Chapter 03 - Union (Part B)

              “That’s right, I ended up at Crux because I was anyone but myself.” I stared into my empty shot glass, the small residue of the rum and cola resting at the bottom and sides of the inside of the glass. The memories began to play, as fresh as the day I had experienced them.

Chapter 03 – Union (Part B)

-Vega's Story-

It all began eight years ago. I was 14 years old. The time of the year was spring, and I was entering my first year of high school. Many of the upperclassmen had tables and banner set up in the schoolyard, promoting their clubs and organizations to the incoming freshmen. I, however, just walked through the crowds with the hood of my blue jacket pulled over my head. I felt unseen, as if I were a ghost. Though, the thing is, I wanted to be unseen. I wanted to be a ghost.

I’d been homeschooled ever since elementary. My parents thought it was best for me to obtain the best education I could possibly have, and so they enrolled me into a virtual learning program. Though there were other students enrolled into the program, we’d never spoken nor interacted with each other. In order for me to have any semblance of a social life, I began accessing forums and live streams. It’s from these platforms that I began to further develop my technological skills such as programming, coding, video editing, and even hacking, which I was most adept at.

At the end of my middle school year, my parents decided high school was best moment of my life that I should begin interacting with people in-person rather than online. Up until this moment, my only interactions with people, aside from my family, had strictly been online. I never had to deal with other people physically, and I didn’t know how to. I didn’t want to. I was better off unseen, I always told myself. Well, it was wishful thinking.

“Hey! You!” Someone called out to me within the crowd, repeatedly. The voice wouldn’t stop barking. So annoying. I stopped walking and lifted my head in the direction the voice was coming from. The look on my face had to be of visible annoyance. But the face, well, faces, I had seen were of excitement and eagerness. Three upperclassmen: two males and a female; the female seemed to be the club leader. My expression changed from annoyance to fearful, and then to curiosity. Alongside another freshman student, that day was the day I established connections.

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

“Welcome to the Online Coding and Preservation Club!” the over enthused club leader introduced at the beginning of the first club meeting the following day. “Let’s introduce ourselves and the reason for joining! I’m your leader, Caitlin Read, senior year student! I started this club because I believe the future of our society is in the foundation of coding and data preservation! And these two are…”

“Daltom Briggs. I joined because there is much to be enjoyed about coding. I want to continue to further myself and my skills.” A bespectacled junior year student, Daltom was the type of person to speak in a stoic, straightforward manner.

“Morgan William. I joined because I want to contribute learn and contribute my skills and knowledge towards the development of technology to benefit society! Nice to meet you!” A cat-faced junior year student, just as eager as the club president.

The other freshman student that joined alongside me introduced herself. “I’m Amelie Barrett. Thank you for accepting me into your club! I joined because I want to learn more about data preservation and to make information available to everyone.” She was cute and a bit shy. I suppose her and I are in the same boat in terms of people interaction. Now, it was my turn to give my name. Let’s make this brief.

“Hello, everyone. My name is Newart Allen. I joined this club…out of curiosity. Curiosity…because…I guess I want to know what my decisions will lead to. I have been around computers for practically all my life. In fact, this is my first time physically interacting with people, especially people around my age. So, nice to meet you all."

I don’t know what compelled me to speak so much about myself. I guess because at the time, I felt a comradery with these people. Whatever the case, it was out in the open, and they all accepted me with welcome arms. The ghost is about to begin a new life.

“Club President,” Daltom began, “you told Morgan and me that you want to do things differently for our club this year. What’s this about?”

“Right! So, this school year, we should not only learn what we must about coding and data preservation, but we must use our knowledge and skills for the greater good!”

Morgan spoke, “Uhh, yeah, that’s good and all, but I think we all have the same thoughts and intentions.”

“Well, of course, Morgan! But what I mean is, let’s make Gossport City, and other smart cities, a happier place!”

All of us were dumbfounded about this. Amelie spoke what was on our minds. “But Club President, isn’t Gossport and smart cities around the world already a happier place, compared to over a hundred years ago?”

“Yeah, that’s right! There’s that campaign worldwide campaign, ‘Peace, Safety, Happiness.’ That has proved to be an ongoing success.” Morgan rebutted.

Just then, the club president’s expression changed from over enthusiasm to a calm yet serious demeanor. But, she was repressing something.

“Gossport City,” she started, “may be happy on the surface, but there are still people in this city who are still suffering. There are homeless children and adults; children or adults who don’t have the means to actually obtain the happiness that the campaign love to spout. There are people who…could still be living if they had the means and access to do so! And who or what is inflicting this pain upon such people? Greed. Greed from millionaires and billionaires in the world who claim to help further the world’s development by contributing to technology. And yet, while technology is becoming more advanced, so have the cost of living, the means to live.”

