Legacy

[Encrypted]

To: Shein
From: Dmitri

Shein, care to tell me what's going on? I don't want a repeat of what happened to Brother Eye.

Dmitri

When the watchdogs raise alarms, the systems are cut off from foreign communication, and Burninite systems are partitioned.

Teresa quickly gets on a Starship and makes for Dreva.

(Encrypted)

To: Dmitri
From: Shein

I have no clue what's going on. I take it your systems raised alarms? I know ours did. We've checked and nothing seems to be out of place.

-Shein

********************************

(Also Encrypted and no clue Burnination has cut off communication)

To: Thorgood
From: Shein

Any clue what's going on? Our systems raised alarms. Did yours?

-Shein

TO: Shein
FROM: Watchdog Program Alpha Delta Bravo Niner

External data sharing has been terminated. Do not attempt to send data.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Starship appears in orbit around Dreva. It's cloaked and cut off from all networks. It's their failsafe. If everything goes down, they can pick up Arren or Shein again and go.

And Rutian nets have picked up the Burninite ship.

To: Burninite Ship in orbit around Dreva
From: Dreva Command

State your identity and purpose.

***********************

Yeah, they're on alert because of the watchdogs.

**********************

(Encrypted)

To: Dmitri
From: Shein

Burnination has gone off the nets again. Looks like they got alarms going off too. One of their ships just popped in around Dreva. We're trying to figure out what's going on.

-Shein

[Encrypted]

To: Shein
From: Dmitri

Let me know if you figure things out. We're working on it right now, and we'll let you know if anything pops up.

-Dmitri

TO: DREVA COMMAND
FROM: AUTOMATED RESPONSE

THIS IS AN AUTOMATED, PRE-PROGRAMMED RESPONSE. THE STARSHIP IS CUT OFF FROM YOUR DATA BURSTS.

If you are reading this, a dangerous virus capable of tripping our watchdog programs was spotted. This ship is in orbit around your planet as a lifeline in case we lose nets, or you lose nets. It likely contains Teresa Trimbalt, and in the event of the situation worsening, the ship will contact you using old-fashioned radio waves to avoid cross-contamination.

And now Shein is irritated. "Find a way to contact them!"

So, Dreva Command takes the message and looks at it again, then figures out radio waves and pulls out the old radio transmitter and sends the same message.

As to how they found them, well, we'll just say that since they know the cloak, they noticed a brief blip or something that was just out of place.

There's still nothing to be found. No suspicious files. Nothing. Computer systems act completely normal for the moment. Nothing drops off.

On Esoteric, Lucas still isn't at his computer. No telling if it's him or not.

Kyle Rayner is sent to investigate, given that Guy would just bust in and start busting heads, and Hal would start flirting with the vampire chicks.

He goes to where Lucas was and knocks. "Lucas. Are you in here?"

"Guys, no answer."

"This is the Spotlight. We're reading you. Sorry about dropping in on you like this," the operator of the Spotlight says. "This is a Burninite lifeline in case something takes over our systems. We think something has infiltrated our nets. We've closed everything down and begun to search for it, but we don't even know what we're looking for. Basically, if we fail dramatically and the nets all go down again, we can use this ship to go to Esoteric and solicit the help of that vampire that helped us last time."

Obviously, he hasn't been given all the facts as to what the vampire really did.

And after a moment of Rayner knocking and assuming no answer, the door opens. The guy looks like a thirty-something techie stands there. "Lucas ain't here. He's at the club downtown." He starts to close the door.

On Dreva, the message is sent to Shein, who responds. "Understood. Next time, if there is a next time, hail us immediately on your arrival. That way we don't get paranoid. We're also checking things, but we can't find a reason why our alarms were tripped. There's nothing there."

"Club downtown. Thank you for being so specific. Ring, locate all clubs downtown." Upon finding one, he enters and says, "Lucas. Are you in here?"

(OOC: They could have asked WHICH club before the door was shut.)

At one of the clubs, which all are pretty loud, a bouncer overhears the call for Lucas. The bouncer approaches the questioner and leans down to talk. "He's at The Warehouse. Two blocks over."

For the sake of brevity, the player is assuming that they're going to make a beeline for The Warehouse.

Upon entering, it's clearly a punk gothic industrial club. It's also live music night. Esteban, the Shein-look-alike, is on stage with three women. The club is also packed. They'd be stopped to get the cover charge paid, but Lucas is quickly there. Seems like he was alerted to the fact someone was looking for him. He waves the bouncers off and motions for them to follow him. He takes them through a chain gate and up a staircase to a hallway and finally into an office area. Much quieter. One whole side of the office is a window that looks down on the club. He moves to the window and looks out over the club briefly before looking at his visitors. "You've been looking for me?"

He's not glowing, since that would make things better.

"Yeah. Alarms going off on a lot of computer networks. Rhea, Earth, Rutianas, Burnination. Maybe you know what's going on, or at least can help out."

"Understood. We didn't think you could detect us so quickly. Nor did we think you'd get our message if we sent by radio waves anyway," The Spotlight responds. "Spotlight over. We'll contact you if necessary."

