a certain appeal to it. As he considered how to pitch New Orleans, the birthplace of Jazz and one of the best places he knew personally to get knackered and enjoy a night on the town his phone rang. Looking at the offending object he squinted at the computer screen again. Work was calling, which probably meant he wasn’t getting to case a new dance hall tonight or work on his Thesis.

Standing up Avory thumbed the surface of the sleek device and consulted the warning. With a few smooth swipes of his thumb Avory opened a text window as he walked towards the door to collect his coat. “Text Sasha.” The phone chimed, it wasn’t terribly necessary to speak to it but hearing his voice for the first time in probably the last ten hours was a good start to getting back to normal. Thumbing over the nine key pad Avory composed an appropriately succinct text.

Laying lazily on a couch settled in the designated living room of his loft, Riley lazily stared at the ceiling. He was absentmindedly throwing some sort of mechanical sphere- of the type that shouldn't be thrown- into the air above him with a hand and catching it whilst listening to some light hearted future bass/edm music. The sphere was one part metallic and one part plastic, and had a large lens on it like one would see on a projector, and looked like it was hand built, or at least custom ordered. On the coffee table a foot or two away sat his laptop, its screen displaying a shifting color gradient as it slept from disuse, plugged into some half-assembled piece of electronics sitting next to it, the project having been given up on an hour or so earlier.

Representative of the rest of Riley's loft, the living room, and most of the apartment was sparsely decorated. The furniture was square and modern, featuring mainly browns and wood with accents of blue or black or white. The walls and ceiling were industrial and utilitarian, and the apartment itself was lit up by a set of large floor to ceiling windows on one side facing the small staircase that led to the sleeping area. The windows themselves overlooked the top of some of the city's skyline and gave Riley an excellent view of smog, fog, and storms.

Stirring him from his lazy stupor was the sound of Spark calling him from the apartment wide surround-sound he had installed when he first moved in. Spark was a simple minded app that Riley had coded for his team to use in the DgtWld. He passed it off as a Personal Assistant/PDA type program given to him by his sister who worked with computers for a living. Surprisingly enough, Spark performed that task rather well, though it didn't take that much work to make something read off notifications and dates.

Reaching over, Riley slapped the sphere into the device plugged into his laptop. After a minute, the lens started glowing and the device whirred to life. The lens began displaying light, and a 3-d image of Spark appeared and began floating around the apartment. The chipper little ball floated around for a moment before it flew over to where Riley was laying and replaced himself with an image of the E-mail that had been sent.

It was Sasha, the de-facto leader of the little team they had assembled here in London- or at least one of them. She was asking about the boys' Unification day plans and offered potential trips to Paris, Germany or even the US. Riley wouldn't mind going on a trip to the US- he had family in Miami, and it had to be somewhat warmer than London was at the moment. He hadn't gone out with the rest of them in a while- it had been about a week since the three of them had been together, so the excursion wasn't unwelcome.

Riley had pulled out his phone and began typing a response to the E-mail, his eyes still in the air glancing at the 3-d display of the E-mail that had replaced Spark when his phone buzzed. Simultaneously the 3-d display fizzled out and fell dead. Riley grimaced, he was still working out the kinks- the display didn't like it when multiple things happened at once, which was fairly often. Maybe he should get his sister to take a look at it- if she was well enough. With a sigh, Riley brought his eyes down to his phone's screen. They had work.

Reaching over, Riley slapped his laptop shut, unplugged it from the projector, and slid the thin device into a sling backpack at the foot of his couch. Sliding his feet into a pair of boots, Riley threw his jacket on and slung the bag over the other with a sort of relaxed efficiency as he made his way out the door.

As she headed out the door, still fumbling with her jacket. Eventually she sorted herself just as she heard a *piiing* ring internally in her head thanks to the MChip inside of her. She pulled put her phone, a sizable geometric item that could serve as a blunt object in her defense, and grossed her fingers over the keys.