All of us continued to look upon the club president, captured to her fiery speech.

“Those millionaires and billionaires are hemorrhaging the world’s profits to themselves! The people of the world are benefitting from the available technology, if they can afford it, while they are raking in the profits to themselves, indulging in their greed, their selfish desires! I’m not saying it’s wrong to be rich; it’s the results of a person’s hard work. However, the bullshit speech about making the world a happy place but not doing a thing to help those in need…not lifting a finger to help the homeless…to help the poor out of their caged poverty but have no choice but to fake their happiness in order not to be isolated. If it weren’t for their greed…my mom could have been cured of her illness if she’d had available access to the proper technology that is kept away from her, from people like me and my family who work ourselves to the bones but do not advance in society yet somehow continue contribute to the ever-growing wealthy bastards!”

Silence collapsed upon the room. We witnessed the club president’s enthusiasm and calm demeanor evaporated. No one could utter a word. We didn’t know what we could do, what to say. It was all heaped upon us, her story, her grief, her ideal.

The club president gave us until the following week’s club meeting to think about her proposal. She also ensured us that if we decided to drop out of the club, she’d understand and wouldn’t hold it against us. However, we didn’t need a week to think about this. With our SNS (social networking service) exchanged, we sent each other a message in the group chat, to meet up at the restaurant Happy Quokkas Burger after school the following day. It was then that we decided to join our leader in the crusade to unveil the false happiness in this world, and to use our skills to help those in need in Gossport City, and in all smart cities across the world. On the surface, we were the ‘Online Coding and Preservation Club,’ an ordinary school club dedicated to furthering our computer skills and knowledge, just as the name implies. Beneath the surface, we called ourselves ‘The Disciples of Shadows,’ dedicated to stealing from the wealthy and giving their earnings to those in need. Though I empathized with the club president and to those in need, in my heart, I couldn’t fully agree with the methods that we would be doing in bringing happiness to those in need. But if I were to have spoken my thoughts, to have spoken from my heart, would I be betraying my comrades, the first friends I’d ever made in real life? Would I be doing a disservice to the people in need, to the people who were suffering? I buried the thought because I thought it was selfish of me, and manipulated my heart to believe that my heart will still be in the right place through illegal actions.

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

‘The Disciples of Shadows’. Obviously we couldn’t go around online using our actual names or any relation towards our true identifications. Therefore, codenames and roles were established.

Caitlin Read, the leader. Alias: 6R4C3

Role: Seeker. She was to seek out the millionaires and billionaires who falsely promote happiness while not doing a thing to contribute to societal happiness to those in need.

Daltom Briggs, second-in-command. Alias: 5H4D3

Role: Director. He was to direct us how to move and when to move onto our targets. He maintained a watchful eye on the wealthy and their movements, including their bank accounts.

Morgan Williams, Alias: FR13ND

Role: He was to search for and contact any person or groups who are in need, who aren’t happy with society and are suffering from the false happiness that is promoted throughout Gossport and other smart cities.

Amelie Barrett, Alias: 7R41L3R

Role: She was to research the history of the wealthy and the needy. In preserving the information she found, we’d come together and decide if the target our leader had sought was factual.

And then there was me, Newart Allen, Alias: N0B0DY

Role: To imitate the wealthy target and to distribute the profit to the person in need.

With our aliases and roles established, we sought our first target: a local charity organization by the name of ‘Happy Hands, Happy Smiles’. This organization claims to help rebuild the homes and businesses of those in need. However, because of the technology used to complete the job, the ones being helped must pay an exorbitant fee to the organization for the amount of time and days the advanced technology are used in the restoration process.

As a result, the owner of the restored home or business are in debt to the organization; a significant portion of their earnings must be paid to the organization immediately, or else the home or business will be repossessed by ‘Happy Hands, Happy Smiles,’ enabling the organization to increase their profits. 7R41L3R had also found out the following information: on the contract of ‘Happy Hands, Happy Smiles,’ the organization states that the advanced technology used in the restoration process are rented from a company named ‘Happy Works’. In truth, ‘Happy Works’ is a subsidiary of the organization; both the company and the organization are owned by the CEO Durham Harper; the advanced technology are owned by him, not rented from another company. The bastard was taking advantage of people to fill his pockets.

Now that the target was decided, it was time to act. FR13ND researched and found a few people and groups that were suffering heavily from the greedy practices of ‘Happy Hands, Happy Smiles’. After school on non-club days, and on weekends, he’d meet up with the people, befriend them, and would listen to their stories. He’d assure them that he knows a “friend” that could help them out of their predicament, and that he would speak to the CEO to pull some strings to relieve them of their debt.

