The First Age

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.

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.

Tracking Raffe was usually easy.  He had a phone. Sage tracked it.  But for some reason his phone remained in place.  But the phone Nox had asked to brick was moving.  He'd told him to wait on bricking it till Raffe was done with it.  And when it powered off a signal was sent to Sage letting him know. 

The show had started and Raffe wasn't here.  That boded bad so Sage took it upon himself to locate him.  And send him a live feed.

Except the last known location was not something he'd typical care to hack.  Paragon was too close to his parents and he stayed far from their eyes as possible.  But if that's where Raffe was that's what he'd do.  Getting in wasn't hard.  Their security was top of the line, but Sage was better than that.

A message flashed in his vision.  OMG  IT'S THE WICKED TRUTH

That was new.  Sage thought to himself.  You a fan?

You could say that. Try this. The hacker wanted to play games. Sages smirked and followed his path. He still had a goal to reach Raffe, but it was just as much fun outsmarting those who thought they were better than him.

What is he doing? Liam thought to himself. He's got full access to everything, yet he's not downloading anything. The fuck?

Liam let The Wicked Truth play just to see what he was doing. He was trying to find someone.

Who you looking for

An identity popped up on his screen. Fuck he'd hacked his computer too? It was just a thought. A thought... That was too fast. You really are an AI.

Nothing artificial here baby

Was it true then, a computer in his head? Liam raced through the Paragon systems watching the Wicked Truth try to jump the air gap. But without something wireless on the other side it wasn't going to happen. That was the point. The not an AI bit ran through his head.

And then just as suddenly as The Wicked Truth had arrived, he was gone. Every trace he'd ever been in the system was gone. He didn't even leave his signature trail. He took nothing, did nothing. What the fuck?