There were times when they would just find a cyber cafe and log in that way but the Gvn wasn't fond of them doing that as it could raise a few questions should someone find three people unconscious plugged into the DgtWld. But sometimes things couldn't be helped. Other times they used their secure devices at home but often, it was a trip to the HQ in London that initiated their deep dive into another world, a digital one, cold and populated with the worst of humanity. For the public, they were unaware that it was possible to actually insert one's self into the DgtWld. To them the DgtWld was purely the global internet they used to surf, buy items and put themselves into beautiful virtual reality scenes but never physically, never truly immersive.

That technology of syncing up your mind and body to a digital plane was reserved for the Gvn who needed it for their own purposes. Sometimes hackers would get their hands on something similar and would go inside to physically do personal harm to people and servers where data was housed. But it was risky and dangerous. And deep down, probably took an unseen toll on one's own health but the wage Correctors were paid, was certainly worth the numerous risks involved. The trio was just one team of many stationed around the UK and the world. They were a special team that had secret jobs and sometimes, Sasha found herself wishing. pining for something stable, something less sneaky.

Walking down the street, the fog seemed to hug around her, draping her in a light mist. Sasha let out a sigh and kept walking, moving around the others who were out for an early lunch as well, or those dodging their academic responsibilities. Soon she came to a large white building. It was HQ. The public regarded it as a branch of the Gvn dealing with security and in a sense, they weren't being lied to. The building itself was very angular, seeming to be constructed of squares and rectangles. It was modern, simple and somehow unassuming.

Walking up the steps, a man in a black suit with black sunglasses leaned over and scanned the MChip on the back of her neck before opened the door, allowing her entrance. Even though they had been doing their job for many years, the procedures didn't change. Once inside HQ, she walked over to the front desk and the blond haired receptionist checked her in. "The guys will be here soon." Sasha mentioned as she glanced back toward the simple black tinted glass door. The lobby was filled with white marble floors and white and black leather seats. Another man in a black suit walked by, this time his shades were a bright red, signaling he was another level of security as opposed to the bore outside in the drizzle.

Sasha moved over to the single door leading back into the bowels of the building. Another man was there with another scanner. She flashed him a smile, unable to see the man's green eyes from behind his black shades. He scanned her and motioned for her past him down the hallway. She shook her head and continued down, coming to a room at the end of the corridor. The white, sturdy door slid open and she entered. The room was small but by no means claustrophobic. The walls were a light grey with speckles of black and white glitter but it was really bits of carbon-fiber.

There was a round white table in the center with three small black devices that connected to their phone's Cnnt application. Sasha took a seat one of the three soft leather armchairs and pulled out her phone. If they were at home or in public, they'd used their phones to plug into the computer or laptop but at HQ, there was no need to even have a computer or screen. To the Gvn, it was superfluous. Unnecessary. They had no reason to hide their tech when at HQ, no need to put up a front, so to speak. Sasha tugged off her jacket and set her purse down. She set her phone one the black device in front of her as it wirelessly connected to the DgtWld.

The phone acted as a connective device from her MChip. As soon as the other two arrived, she would execute the Cnnt application and they would slip into the DgtWld seamlessly. While she waited, she thought back to her plans coming up. With Christmas closing in, she hoped they would be given some time off. She had to wonder what the others would want. She thought it might be fun to surprise them with a trip somewhere so they could see a new place, get their minds away from work. Avery was the first to arrive. "Hey." She greeted as he took a seat. Soon enough Riley arrived as well and she threw him a smile and a two fingered salute. "Looks like we're ready to go." She hummed.

When the others had set up their phones, they all executed the same application and their bodies went limp in the chairs as they were uploaded into the Dgtwld. A frantic stream of pixels fell from nowhere as a young woman took shape in the blink of an eye. Now known as Urkwia, the blogger turned around and stared off into the depths of the Dgtwld. It was lifeless, like a grid of nothingness. Urkwia took a deep breath as the others were materialized as well. She waved a hand in front of her as a semi-transparent screen appeared so she could look up the details of the Collision. "So we've got activity, looks like something over that way in the Oasis Quadrant." She said. They were never put directly where the notification came from, as it could risk putting the Correctors in danger without any notice, so they usually had to get there themselves to scope out each situation.

The walk towards the Collision didn't take long at least. "One of these days they'll have to give us a transport upgrade." She muttered with a sigh.