Next would be my turn, N0B0DY. From the direction of 5H4D3, I would hack into the bank accounts of the wealthy and withdraw enough money that wouldn’t be noticed missing due to the amount of money that were already incoming into their accounts. “Always enough to slip under the radar, never enough to be like the greedy” was the motto ‘The Disciples of Shadows’ strictly adhere by.

Once the people in need were relieved of their debt to ‘Happy Hands, Happy Smiles,’ the CEO realized what had happened and threatened the people. But it was too late; before he took action, we delivered to him a threat of our own.

“Harm any of the people you swindled, your shameful deeds will be as radiant as the sun many planets over.”

CEO Durham Harper had no choice but to restructure his business practice in a manner that would try to make him look better in a positive light, out of fear that he would be exposed to the world.

Our first target was successfully taken down! Rather than celebrating our first victory, ‘The Disciples of Shadows’ all shared the mindset that good deeds should be kept confidentially and to continue to do good by our fellow neighbors. Our other targets include a hypocritical influencer who abused some of his followers, and an influential mayor who used his power to oppress certain groups of people while lauding that his smart city was the happiest in the world. Suffice to say, he outed out of office and had to pay restitution to the groups of people he oppressed. Our acts became known throughout the world. “The Messiah of the Digital World, Unsung Heroes of Society” headlines labeled us. All the while this was going on, I knew it was bad, that I shouldn’t be doing this. But, I wanted to help the people in need, even if it wasn’t actually me. Even if I had to dirty my hands through illegal acts. Although our noble deeds soon became worldwide news, bounties were placed on our heads, attracting the eyes of some of the most nefarious people I’ve ever met.

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

The second half of the school year had begun, and no sooner than it had kicked off, FR13ND was contacted by a new student from our school. The new student had explained the reason why he and his family had relocated to Gossport. The world’s wealthiest CEO had threatened his family because his father had quit his position from a Quasar reproduction factory, paranoid that the father would either sell his knowledge for monetary gain or would work with a rival company in mining and producing Quasar weapons. 7R41L3R researched the student’s history and the CEO of the Quasar production company in question: Jaro Enderson. Everything checked out, and ‘The Disciples of Shadows’ made their move on their target. Though we operated as usual, we were caught in the act without warning.

I will never forget the face of the person who done us in. The student wasn’t the world’s wealthiest billionaire; he was just a normal student, a fellow coding enthusiast who had figured out the movements of the “unsung heroes” by deducing their next target and their manner of carrying out their act. He tricked us to claim the bounties on our heads. He done so by setting up a fraudulent account in the name of the CEO Jaro Enderson. The account was actually connected to the police department of Gossport City. Once we had withdrew the money to send to the student’s family for security and for their court case, the cyber police pinpointed our masked ISP through a VPN they had built and established in order to combat cybercrimes. And thus, we were arrested.

Our crimes hadn’t become public or world knowledge during our three days in police holding. Per protocol, the members of ‘The Disciples of Shadows’ were separated to prevent us from collaborating and manipulating information. We also didn’t know what was known about us. The cards were stacked against us. On the second day of questioning, someone from within our group began to turn against each other, desperate for freedom. However, I was left out of this squabble. How did I know about this? Well, it all appeared to be all a part of someone else’s plan.

On the final day of questioning, all of the members of ‘The Disciples of Shadows’ were released from police holding. All except me. The four members were offered a bargain: if they were to incriminate only one person from the group as the one responsible for the cybercrimes, they would all be free to go, crimes expunged from their records, and receive a hefty reward that would guarantee their happiness. The group, my comrades, chose me to be the scapegoat.

I was devastated. Betrayed. At first, I couldn’t wrap my mind around what had just happened, why they would do such a thing. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to ponder the nature of this world: in pursuit of happiness, it’s every person for themselves.

Upon their concerted confession, I was processed and booked to Gossport City prison, which explains this barcode on my left facial cheek. My sentencing was to serve forty years in prison. As I was transported to the facility and to my prison cell, all I could think was, “Is this how life outside the computer truly is? Is this why most people in Gossport City always seem to be happy? Am I being punished for helping people in need when no one else gave a damn about them?” I refused to believe it to be true! I wanted the truth! Life isn’t this cruel, right? If only I was myself; if only I could have said what was on my mind or to leave the club when I had the chance.

Four years had passed. I turned fifteen while I was still in prison, and because I still attended school while in prison via online classes through close observations by the prison guards, and limited use of technology from within the prison, I graduated at the top of my class. However, I remained a ‘nobody’. Neither my grades nor my class rank became public knowledge from within my school. In fact, not a single person aside from my former friends and the select few school officials, all who were under strict orders to keep this incident a secret, knew I even existed. To my parents’ knowledge, I went missing one day after school and was never found, presumed dead. All of this…just to maintain the façade of that ridiculous worldwide campaign: ‘Peace, Safety, Happiness’.

