Attack of the Hacker

[Liam H]

So bored!

Even the infinite scroll of the dark web couldn't keep Liam's attention.  He flit from one site to the next looking for something to entertain him.  He stopped on a viral video uploaded by a girl he knew in school, she was a few years younger than him, but that didn't matter, she was in one of his classes -- Sterling something.  She had a Russian last name but she looked more like she fit in with his family than her own.  Cute red head and freckles mixed among the dark haired Russian siblings.  That and he knew she was adopted.  He knew everyone's secrets at school.  There was a kid who lived down the street from school who sold illicit drugs -- he was one step away from being busted by the school.  Liam hadn't decided what to do about it yet.  Tell the kid or tell the school.  He didn't want to be either of those people so he did nothing.  Just kept the information to himself.

The video wasn't well made, but the edits worked well and was probably why it had gone viral.  Liam was pretty sure the dude in the video was her cousin though, so she made his show a big thing.  

And it went viral too with a video all of it's own -- except it was outside the club.  And then there was that edit.  The edit is what caught Liam's attention.  The ones and zeros scrolling across the screen pulled him in deeper and he replayed the video until he had captured all the digits.  Not that he needed it to know for certain -- that was the work of the Wicked Truth.  He'd found his rabbit hole to dive into.  The hacker was active now.  The edit hadn't happened too long ago.  Liam dove head first into the puzzle.  Where was he?  What was he going to do.

[Liam H]

Hope was dashed. The Wicked Truth disappeared into oblivion again. But as Thyme Liam found his way through the darknet to where the story had taken place. A club called Kallisti. A burlesque show gone viral. He looked around the area found signs of the Wicked Truths handiwork. The street lights for blocks around the club had gone out. It might be of interest to turn them back on, but it was the Red Light District. They didn't much care. The red hue of the streets was more than enough to see by.

But why had he done it? Deeper digging and connecting dots took Thyme at least another thirty minutes to piece together. Following the Wicked Truth was near impossible -- but he left a footprint. He wanted to be found. Made Liam begin to wonder and question things. He of course thought Phaser was the Wicked Truth. But he had no proof, just coincidence. The Wicked Truth was far less open about who he was -- or what he was. Phaser on the other hand had taken pride in being called an AI. They both left the footprints in the sand with harmless bits that shouted to the rooftops who had done what. But Phaser was never alone -- he'd had the borg behind him. His collective of people and scripts that ran in the back ground keeping him up todate. The Wicked Truth did not... did he have to rebuild?

Thyme dug in deeper. He had to know more.