"Okay, guess we're doing this the hard way," Nora muttered under her breath, slipping her staff baton off of her leg and rezzing it in, charging after her fellow vigilante after the two. Asta hurled her disc at Nora, but Nora batted it aside with her staff; Asta then threw the vigilante's disc at Nora, which she caught with her staff before tossing it at its owner.
"Don't be so careless next time," she muttered, dodging the mohawk guy's disc.
(I'm wearing my Flynn's Arcade T-shirt today :D)
Cor was slightly taken aback by the appearance of another fighter but nodded gratefully as his disc was returned. “Thanks.” he replied simply before looking at their opponents. “Think you can handle him? I got a bit of a score to settle with Asta over there.” he asked.
(Cool!)
"Think you can handle her?" Nora said acidly, barrelling towards mohawk guy, brandishing her staff. He dodged it artfully, but Nora was ready for that: she vaulted sideways off of a shipping container, catching mohawk guy's thrown disc on her staff and landing on him, throwing him onto his back. They skidded a few feet before coming to a stop; Nora slammed her staff onto his chest, code crackling across his body. His eyes rolled up into his head and he passed out, the lights on his suit dimming.
Asta, meanwhile, having decided that a disc was no good, took a leaf out of Nora's book and vaulted off of a shipping container, lunging at the vigilante, a guttural cry escaping from her mouth.
Cor scoffed with a small smirk at the orange caped program’s attitude before looking at Asta. He sighed at the sloppy, in his opinion, attack and threw a punch right at her face as she lept at him.
Asta grabbed his arm, using their opposite momentums to flip him over, but landed awkwardly and stumbled, taking a few moments to regain her balance.
Cor grunted as he was flipped but used the momentum to roll back onto his feet. Maybe he was a little out of practice… but he wasn't about to give up on this fight. He let out a low growl as he charged her again, throwing his disc at her.
Asta blocked his disc with her own and sidestepped his attack, but she hadn't fully gotten her balance back yet and tripped on her own high heels, toppling to the ground. With a growl, she started to get back up again.
Nora, meanwhile, was watching them fight, vaguely amused. She had decided only to intervene if one of them was in danger of being derezzed.
Cor slid to a stop when Asta dodged and turned to face her, almost laughing a little when she fell. “I’ll never understand why women wear shoes like that.” he smirked, placing his foot on her shoulder to hold her down as he went to land a punch to knock her out.
It landed solidly; with a soft groan, Asta was out cold. Nora was impressed, rather against her will, but she refused to let it show.
"So am I getting the Black Guard or are you?" she said flatly, rezzing in a pair of handcuffs and bending over the unconscious mohawk guy.
Cor shrugged nonchalantly as he picked up his disc and re-holstered it. “Go ahead. The Black Guard and I don't exactly get along.” he said with a rueful chuckle before he gave Asta back her disc and carried her over towards her partner.
I don't think any of us do, Nora thought, but kept her mouth shut. She pulled out a panel and sent an anonymous alert to the Black Guard. "Let's hope those cubeheads take these punks in. And I'll take that disc. I know where its owner is."
Cor chuckled at the nickname but nodded briefly. “Uhh… See I can't really do that. At least, not yet.” he said, a little nervously. “These two jackers corrupted the data. I’m guessing a code worm but… I can't be sure.” he admitted with a shrug.
"A data corruption?" She stepped closer to him, frowning. "What kind of data corruption? Complete restart, repurposing…?"
“Not sure. Didn't get a chance to look at it that closely.” he answered, looking at the disc for a moment before lifting it up to her. “You any good at this?” he asked.
Nora frowned. As a former Siren, she had much more experience with new discs than with old ones. Code wasn't really her thing - she was much more physical. Bit, however…
She looked at the other vigilante and pointed her staff at his chest, the tip inches away from his suit. "Before I answer that, give me the disc."
Cor raised a brow at the sudden threatening action. “A simple “no” would be enough.” he quipped, slapping the weapon away from his chest. “You want it, you can ask nicely.”