And what of my education? Did I seriously go through four years of it just to not be able use it in any way, to not make anything of myself while in prison? To hell with it, I thought. I decided to break free from this hellish nightmare that was my reality. I still wanted to know the truth of life, that life truly isn’t cruel.

The prison was technologically advanced in order to prevent any prisoners from escaping. What seemed like a hopeless endeavor was only a challenge to me. Of all the places within the prison where prisoners are allowed to go, there weren’t any technology within reach that could be freely used. ‘Freely’. That word was the key to my escape, and I knew just the way.

One day during exercise time, I purposely injured my neck on sharp exercise equipment almost fatally injuring me, thus gaining these stitches across my neck. There was no telling what would have happened to me if I were to fake my death on the spot. As I was transported to the medical facility. In the attempts to resuscitate me, I was able to manipulate the lifesaving machine in the extremely rare chance that I was left alone in the hospital room, shutting off the power grid in the hospital room. Though the medical units were backed up by a power generator, I had only two minutes to escape from within the darkness.

In the short amount of time of my escape, I managed to escape through the window of my hospital room, closing the window on my way down, and to hide underneath a hover police vehicle. I lost track of how long I had to hide underneath it without making a sound, but eventually the vehicle was in use and flew into Gossport City, where I had disembarked from it once it flew into a barely lit area of the city.

I regained my freedom. Surely, a prison wouldn’t miss a ‘nobody.’ But, where was I to go? How would I survive? What can I do? Where to begin looking for the truth of life? I didn’t know any of these answers, but what I did know was that this was a new beginning for me. I could finally start following my heart. I didn’t want to be a ‘nobody’ anymore.

At an internet café, I used a computer to access my email account, which surprisingly wasn’t deleted. Upon logging in, I had discovered a spam email from Crux Academy. Once I clicked on it, there was a time limit to make the decision on whether or not I wanted to enroll into the academy. Without hesitation, I accepted. What I had to lose, I thought to myself. Throughout my four years at the academy, I always ranked among the top of my class, deciding to specialize in hacking and technological communications. As for my academy days and how exactly I managed to enter the rank of fourth strongest, well, that’s a story for another day…

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

I finished speaking my past, of what pushed me to join Crux. I was anybody but myself. From a famous CEO, to an influencer, to a ‘nobody’, and every other person in between. Anyone but myself. I looked around our private room. It seems that my comrades had sobered up a little as they listened to my story. Just as it was on that fateful day, none of them spoke a word, taking in all that they had heard. I didn’t mean to unload such a depressing story onto them. But, I also trusted them with my past. I barely knew them, and yet.

“I’m sorry. Maybe I’ve said too much.” I apologized, embarrassed.

“Yer darn right you shaid too muhch!” Capella interjected. I think she was still drunker than any of us, despite my long story giving everyone a chance to sober up. “Ugh! Just my luck! You’ve heard him say it, right?”

Pollux and Procyon sighed deeply and shrugged. “Yeah, we heard him.”

I was befuddled. “H-huh? What did I say?”

“You shaid your name, shtupid head!”

“Stupid head?” What a lame insult!

“Ya know Crux members aren’t supposed to reveal their actual names, even to each other?” Pollux reminded.

“Really?”

Procyon spoke through his relaxed smile. “To maintain secrecy of the organization and such. It’s a major rule.”

“Oh no! I’m sorry! I won’t be in trouble, will I?”

“Nah,” Pollux comforted, “you won’t be in trouble unless the higher ups hear of it. That is, if you remember your name. But, that leaves us no choice, right, Procyon?”

“No choice, right, Capella?”

“No choice!”

The three of them smiled their signature smiles. In unison, they declared, “We have no choice but to reveal our names!”

I was taken aback, moved by their decision to reveal such an information. Maybe…maybe these are the comrades I can entrust myself to, comrades that I can be myself around.

“Alright,” Pollux said, putting forward her full shot glass. We all followed suit. “Cheers on three. One by one, let’s say our names. It will only stay between us until we see our final sunset in our lives! Three! Two! One! Cheers!”

Our glasses clinked against each other, and from this moment, a deep comradery, a special friendship, was established. Life can be cruel, but there will always be a happiness worth more than money itself: friendship. 

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

Union (Epilogue)

The previous night in the East Prosperity business district of Gossport City. Knights Arcturus, Pollux, Vega, and Procyon had completed their mission and discreetly dispersed.

Not long afterwards, however, a young man dressed in a black parka enters the alleyway where the mission had occurred. His face is obscured by the hood of his parka. He walks by Procyon's impacted ground, past the area where Vega eliminated the basilisk, and stops at the crater where Pollux eliminated her target. Something was still there. The young man reaches down to pick up the object, grinning menacingly from ear to ear.