Kernel Panic [Mia]

[Dr. Aternity Awren]

Alright, so this is how Aternity's classes went. Lecture, story, lecture, break, and...something like that. In all honesty, he wasn't a particularly harsh teacher and trainer. Tough, but certainly not harsh. Being his first day however, his curriculum was needless to say going to be a bit boring and long winded. Theory always had to come before practice, as it was the former that gave all the students a chance to actually figure out how their powers worked. Aternity knew how his worked to an extent, although some of the processes of how his body made it work was still a complete mystery. It all had to do with a bunch of science stuff. You know, quantum entanglement, data transfer, tesseracts and hypercubes. Four-dimensional space. His little ability was more complex than others.

Some would breathe fire, yet others would soak up the sun and never have to eat. It was interesting, and finding links between all of them was fun too.

By the time Ternie had dismissed everyone, he was busy on his whiteboard writing more math than many understood, trying once again to figure out the secrets of the universe. Or something. His laptop was still on as students were funnelling out. Still...as he finished, nothing came to him. Not even the computer algorithms he had spent years studying seemed to work at his thinking. Oh well. Taking his coffee, he sat down facing the whiteboard. Still nothing. Not even a single thought came to mind. It's not like he was looking for anything in particular at all, but given that no student had come asking questions, that wasn't his fault.

Feh.

Maybe it was time to hit the research department. He obviously wasn't going to cut it as a trainer. Maybe doing work for them would be more lucrative. Academically at least.

"Accursed coffee...why must be you be so mockingly delicious. Feh."

[Mia Keystone]

Mia had gone through four power trainers in her time at Hammel, and in that time she had learnt how to deal with the lessons. There were theories that powers stemmed from the person themselves; the meta gene just being the bare bones of it and the rest was built over personality development while the person matured.

That was Mia’s favorite theory. Someone born deaf could hear thoughts, and someone who couldn’t understand people but loved machines could connect with a computer with a thought.

So Mia had it figured out, and therefore, didn’t have much use for the theory behind power trainers. She did however find the arrival of a new teacher very interesting. One who had, according to the very brief background check she’d run as soon as she’d entered the room, a degree in computer sciences.

Slinking out with the rest of the hoard, Mia had glanced at the still activated laptop and the teacher still very much engaged in his own little equation (which did look somewhat interesting but Mia would wait until it was uploaded online) and with the key she’d ‘borrowed’ from her maths teacher snuck into the nearest empty classroom and set up Kaylee.

”Dr Awren,” she muttered to herself, ”Kaylee, what’ve we got here,”. The wireless network was always a hit and miss, sometimes there was a tech actively logged in to block any attempts Mia a hacker might make. Right now? She was good; clear passage. Closing her eyes, Mia slipped into the coding stream and started exploring. He had excellent private firewalls... She starting hunting for cracks to slip into and widen, because every new staff member at Hammel had to go through that wonderful process they all had had to go through for the last four years.

Having Mia hunt down every little detail of your past and creating a file on you.

”Welcome to Hammel, Doc.”

[Dr. Aternity Awren]

Aternity glanced quickly behind him to check the funnelling. No students left. This was a good thing. Now maybe he could get some actual work done without having to tend to all the kids hurling paper balls and the like. Not that he saw any of that being done anyways, but the fact was it COULD have happened. Okay, overthinking things was becoming dangerous. It's not like the students held grudges against teachers or something right? Eheheheh! Of course not!

Yeah, at least, that's what he thought before he turned around in his chair.

See, all he wanted to do now was play Tetris, but being the smart cookie he was, Aternity had turned off the sound on his computer for the lecture, and when he turned around, found a passive alert triggered on his computer. It was already doing a search for incoming attackers. Ternie practically hurled his coffee across the room, making a basket in the trash. It had been 3 minutes since the breach, which means it might already be too late to stop it at the source. Oh well, when in doubt...

Aternity flipped over his laptop and released two small switches that allowed him to pull out the second hard drive. If the attacker hadn't already compromised the data, which was unlikely, then there would be nothing left to find. The attack was from...a local address?

And 3 minutes ago? That couldn't have been a coincidence. Hmmm. Theories were appearing. A student maybe? It wasn't out of the question. That said, he was fully impressed if it was. Considering the incredible countermeasures the school had, an attack right now was too convenient, especially if it was only attacking one machine. So what now? Communication? Why not. If it was a student, this would be the start of one hell of a relationship. Aternity brought a text file and typed.