Eventually they made it to the anomaly that a hacker had constructed. Hackers would create things within the DgtWld if they could not enter it themselves. They would code a place where their viruses could hide while working, creating more work for Correctors. It seemed this Collision was in the form of a ruined overgrown city. It was about the size of ten city blocks by ten city blocks. It was big but nothing they couldn't comb through. Urkwia looked to Maverick and Archimedes, "Where should we start?" She asked them. "Maybe one of the high points? It would be good to get an overview, a good vantage point." She suggested. There was no way to scan for the viruses but they would be found in due time.

The chime in Avery’s head alerted him to the message. When they had first started working together Avery had assigned Sasha her own tone. It made it easier for him to sort if he really needed to respond to the message or not. As he stepped out of the car he’d flagged down for a ride to the drab, concrete building they periodically worked out of it dawned on the young man that perhaps a text scanning algorithm could be constructed and taught which of his co workers texts required immediate attention and which could be ignored for a while before it became socially unacceptable.

Flipping his phone from its case on his right hip he scanned the message. A correct guess it would seem as he walked up the steps. Not bothering to acknowledge the man on the steps Avery tilted his head absentmindedly so the security guard could scan the base of his neck. A necessary precaution. Stepping through the doorway Avery thumbed his phone again and tucked it back into its case. No doubt she was already waiting for them. Such was their fearless leader.

Another suit, another scan more flicking of the screen of his phone. Maybe there would be time to go out later. Regardless the job called to him.

Stepping into the room they used to enter the DgtWld Avery’s eyes flicked up from his phone at the familiar tone of Sasha’s voice. Taking in his co worker he finally curled the corner of his mouth into a grin before flipping his phone around to set it into the device on the table top. “Hey Sasha.” If they hadn’t been working he’d probably have said more but more often than not once his mind was focused on a task small talk was the first in casualty in the short list of his social graces. Settling his phone into the cradle Avery took his seat and waited patiently for Riley. Without the constant presence of his phone Avery contemplated the speckling of the rooms walls. It wasn’t that he was trying to be rude but the slow death of his social life had made him at least a little wary of engaging with his two co workers too much.

Riley wasn’t too far behind him and very quickly thereafter the group had executed the application on their phone and descended into the DtgWld. Right behind Urkwia an average height and solid build man was constructed from pixels. Blinking for a moment Archimedes flicked his right hand, on cue a pair of wrap around clear glasses manifested and unfolded in his hand. They were a new acquisition though they hardly counted as such. Archimedes didn’t need them as corrective lenses but they functioned to keep shrapnel, dust, and other particulate out of his eyes. Not only that but they were photoreactive so he could go from interior buildings to light without too much of a problem.

As Urkwia checked her read out Archimedes manifested his firearm swiftly checking it. With practiced motions he fitted a compensator to the end of it which would prevent the gun from coming out of battery if he pressed the muzzle against another entity, snapped in a magazine and racked the slide neatly. Holstering it he peered over Urkwia’s shoulder just as she waved the screen out of existence and pointed. Nodding without comment Archimedes took up a position on her back right fanning just a little as they walked.

Flipping his right hand over Archimedes manifested his combat knife and spun it neatly on his left middle finger. It was a nervous tick but he’d long since given up trying to eliminate it. As they finally approached what appeared to be an overgrown city the young man drew up behind Urkwia and waited while she fielded the question. Chances were good that as soon as they hit the city limits they’d be stalked by whatever the hacker had left behind for them. All of the sudden Archimedes got the distinct feeling that he might need another gun. Pity he hadn’t bother to download another.

“It also traps us at the top of a building. Though luckily it's an urban environment so…” he thumbed the hammer on his handgun to illustrate his point. Most weapons were tricky to manipulate in corridors and stairwells but most of his skills were as a mid 90’s to early 20’s paramilitary operator.

“Either way it sort of solves a few problems so long as we can, you know, survive being trapped at the top of the building.” His smile was wry as he waited for Riley to weigh in on the matter.

