Mark sat on the dusty concrete floor of what seemed to be an abandoned parking garage, panting heavily, the thrill of their narrow escape still buzzing through his nerves. Aya leaned against a crumbling pillar, smirking as if near-death encounters were her morning coffee.
"So," Mark said between breaths, "what now? We just... run from Agents forever?"
Aya shrugged, picking at a frayed seam on her jacket. "More or less. The System doesn't let go. You're in the game now, Mark, and there's no log-out button."
Mark groaned, rubbing his face. "Great. And I thought midterms were stressful."
Before he could wallow further, Aya gave him a playful kick to the shin. "Cheer up, genius. You've got skills. And if we play this right, we can turn the tables on them."
"Yeah? How do we do that?"
Aya's eyes gleamed with mischief. "Simple. We find out who's running this whole operation, hack their access, and rewrite the rules of the world."
Mark gaped at her. "You make that sound like resetting a Wi-Fi router."
She grinned. "Well, if I'd told you it's suicide, you wouldn't have come along, would you?"
The System is Always Watching
Aya pulled a glowing tablet from her jacket and projected a map into the air, the flickering hologram displaying a network of lines and nodes that made Mark's head spin.
"This," she said, tapping a glowing node at the center of the web, "is the System's mainframe. It's buried deep inside one of the most secure buildings in the world—The Nexus."
Mark frowned. "And let me guess. It's crawling with Stabilizers, automated defenses, and things worse than Agent Zero?"
"Yep," Aya said cheerfully. "But hey, at least they have a cafeteria."
Mark gave her a look. "How are you not dead yet?"
"Luck," she replied with a wink. "And a healthy disregard for authority."
As Mark leaned closer to study the map, a cold shiver ran down his spine. Something felt off—like they were being watched. He glanced around the garage, but the dim corners were empty, the flickering lights casting jagged shadows.
"Hey, Aya," Mark whispered. "You sure no one followed us?"
Her expression turned serious. She tapped a sequence into her tablet, and a pulse of green light swept through the area.
For a second, nothing happened. Then... a faint distortion rippled near the entrance.
Aya's face darkened. "Shit."
Mark tensed. "What is it?"
She didn't answer. Instead, she raised her hand and fired a bolt of glowing energy at the distortion. It fizzled and warped, revealing a small surveillance drone—one of the System's many eyes.
"Looks like someone's been spying on us," Aya muttered, crushing the drone under her boot.
Mark clenched his fists. "How do they keep finding us?"
Aya gave him a grim look. "Because we're part of the system now. Every move we make... leaves a trace."
A Plan Worth Breaking
Mark felt his heart sink. "So, what? We just keep running until we get caught?"
Aya shook her head. "No. We hit them first."
Mark blinked. "Hit them? You mean... attack the Nexus?"
"Exactly," she said, her grin returning. "Think about it, Mark. If we can get inside, we'll have access to everything. Every file, every backdoor, every hidden feature the System doesn't want us to see. We could rewrite reality—give ourselves infinite lives, unlimited powers..."
Mark hesitated. "Or... we could accidentally crash the entire world."
Aya shrugged. "Well, no plan is perfect."
He couldn't believe how casually she was talking about hacking the most dangerous system in existence. But deep down, a part of him was intrigued. If they pulled this off, they wouldn't just be running from the System—they'd be rewriting it.
Mark let out a slow breath. "Alright. I'm in."
Aya clapped her hands together. "Knew you'd come around, genius. Now let's get to work."
Rehearsing Chaos
The next few hours were a blur of coding, planning, and simulated heists. Mark's hands flew over his virtual interface as he ran endless scenarios, tweaking algorithms, and testing backdoors. Aya guided him through it all, her sharp instincts complementing Mark's methodical thinking.
Byte joined them midway, bringing snacks and a host of illegal software. "If we're gonna die," he said with a grin, "we might as well do it on a full stomach."
Mark chuckled. "Thanks. Nothing says 'high-risk cyber-heist' like pizza rolls."
They worked tirelessly, but Mark could feel the pressure mounting. This wasn't like coding a school project—if they made one mistake, they wouldn't just fail; they'd be erased.
"Alright," Aya said, pulling up a 3D model of the Nexus. "We've got three entry points: The loading dock, the rooftop, and the maintenance tunnels. Which one do you think is the least guarded?"
Mark studied the map, his mind racing. "None of them. If I were them, I'd set traps at all three. We'll need to create a distraction to pull their forces away."
Byte grinned. "I like the way you think, Veil."
The Bait-and-Switch
They finalized the plan just as the first rays of morning light filtered through the cracked windows of the garage. Mark felt a strange mixture of exhaustion and excitement. This was the craziest thing he'd ever done—but it also felt... right.
Aya patted him on the back. "Get some rest, genius. Tomorrow, we make history."
Mark gave her a tired smile. "Or we get deleted trying."
Aya laughed. "Hey, no risk, no reward."
As Mark lay down on a makeshift bed, his mind buzzed with thoughts of the mission ahead. But just as he was drifting off, a strange notification appeared in his interface:
SYSTEM ERROR: Unauthorized User Detected in Core Files.
Initiating Emergency Lockdown...
Mark's eyes snapped open, his heart racing.
Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.