"I'm pretty sure a student is behind this breach. I'm thoroughly impressed. Who are you?"

[Mia Keystone]

Mia blinked hard, eyes watering as the data she was sorting through flashed then was gone. Fucker had found her; that was way too quick to be a school tech. She gritted her teeth, still a bit shaken by having the carpet, so to speak, ripped out from under her. That had to be an active user... he must have checked his computer. What were the chances....

Then the text file started up, and Mia’s fingers twitched at the instinct to start typing. She was still in the computer, just... there was nothing here worth looking at. So she pulled open the image onto Kaylee’s monitor, focusing on the image rather then sorting through the codes over the wireless.

Her mouth twitched into a smile. Well, it wasn’t fury. Still, she wasn’t stupid; announcing her name? Not a chance. Anyway, if he was into computer security he would be able to tell, at least, that she was a local; Mia’s usual honey traps and deflections hadn’t been activated for so simple a job and just removing the hard drive wouldn’t activate them anyway.

And damn right it was impressive.

O.R here. How’d you wipe the drive so fast?

O.R. Override. Lizbeth Salander had Wasp, Mia was override. But it wouldn’t matter. Not many people knew about that name anyway, least of all people who taught at Hammel... Right?

[Dr. Aternity Awren]

Sweet jesus. That was actually kind of close. Aternity put his head on the desk for one moment, ran a hand through his hair and looked up to the computer. The fact that she got in was impressive, and that he caught it, lucky. It had been a long time since he had done any work in the computer science field. And this...attacker had nearly gotten the best of him. If his theory was right, the fact she breached the machine was already sort of embarrassing. But apparently his old tricks still worked. Given that he was running on local wireless as she was, he could have attempted a back trace to her own machine.

The problem was if she was running anything nasty, it wouldn't look good on him, or anyone else for that matter if he was the victim of some sort of trap or whatnot. Alright fine, a conversation it was. And for that matter, an awesome puzzle too. So. Summary for all you readers. It's a trap. No backtrace. Or else.

And be nice. The hacker was a student. He thought.

Now the ironic part of this situation is that in the last couple years of his doctorate, many of his studies dealt with what were known as signature attacks; those characters out in the world that made messes of systems, and left a trace to troll the admins. This one, known as O.R, had made some higher-ups rather pissed.

Aternity merely smiled. Hot damn.

"You mean THE O.R? Override? The one responsible for break ins of...heaven knows how many systems? Heh. Sweet. It's good to meet you."

Well...he couldn't end there...

"The data is kept on a second hot-swappable drive. Didn't wipe it. Just took it out. I'm going to make a quick assumption that you were in my class earlier given the timing of your attack?"

[Mia Keystone]

One room away, a very short girl was grinning like a cat who’d got the cream. No one here, not even Reeve, knew exactly what Mia’s IM name stood for. Not even Jonah understood that, in some areas, she was almost famous. I’m famous on the internet. Ray William Johnston, eat your heart out.

Not the reaction a hacker usually get from someone in Cyber Security Mia watched the letters appear on the screen with a thought, Jumping to assumptions. O.R, a student? That’s a discovery and a half. Ha, she’d love to see a few faces if that news ever got out.

Fuck, if that news got out... Serious trouble. Very serious. This was a slight dilemma; as well, nice as it was being recognized and admired (odd from a cyber security guy) hackers stayed anonymous. Sean Neville’s frustrating face swam in her vision. Last thing she needed now was more evidence and fucking essays. Or jail time.

Her eyebrows rose and she took note of his method. Too easy. Too simple. Clever. Very clever. And something that would stop any invader in her, or his, tracks.

You’re not a techmeta she thought/wrote, ignoring his question for now. Odd, non tech metas working on cyber security. Even odder working at Hammel. What the fuck are you doing here?

Guess which one. I'll tell you if you get it right.

[Dr. Aternity Awren]

Well this was certainly a hoot! Aternity was now being the one questioned, and surprisingly, he didn't take too much offense to the methods. Some students were just more eccentric than others, and in this case, he got to flex some brain tissue that hadn't been used in sometime. He'd have to thank her at some point, as odd as that might be really. But how to answer all the skepticism? Hell, that was a tough question really. Whoever the attacker was had been found out, but honestly, if it really was a student, Ternie just wanted to help really.