Lucas raises a brow at the news. "I didn't do it." He actually looks innocent and surprised at the same time. He crosses the room to his desk and sits down. He opens a drawer and pulls a laptop out. He opens it up and plugs it in to the wall outlet. He boots it up and taps his fingers on the desk as he waits for it to load. It doesn't take long. Once he's logged into the computer, he networks in to his computers at the network hub. "I really don't know what's...." He actually blinks several times, which isn't something vampires need to do. "I know what's wrong." He looks up at his visitors. "It's LEGACY, but I did not release it. It released itself." He starts tapping on the keyboard.

On Dreva, Shein just nods to the message received. He continues to get updates that all say the same thing. Nothing is different about the systems.

"I believe you. Do you know how to fix it?"

This is relayed automatically to the other Green Lanterns listening in, who send it to the others who care to listen in. Obviously, they don't have infected ones. Power rings are that awesome.

Lucas stops typing and looks up. "Unfortunately, no. It just locked me out." He looks concerned now. "I had numerous fail safes and it just cut every single one out. I thought I had it locked away. In fact, I know I did. The only way it could have gotten out is if it achieved sentience." He leans back and looks out the window to the club below. "This isn't good. If it's tripping your alarms, it's likely spread already. The program I gave you before probably won't work anymore. It used one of the fail safes to shut it down."

I'm sure they're sending it to Dreva as well, since it concerns them. The Rutians are sending it via radio waves to the Burninite ship.

And that is relayed to them, too.

"Damn. Umm... Summon bigger fish?"

"Kyle, what do you mean, 'summon bigger fish?'" asks Hal.

"A Brainiac?"

"No."

(OOC: Which is good, because I want to save using Brainiac, and I'd have a hard time writing Brainiac II.)

Quickly to Shein from the Starship: "We're going over there right now. You and/or Arren may come."

Whether or not either of them beamed up, Teresa has the ship go to Esoteric. She (and maybe Arren or Shein) beam(s) down to the room with Lucas in it. She grins when she gets there.

"We placed a transmitter on you last time we met. Just in case I had to find you again," she explains. Cuts to the chase quick though; "Do you have a way of determining whether or not a computer is infected by LEGACY? If you do, that would be helpful. Because we were able to escape it last time. If we can filter it, we might be able to successfully quarantine."

And as an afterthought: "Why did you call it LEGACY?"

Both Arren and Shein want to go. Shein because he's dealt with Lucas before and Arren because he doesn't trust Lucas.

Anyway, when they get there, Lucas is still trying to hack into LEGACY. He's obviously worried. He barely nods to Teresa. "You could have asked and I'd have just given you my probable locations and a communications net key to contact me." He continues typing. "I'm honestly not sure. It's altered itself. I may not be able to figure this out alone either." He looks up at the last question. "Because it's my legacy. I've been working on it for years." He seems to think this was obvious. He does incline his head toward Shein politely. "Nice to see you again. Not a good time for you to drop in though." Probably because Esteban is nearby.

Well, okay, not nearby. He's obviously done with the stage since Esteban comes wandering into the office. "Lucas..." He comes to a complete stop when he spots Shein standing in the room as well. The two just stare at each other. With them face to face, it's easy to tell that Esteban looks a bit younger and the whites of his eyes aren't as blue. Beyond that, at first glance, they really could pass for twins.

The first part is met by a smile. It says that would have been nice, but we're not sure how far we want to trust you. She raises one eyebrow about it being his legacy. That says that that's not really a very good legacy.

"This whole family reunion is touching," Teresa says, "but we have important things to do right now Emperor Darson."

"We've got researchers on it Lucas," Teresa says, "but we couldn't find a way to eradicate it before. And then it was only partially sentient. If it truly is fully sentient, I don't know what we can do. If you know how it got back into our systems, we might be able to find you a secure place to work from, though it doesn't seem to be affecting your laptop for some reason."

"We have one Luthor disabled and convalescing and another off on some mad quest to get a black power ring. Not getting help from them."

Lucas raises a brow and turns his laptop around so Teresa can see it. It's affected. It's not the skull and crossbones as before. It's a command prompt where he's been communicating with LEGACY. The end portion is where the conversation turns to show that Lucas's access has been revoked and the computer is now affected. Right there, one of the files on the desktop is deleted. As this happens, LEGACY starts to delete files all over the galaxy on affected systems, but only one file per computer and it's not an important one. Well, not important meaning the computer doesn't need it to run. "It's got the mental status of a child. It sees me as a parent trying to enact some discipline."

Shein and Esteban both look over at Lucas. Shein looks to the computer, then pulls out his datapad. He checks something on it and sends a message back to Dreva. "So what's the solution here? We've got a self-aware computer virus? What if we just give it what it wants?"

Lucas tilts his head. "That'd mean we have to figure out what it wants. It's not talking to me. I might be able to shut it down, but I'm going to need help."

Esteban crosses the room to approach Shein. He takes a step back when Arren moves between them.

(OOC: Pass.)