Riley was, as usual, the last of the three to make it to the HQ. Which was somewhat odd, as he arguably lived the closest of the three of them to the HQ, though no one had questioned him about it yet, and he didn't feel the need to answer the question that hadn't been asked. Though the short answer was, Riley, due to his relatively slow walking speed, often mistook how much time it would take for him to get to the nearest bus stop, or the bus driver judging from Riley's lack of hurry assumed that the man wasn't trying to board the bus and just left without him. He also walked past the HQ building and continued a block downward to a similarly styled building that did accounting work before realizing his mistake and walking back, where the man in the suit regarded him with a tired sigh and pointed him towards the inside of the building where another man in a suit waited for him.

Suit number 2 guided him into their work room and Riley regarded the other two with a lazier version of the two fingered salute Sasha often greeted him with. Sitting down with the others, and placing his phone in the black device like the others, He set himself comfortably in the chair and set it into a deep recline before he executed the application that took is into the DgtWld, his body falling limp not shortly after- hopefully his body wouldn't fall out of his chair this time. Such a fall happened last time they went to do work at a local Net-Cafe, and explaining that took a lot of smooth talking on the part of Sasha and Avery- the pair of them managing to convince the manager that Riley was merely low on blood sugar and did not in fact need to go to the hospital.

Forming from a stream of pixels behind the others, Maverick began taking shape. While shorter than Avery in the real world, in the DgtWld, Maverick was several inches taller, and was composed of a solid armored frame of black and red metals. While Urkwia checked her display, and Archimedes checked his firearms, Maverick went about doing a quick stretch. The stretching was more of a ritual than anything, as in the DgtWld, they couldn't actually pull a muscle, but Maverick typically ran a quick diagnostic of his armor system while he did. Unlike the others, Maverick was built to take hits, and did so quite well.

Sparky all the meanwhile, floated around Maverick's head, almost as if in orbit, chirping cheerfully as the group made the modest trek towards the collision in question. The little companion app was annoying at times, but it was at least a feeling of life in the otherwise dull void of the DgtWld. Though admittedly the DgtWld was not meant to be typicall traversed and was built to be more functional than aesthetically pleasing, Maverick almost enjoyed the various landscapes the hackers built for them. If it weren't for the fact that something was always trying to kill them, Maverick might've enjoyed the beach resort themed Collision they encountered a few weeks ago.

The collision this time around was an overgrown city. Almost post-post-apocalyptic. It was an urban environment, which meant close-quarters everything- which Maverick didn't mind, and that threats could come from almost any angle- which Maverick did mind. Urkwia mentioned climbing one of the taller buildings to scope out a vantage, to which Archimedes pointed out the issues with being trapped in one.

Maverick shrugged, "It would help to know what we were looking for this time around." he mused.

"At least when we're trapped at the top of a building, we know the enemy can only come at us from one direction."

Unless the enemies here flew, but that was a whole nother can of worms that Maverick didn't want to get into.

One thing was certain. They would not split up.

Splitting up in such a collision would be doom. Urkwia looked to Maverick and then to Archimedes. "Let's see what's waiting for us." She said to them. The trio moved further into the area, The grid beneath their feet had been replaced with lush springy moss that seemed to cover a layer of concrete which had seemed to lose the war against nature. Urkwia and the boys continued to make their way down into the depths of the collision. Soft subtle scents of grass and bark filled their noses and the bashful sunlight from up above provided them brief interludes of warmth whenever they stepped out from the shadows of trees or buildings.

The sky up above was a modest twilight hue. Urkwia had to wonder why hackers spent so much time making something so captivating, so beautiful, only to have it be a disguise for something selfish and sinister. "Such a waste of talent." She quietly mused aloud as they neared a slope and headed toward a slanting building which had a pointed top. If the woman had to guess, it was constructed to look like it would fit in with a New York City skyline. It had bits of moss covering it but it looked sturdy enough in her mind.

There weren't any signs of hostile enemies yet but her guard was still raised. The building she was heading for was a bit further than the others but it would give them a chance to check out the area of the decaying urban ruins. Urkwia slowed her pace as they stood in front of the tower which seemed to have an affinity to lean toward the right. "We should check each room to be safe, I'm willing to bet there may be traps set up." She said as she stepped into the opened and once the two boys wiggled in, she pushed and the revolving door creaked and rotated to let them inside.