So? What was there to do? It wasn't everything she was looking for on him, but she would find some academic papers on that hard drive and a lot of his doctorate work...hell, why not. Aternity slipped the drive back into his computer, and onto the network. There were backups stored elsewhere.

"It's an odd reaction because I no longer work security, and yes, I'm jumping to conclusions because if you are in fact a student here, backtracing someone who is looking for information is a bit...silly I suppose. Granted you probably should have just asked me who I was in person, but I suppose this will have to do."

He had no intention of making a mess. But it was going to be difficult convincing her of that.

"Like I said, I'm not working in security at Hammel. I'm a powers trainer and lecturer here...found it more enjoyable than writing code all day. As for who you are, I haven't a clue, and nor do I have any intention of finding out myself. It's your own job if you are willing to learn. I'll be here the next 15 minutes if you want to find out more, and talk to me in person, otherwise, I'll have to submit a report of an interior intruder on Hammel's networks."

He didn't want to do that. But that was protocol. If he couldn't prove she was a student...then that was that, there wasn't a damn thing he could do.

[Mia Keystone]

Mia blinked and stared at her screen with raised eyebrows. No way.... It was there again; one minute blank space, the next... She dived in, quickly running scans for particular words (Override being among them) before copying and transferring all she found over onto her own hard drive before he changed his mind. While she was running scans to see what popped up, with a thought she brought up the text document again, leaving the new files on visual stream.

Goes against my M.O to just ask, Mia shook her head, smirking and glancing over to a hit on her site. Which you should know, you seem to know most of my hits.

Again, Mia’s lips twitched into a smile. He was retired from security; safe then. Relatively, anyway. And if he was the teacher she had just met... again Mia’s lips twitched into a very different smirk. Hot, older IT guy. Who knew about Override. Who respected Override and didn’t immediately start calling her a criminal and telling her the possible consequences of her actions.

Ever worked security, or just studied? Mia was already starting to look it up herself, but she’d give him a chance to answer. Then her mouth twitched into a frown at his ultimatum. Another ten page essay, and while Sean had told her that while one word per page had been thinking outside the box she had still had to redo it.

Mia made the decision in a split second and stood up, snapping her laptop close. Shoving her hands into the pockets of her purple hoodie and her laptop under her arm. With a sigh and brisk shake of her shoulders to settle herself, she pushed open the door in into the classroom she’d excited just, wow, ten minutes before.

”What up,” she grinned, closing the door behind her and leaning against it with all of the weight her five feet frame had. ”You wrote an essay on me. It’s not bad either. Didn’t know the Cooper Company let on anything had happened. Not that I did anything illegal of course,” she added with a shrug of one shoulder.

[Dr. Aternity Awren]

Aternity leaned back in his chair. It appeared that she was going to take the gold mine that was his data drive and make the most of it. Hell, he would have done the same thing in that kind of situation. Information was just that, information. And if he was able to get his hands on it without risk, all the better. Granted, it wasn't usually that easy, but in this case, being a student, he would give a freebie. Knowledge is power, and it could have easily been considered one of his lessons. Teaching AND computers. Now why didn't he think of that? Huh.

"Of course, but it's always worth trying a less risky method given what you wanted out of me."

That was honestly the most straightforward answer he could give. Everything on his computer was more or less public information somewhere, asking would have yielded the same answers, even if it was a little bit less fun. Now, the question about his past jobs was an interesting one, as the answer was both.

"I've...sort of worked security? I've never been formally hired by any company. Most of my programming has been freelance work. Companies would put up work orders, and programmers like myself would fill them. Simple enough really."

After that point, the connection closed, although the timer was still on. Luckily, just as he started the Tetris game he was so longing to play, one of his students came right through the door rather quickly, shutting it behind her. Based on the smug attitude lady...Mia had on, this was Override, the same girl he'd been studying for needless to say, quite some bloody time.

"Not much. And yes I did."

He opened one of his drawers and put the paper on his desk to remind him of what exactly he did write.

"Security companies don't usually let on to the public, but when something goes wrong, a lot of internal processes outsource to freelancers. We hear things. Anyways. It's good to meet you...Mia is it?"

Aternity removed himself from his seat and extended a hand.

"As I promised, I'm going to consider your 'breach' to be part of my lesson plan, just in case anyone comes snooping."