"How do I know you're not working with them, and this is all some elaborate trick?" she asked, then realised the words sounded crazy the moment they came out of her mouth. "Just give me the disc." She unrezzed her staff and put the baton back against her leg.
Cor didn't know whether to laugh or be insulted by the remark. “Why in the name of Flynn would I ever work with programs like them?” he asked, pointing at the unconscious duo. “I may do a lot of things that would get me… in trouble with the Black Guard but I don't take another program’s disc.” he pointed out, sighing slightly when she put away her baton. “I guess that's as nice as you're going to be.” he muttered before handing over Aya’s disc. “Let me know if you run into any encryption. I’m pretty good at cracking that.”
She frowned and held up the disc, probing into the code, but she found nothing. "Bit!"
Bit zoomed in and whizzed around her head.
"I need you to have a look at this." She held up the disc. "This guy thinks there's something wrong. Do you think you can find it?"
Bit bobbed up and down in the air. Yes.
"Good." She watched as Bit seemingly inspected the disc, then bumped against a piece of code. Yes.
"Here?"
Yes.
Together, they went deeper into the disc and found the code, which was a series of interlocking lines - a grid. It was different than the code around it, which was more haphazard, but still with a rhythm to the chaos. Nora sucked in a breath. She'd never seen anything like it before.
"Is it an encryption, Bit?" she asked softly.
Bit paused, seeming to decide, then flashed yellow. Yes.
Nora frowned and handed the disc back to the other guy. "It's an encryption." And I'm going to watch you so you don't mess it up even more.
Cor blinked in mild surprise when she called a Bit to check the code. He knew they were good but… meeting two programs with a Bit in one cycle? That felt like a rare occurrence though he wasn't going to say anything. He watched the orange caped program as she went over the code and recognized the encryption as soon as the grid-like pattern was revealed. “I can see that.” he nodded, taking the disc and starting to decode the information. “Looks like they added something…” he said as he made careful progress.
"Repurposing?" Nora suggested, but then she heard footsteps.
"That's probably the Black Guard," she said. "We should go."
“Could be…” Cor answered thoughtfully. “You know a place where I can work on this? I think I've almost got it.” he said, agreeing with the idea of getting out of the building before the Black Guard found them.
"I know a place," Nora said, glancing towards the two unconscious programs. "Follow me."
She led him to the other side of the docks, where few programs went, and found a sheltered, dark place in between two shipping containers.
Cor quickly but silently ran after her, eager to finish breaking the encryption and return the disc to Aya. He was satisfied with the secluded location and sat down as he began his work. “So, you do this kind of thing often?” he asked casually, though he was being a little quieter as to not draw attention.
"Occasionally," she answered brusquely, watching him work.
Cor chuckled at the cold demeanor as he revealed more of the corrupted data. “You’re fun.” he smirked, though his words held a hint of sarcasm. He really enjoyed messing with programs like her. “Got a name?”
"I could ask the same of you." Nora frowned, stepping a few feet away from him on the pretense of keeping lookout, but really, she was shutting down, her shields going up. She'd trusted this program too much already. If it weren't for the fact that she couldn't undo the encryption, she would have stolen the disc and returned it to its owner.
Don't let yourself get close, she told herself. It only leads to hurt.
Cor shrugged a little. “Fair enough. Most call me Black Light.” he told her, giving his more common pseudonym. He actually had a couple more just in case someone tried to double-cross him. Work as a hacker pirate was almost as dangerous as being in a gang. “I’m finished by the way. You might want to take a look at what those cubeheads almost did to Aya.”
Nora frowned and took the disc from him. "Later." If there is a later. "We need to get this disc back to its program."
“Ok. Let me clarify.” Cor growled with a glare. “When I said I was finished, I meant with the encryption. The corrupt data is still there. So you might want to have your Bit take care of that before you return it.” he said, obviously not trusting her either.