The first floor was fairly empty, There were cardboard boxes half filled with papers, which Urkwia had to assume was meant to imply this was some kind of massive office building of importance. "Maybe we'll find a hint as to who is behind this." Most hackers usually left hints to their identity, usually because they were so self-absorbed. Suddenly a pile of discarded bricks in the corner, began to move and take shape. The cinder-blocks created an angular sturdy enemy that stood about three feet high. It grew concrete legs and began to hobble towards them.

One would be easy enough to fight off but suddenly a dozen more enemies began to close in on the three.

"A rocky start, don't you think?" She joked lightly as she readied herself for battle against the arm of slow but clearly strong square enemies. Something told her, this was just a precursor to them sorting things out. "Ready guys?"

Pulling the slide of his gun back just enough to check the chambered round Archimedes stepped to the right of Urkwia. It was incredible that there was so much of the this world that was set up as the most elaborate of traps. Deadly and beautiful all at once. The grid ground gave way to a soft loam under his combat boots. This was his world now, where steel and concrete gave way to kill corridors and tight spaces. There was an immediate veto of the splitting up which seemed like a decent plan given the nature of the collision.

Letting Urkwia lead into the building first Archimedes peeled right snapping his gun up in a weber stance to minimize his profile. Without some sort of body armor it was less ideal to adopt the traditional law enforcement stance for clearing. That was unless one felt like taking a projectile center mass. Boxes of papers on the ground impeded movement within the building. Office space reminiscent. Even the off white walls and the dingee panel lighting seemed to suggest one could easily slave away one's adult life here at a computer battling the mounting piles of paper. It was really a fascinating experience he had been lead to understand. One he vehemently hoped to avoid and had managed to do so. At the cost of any sort of normal social life.

“Clear.”

Archimedes assumed that Urkwia would take in the center of the room and let Maverick sweep left. It was a wider sweep and would mean that if there were impacts to soak up he would do it for the less well defended members of the team. As if on cue he turned back to Urkwia just in time to see the beginning of a construct stand up off the floor. Moving with practiced precision Archimedes open fired moving forward as he emptied the clip into the construct. If he could fell it before it was fully formed it would mean he could press the attack into anything else.

Brick work sprayed from the thing that had assembled itself from the floor as hot lead ate through its right arm, left leg at the torso before two shots chewed into its ‘head’ spraying concrete. Without flinching Archimedes booted it backward. Without a second's hesitation he swapped out magazines and put another half a clip into the creature from point blank.

Whirling he let loose with a series of shots into the mass of creatures as they assembled themselves. Working like a well oiled machine Archimedes put bullets into the mass of creatures as he slowly and deliberately backed away from them.

“That's a whole lot of contacts. We should consider moving, I don’t have anything that spreads enough to deal with them in mass. Stairwell perhaps?”

Backing towards his co workers Archimedes dropped the pretense of actually swapping his spent magazines and simply let them fall to the floor. Perks of the gear meant that he didn’t need to worry about running out of ammunition so there was no reason to retain the spent magazines like there might be in the real world. It was just good training.
“What’s our move fearless leader?” It was a joke but it was also a serious question. Focusing his fire on the right side of the group Archimedes assumed that Maverick wouldn’t walk into his field of fire. It left the left field for Maverick to rampage.

Though Urkwia led the three of them through the Collision, Maverick walked slightly ahead and to the left of her, relying on his peripheral vision to keep the other two and by extension Urkwia's lead in sight. As the sturdy and close combat oriented wall of their little outfit, it only made sense that he stood in front to take any surprise hits. The walk was relatively quiet, the only real sounds Maverick heard was the crunch of gravel and the dulled padding of loam and grass as his armored boots stepped across the ground. Maverick was inclined to agree with Urkwia's sigh of disappointment. Hackers typically were quite talented computer programmers. Many of them could make plenty of money in the current work atmosphere, but alas decided to go the illegal route in making money.

Maverick whistled as they reached the base of the tower. Slightly mossy but still sturdy, if not inclined to point to the right. It was impeccably detailed for what looked like just another building in the urban jungle. "You ever wonder how much time and effort goes into these Collisions? And for no audience either- unless you count us." he remarked offhandedly to the others. Sparky chirped cheerfully to puncuate his sentence.