[Mia Keystone]

After looking at his hand with mild suspicion, Mia stepped away from the door, took his hand and shook it hard. ”Mia,” she confirmed. Stepping back and looking her new teacher up and down with calculating eyes, and hugged her laptop to her chest. He did portals, he’d been talking for an hour about physics and some shit that had just had her wanting to pull a GlaDOS and send him into a fire pit without any cake at all.

With a nod, Mia rolled her eyes. ”Thanks, I’d prefer I wasn’t set another ten page essay by Dr Neville,” even the thought made her glance down at Kaylee with mild distain. Without the physical effort of typing it never took long but still, the effort! The wasted time!

Looking around the classroom, Mia hooked a chair with her foot and yanked it over to the front desk, sitting down with a huff. ”So, you were a freelancer? Take down anyone I’d have heard of?” she asked, curiosity written all over her face, as well as the usual at all times a part of me is mocking you expression Mia had. ”Why the career change then? Got tired of chasing hackers and wanted to start preaching wisdom to us poor ignorant kids?”

Her fingers tapped on the desk absently, and she glanced at the computer he'd left open and subtly shifted her hand so she was touching slightly. Tetras. Sweet. Most of her attention was still on the new teacher but she started racing through the tiles, keeping the game minimised.

"So, I don't know much about portals, but the last power trainer I had gave up." And sure, Mia might have, well, pissed him off a bit by short circuiting the guy's phone 'by accident', and sure, she may have had her own phone on, and had found playing snake way more interesting then listening to breathing exercises but hey, Aternity could find that out by himself.

[Dr. Aternity Awren]

Alright, two points for memory. Aternity had access to records of every student in his class, and often he'd take note of potential troublemakers and the like. In all honesty, only Mia's name really came back to him. He'd probably have to re-read the file at some point, although it was unlikely that he'd turn up anything major. To a lot of people, Mia was just probably another student, and it was likely that she had pulled some of her own handiwork on Hammel's internal networks. Well, that couldn't really be fixed now, nor did the doctor have an intention in fixing it.

"Neville? You mean the shrink? Huh."

He had heard the name, but never met the man in person. He was the psychiatrist here at Hammel, and based on his teaching position, Ternie would probably have to visit him at some point, if only as a small joke. He looked up in thought, but quickly returned to the realm of reality as her questioning continued.

"Was a freelancer, although you probably have me mistaken. I never actually tracked anyone myself. The software I wrote was defensive in nature. Sure, I went out in the field to do information warfare on the occasion, but it wasn't ever anything major. I might have taken someone down, but I'll probably never know who."

The joys of working as a freelancer. You just got paid, gave over the source code, and left. The rest was up to the company.

"You're pretty much correct however on the career change. It's why I took so long to get my doctorate. I did good on it, but I was far more intrigued at times with metas and how they worked. That along with robotics and nanotechnology."

He rolled up his left sleeve. What was supposed to be the same color arm that made the rest of his body, was actually a black, metallic sheen. A prosthetic arm. He may as well show her. She probably already knew. If she knew who he was? Well, then his schooling was on record to Mia as well. No use hiding anything.

"Well, he wasn't doing something right then, but considering it's relevant, this is the combination of robotics and metaphysical study. I don't intend on giving up of course, as long as you don't make my job difficult, but I promise the studies will be more fun later on. Actually, we can start now."

Aternity pulled out his phone. Nothing important on it that she would find of use really. Maybe some email for lunch with other teachers and the like, maybe some other phone numbers, but what the doctor did was a bit different. He opened a Rubik's cube app, and set the iPhone right in front of Mia.

"Solve it, and you get out of the next two weeks of theory."

[Mia Keystone]

”I dislike that man intensely,” Mia said with a scowl and a sharp nod. ”He’s nosy.” And yes, dear kettle, you are black. Love pot. Also, he had made it clear he considered her a menace, and that he expected her to either end up in jail, or in law enforcement which was worse, in her opinion.

Oh, the future irony.

He was ruining her image of him as some sort of cyber bounty hunter, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. For her at any rate. It meant that unless Hammel actively sought out his help (unlikely, they were pretty happy with their cyber security, and with due cause) he would, actually, have nothing to gain from ratting on her. And yes, he had said he wouldn’t, but Mia trusted three people in total: Jonah King, Ginny Campbell, and Kaylee. Kaylee wasn’t really a person but it seemed to make more sense then just saying she trusted herself.