As the trio entered the building, Archimedes automatically peeled off to the right, which Maverick countered by automatically sweeping around the left, moving diagonally to the side wall. There was no point in him sticking to the wall while he swept, as he had no means of engaging anything out of arms reach, so the sweep was more for him to make visual recognition on anything and everything of note. It wasn't difficult to sweep the room. There was little- if anything blocking line of sight on this floor, almost completely empty except for a few small piles of rubble and scattered office supplies.

"Clear." he heard Archimedes call out, signifying his neck of the woods were clear.

"Clear." Maverick responded, a bit lazily, as he returned his attention to Urkwia- just as a pile of bricks turned into a 3-foot tall cuboid enemy. Followed by a dozen more.

"Not clear, not clear." Maverick corrected himself as Archimedes immediately open fired on the first- Sparky squeaking out warning tones all the while. Their instructors often told them to identify targets before attacking, but Maverick had noted that often times, in a Collision, if it wasn't himself, Urkwia or Archimedes, it was an enemy. Also, Archimedes easily had the fastest reaction time of the three which led to Maverick's perception of him shooting at anything that moved.

As Sparky screamed warning tones and flew away to a safe distance, Maverick with little more than a slight nod of his head closed his helmet around his face. Something akin to a very angular ballistic face mask rapidly materialized over Maverick's face, a set of glowing vertical slits where his eyes would be, his entire body now encased within his armor like some sort of techno knight. His armor hud blinked into view over his eyes, the bottom left corner depicting a representation of his armor and its status. Holding his arm out to the side, he grasped at a white blade hilt as it appeared, a thin triangular blue blade springing from the hilt as his hand made contact.

"A rocky start, don't you think?" Urkwia joked as she prepped herself, punctuated by the sound of Archimedes' gunfire.

"And here I thought I was the funny one." Maverick remarked, with a slight tilt of his head and a wink- though the wink was invisible underneath his armored face mask.

Maverick rushed forward, his blade behind him, focusing on the left side of the group, as he didn't like the idea of walking into Archimedes' gunfire. The majority of the little buggers turned to face him- the closest target, though a few of the others still kept on plodding towards Archimedes and Urkwia.

As Maverick closed in on the first golem, he brought his blade up and over for an overhead slice. His blade bit into the golem, the edges of its wound glowing a white orange as the blade sunk into it. The golems were denser than Maverick anticipated, his blade stopping halfway through the concrete monster's body. With more closing in around him, Maverick didn't have the time to force his way through. Drawing his blade back, he delivered an armored kick into its torso.

Shifting his attention to the next foes, Maverick cut at one to his right, dealing superficial damage at best, as he lifted his free arm just in time to catch a two armed hammer blow from an oncoming golem. Maverick reeled back and stabbed at the offending golem as he backpedaled away from the pack. The left arm of his armor figure in his HUD flashed red for a moment, and a warning text appeared at the top of his vision 'Damage Sustained'. Damage was fairly normal for him, as he was often responsible for occupying larger groups of enemies so Archimedes and Urkwia picked them off. Sometimes Maverick wished he went for a sword and shield, but he preferred the more fluid and cutting power of his saber.

Lunging forward again, he delivered a downward stab into the one that he had just poked, forcing it to the ground before he pulled back and adopted a more defensive stance. Archimedes recommended moving, which Maverick was quick to echo. "Making moves sounds like a good idea to me."

"Unless you're set in stone about staying here." Maverick added, one of the golems responding the poor pun by windmilling its arms and attempting to bowl Maverick over. Maverick sidestepped the little bastard giving it a half-side-kick-half-donkey-kick sending it falling face first into the floor, its concrete arms digging gouges into the floor.

Looking to Maverick, Urkwia tossed him a light smirk. "Remind me to apologize later." She said sarcastically.

"I can wash these suckers out." She then told Archimedes, though she wasn't certain her water would pack the punch she was hoping for.

Urkwia watched as Maverick tried his best to hold steady while fending off the durable foes. She backed up toward the stairs, not sure they should flee the building or keep moving upwards. There would likely be other enemies to deal with if they progressed upwards but she had a feeling there had to be a reason there was such a swarm. Were they hiding something? She flung out her arm and sprayed water at a few hobbling golems that were still trying to make their way toward their trio of Correctors. She had to make a decision. Walk further into a trap with limited to no escape? Or find another vantage point?

"We stay the course, upwards and onwards!" She called out to the other two as she turned and hurried up the stairs, turning to shoot toward a few other enemies, noting that the water acted as sludge that seemed to slow them down, prevent them from moving so much. Hurrying up, she paused to let the boys go in front of her so she could bring up the rear. A good leader left no man behind. She ran after the boys as she washed the stairs in water, hopeful that would prevent them from climbing up and ambushing them.

With her heart racing, she looked around the second floor of the building. It was just as plain as the first floor. Urkwia noted what she thought were cabinet files though she had only seen them in films. She looked to the boys as they headed for the next set of stairs which were across the room on the opposite side. As they neared the staircase, none of them dropping their guard, it seemed there was a very old thick laptop waiting for them, propping on the stairs, blocking their path. Before she bent down to remove it, the screen blinked on, showing a bright blue background with white letting.



Shaking her head, Urkwia had no idea if this was a joke or a trick. Would the Gvn plant this to test them? Was there really some kind of conspiracy going on? Life around them showed no signs of unrest and yet Hackers loved to play games. Urkwia wasn't sure what to do but her gut was telling her to move forward. If this was a trick or a test by the Gvn, they would fail and likely lose their jobs. If it wasn't, did they need answers to questions they didn't even have? "I think we should keep going. Though something tells me whoever this is, has some worse tricks up their sleeves." She frowned. "What do you guys think?" She asked them.

What would await them on the third floor, would be a maze leading to the next set of stairs, on the other side of the building. The maze was made of tall silver-grey file cabinets, with stone creatures roaming and lurking in the shadows. All of this could be seen on the final floor, a woman sitting back in a soft brown leather chair, watching the Correctors squirm on her monitors. The woman hummed softly, hoping these Correctors would be the ones to take a leap of faith, to venture out of the cave and see the light and embrace the truth and the cruel world that bred it.

Archimedes watched Urkwia spray down the front row of constructs from the stairs. Leaping to the stairs the young man emptied the last of the bullets in his magazine into the remaining constructs before ascending the stairs with practiced movements. Ejecting the spent magazine he replaced it with a materialized magazine from the mag pouch at his belt. Thumbing the slide release he didn’t bother to look back down the stairs, Urkwia knew what she was doing and he needed to protect them from anything coming down the stairs. Bringing the gun back up he supported it with his left hand which was now grasping his knife.

Calling back down the stairs he addressed the series of puns “Please try not to bury me in that avalanche of puns.” For all his buinesses like exterior, his deadpan humor dictated that he must inject at least one dad joke into any sort of conversation that was happening mid mission. This seemed like the perfect place to make both of them wish that they had kept their mouths shut.

“Also, it's not: Not Clear. Its Contact. Though I suppose I understood.” Grinning to himself he continued to clear the stairs above them. Strangely he was a fairly decent choice to lead in an urban environment like this. Though he wished he had some sort of burst fire weapon or perhaps a shotgun. Archimedes made a mental note to at the very least download the pattern for Rip rounds the next chance he had. The jacketed hollow points he was using seemed to do the job most of the time but the damn golems had highlighted the fact that against inorganic enemies hollow points didn’t really expanded the same way. Thank Christ that they were jacketed.

Once on the second floor Archimedes spread out to the right covering the right field of fire with his handgun, sweeping to make sure that nothing came charging at them from behind the filing cabinets. Urkwia took note of the laptop and made a beeline for it.

Reading the text Archimedes pursed his lips as he scanned through it. This had to be some sort of mind game. That or maybe a really fucked up training exercise but he gut told him that it was probably a hacker screwing with them. It made little sense for their superiors to send them into a test like this. It took them out of play when their could potentially be a real threat that popped up. Still…

Part of him was intrigued by the suggestions but the reality here was that it was another delusional hacker hiding behind the idea that they were somehow being responsible by causing a collision. Urkwia’s question snapped his attention back.

“We need to do our job. Hacker sounds like they have some sort of superiority complex or perhaps a personality disorder. Use to see people like this all the time but we got a bit better at noting high machs and low empathy people in society so there has been a decrease in people like this. Though interestingly, I’ve been reading some of the old hacker briefs; it's amazing how many of them have personalities like this. I have to wonder if it's what causes them to do stuff like this.”

This was why the Government needed more tools for dealing with people in general. Archimedes held back from voicing that particular sentiment. His own research was already sort of toeing a line when it came to this job.

Maverick breathed hard as he drove his sword through the center of another of the little golems, cleaving it in half. Bringing his armored boot up to his chest, he kicked another across the room, bowling to a few more of them. The golems were sturdy and strong, but their small size and slow movements made them relatively easy to hold at bay- at least until they were overwhelmed. Shooting a look over his shoulder, Maverick kicked one last golem away before he sprinted up the stairs.

Bounding up the steps with Archimedes, Maverick paused at the door, holding it open for Urkwia before he slammed the door shut. "Sparky! Lock it!" he called out as he shoved his shoulder against the door. He could hear the sound of stone and concrete falling and tumbling, so Urkwia's water seemed to be working for now, but he'd feel more comfortable if the door was firmly locked behind them. The little companion program chirped happily as it floated in front of the door, a small interface appearing as it interacted with the doorknob and locked it.

With the door good and shut, Maverick breathed out in relief and joined Urkwia and Archimedes at the laptop, his helmet opening up to reveal his face again, now that the threat was over. Reading the text himself, Maverick found himself shrugging, not totally sure what to do, and not particularly caring what the Hacker had to say- All the hackers they had run into had some sort of superiority complex- As Archimedes pointed out. It was the main reason why these Collisions always looked like artistic representations of places instead of a drab and simple grid-zone. The youngest and least experienced of the three, Maverick generally found himself gravitating toward's the decisions of the others.

"We're not gonna get anything done just standing here. We oughta just keep going, and roll with the punches as they come."

Whatever was going on, didn't sit well with Urkwia. She needed to protect her two teammates above all else. Any wacky conspiracies had to wait. She looked to Archimedes who had a few cents to add to the idea of what was going on or as to the psyche of who was throwing this sort of gauntlet at the trio. She wasn't sure what to think but knew that they had to remain focused, find the source and eliminate it. All side errands would have to be forgotten, even if they were highly irrational and a bit curious. "So...it sounds like we're going to just keep going and not bother with whatever weird challenge this...Hacker has for us?" She looked to the boys, wanting to make sure they were all on the same page.

Urkwia was intrigued by the message but it wasn't enough to divert their attention. While it sounded nice to play along and avoid a lot of pointless fighting, for now they needed to buckle down and hurry. "Whoever wrote that stuff does seem to have some kind of...cocky air about themselves." She muttered as they looked at the object in their path. Lunging forward, she grabbed the old laptop and pushed it down the narrow staircase. She jumped to the side as it tumbled down, finally slamming to the floor with a loud clunking sound. Urkwia waited for a moment, wondering if something would happen but nothing did. "Let's hurry." She direct as she continued up the steps.

Upon reaching the next floor, they were now surrounded by high reaching silver file cabinets. "Awesome." She sighed and looked around, unable to even see the tops of the makeshift walls of the maze. They seemed to reach the ceiling. Walking forward she decided they just needed to stick together and figure things out, rather than lose track of one another. "Let's stay close." She told them. "Hey...you think you could download Spark to our location and have it find the exit for us?" She asked Maverick. While it may not work, due to whatever tricks or parameters the Hacker had imposed upon their location, she decided they may as well try it and see if it could be of some use.

Part of Urkwia was worried that in using Maverick's little trick, there would be some kind of repercussion brought upon them but she didn't want to play games. They had no reason to listen to a stranger and bow to its whims. Silence filled the room as she expected something or someone to come out. They settled on a fork in the maze, one route taking them to the left, the other going towards the right. "You know it almost feels like these walls could close in on us." She joked lightly, glancing over her shoulder to the others. As the leader, she had to make sure they all survived and it was tough to walk into the unknown, knowing a Hacker was pulling the strings. It wasn't common for Hackers to wait around and toy with Correctors, but some Hackers were twisted and narrow-minded enough.