Robotics and nanotechology? Mia’s eyebrows rose, though she refused to show any more interest then that... until he pulled up his sleeve. Suddenly, Mia was up and standing right next to him, her hands hovering over it, her expression like that of a small child looking at a newborn puppy. ”So that’s what it was, I just thought I’d misread your computer’s readout,” she murmured, then grinned. ”Oh, it’s happy” she purred, her fingers twitching. ”Was wondering about the amount of medical records you had. What a pretty thing.”

That was about as close to motherly as Mia ever got; kittens and puppies were nothing, but in the presence of such a well formed bit of technology? That could get Mia cooing.

This was starting to look like she might actually have a teacher who would know more about computers then how to check their email. First impressions, while sometimes wrong, were always useful to document and Mia was, if not impressed, then very intrigued. But, classes now? ”This count as a training lesson then?” she asked, stepping back reluctantly away from the arm and all the lovely wiring and electrical pulses she could feel.

Mia took the phone, looking at the cyborg (well, he was a cyborg) with a slight smirk. As soon as it was in her hand, without even thinking she started pulling numbers and dates and contacts from it to dump into her own phone. There was no reason to, yet, but you never knew when you might need something like that, right?

The app was simple enough. Touch screen to rotate the levels of the cube. With a slight frown, Mia lent against the desk and glanced up at Atnernity. ”Solve it, right?” she confimred, then shrugged. Easy. Closing her eyes, Mia started tracing through the codes that made up the program to check for the colour codes. Each small square of the cube was programed to be a set colour. All she had to do was change that. Without a single row moving, the colours on the digital cube started to wash, one square at a time, into a solid colour until one side was solid red, one green, one orange, one yellow, one white...

It wasn’t exactly following the rules, but, as she felt the need to point out ”This way’s quicker.” She handed the phone back with a shrug. ”You’ll need to delete and reload it, unless you want me to change it all back now.”

[Dr. Aternity Awren]

Well that was certainly classy. Dr. Neville was one of the other faculty that Aternity had not had the pleasure of meeting. Considering how Mia decided to make herself known, the doctor was sure that he couldn't be THAT bad. Ternie was a little weird. Most people wouldn't take local breaches to their network security lightly. The fact that she'd done so was more amusing than anything. If she'd done something to him, yeah, his own dislike of the girl would probably something a little more than justifed considering the circumstances. And nosy? Really now?

"Nosy? Sounds like someone else I know."

Double standards. Oh well. It's not like he hadn't pulled any of that on occasion when he was a kid. Getting out of class was exceptionally easy when you could be anywhere you wanted to in the blink of an eye. As for Mia, it looked like he'd made at least a small impression. Technology and hackers. They were peas in a pod pretty much. Whoever had the shiniest machines tended to have dominance. At least, that's how it was if you worked in engineering in a large company. Thankfully, he no longer dealt with that.

"Oh no, you didn't miss read anything. This happened in high school actually, trying to train myself. Made a slight mistake, cut my arm straight off in my own portal. Thankfully it wasn't my head. And yes, this counts as a training lesson."

Aternity watched as his phone was electrically manipulated. No doubt she'd pull anything she could from it, but it wouldn't matter much. The goal was of course to solve the puzzle, of course, and when she asked, he nodded without a word. And sure enough, she managed to do it, although the way she did it was sloppy at best. Aternity was not impressed, however, she DID have control of her power, and general theory would at best be useless...but the fact was, taking the easy route was not always a good idea.

"Quicker, but sloppy. I was hoping you'd decipher the code without changing it, and using the systems code against itself. Changing it the way you did...while quick, is a sure way to get yourself found in the real world. It's too detectable. We'll fix that."

Aternity took the phone and put it away, however, there was one thing remaining.

"However, it's obvious that basic theory is going to do crap for you. I'll mark you as here the next two weeks as promised. Also. Here."

One more thing. He gave her an actual Rubik's cube.

"We'll try again when you can solve this alright? Algorithmic permutations is a huge concept into breaking into systems. This will prove to be a good start. Yes, you're allowed to google. Get on it."

[Mia Keystone]

It was times like these Mia was thankful the dangers of her power were mostly to do with running into other hackers. ”You cut off your arm,” she repeated, then shook her head. Her smirk replaced the stunned expression quickly though as she touched the replacement limb again. It was the prettiest thing she’d ever seen; totally worth losing a limb for. In her twisted opinion anyway.

The satisfied smirk was the next expression to vanish as Mia’s eyebrows hit the roof. ”Oh, I’m sorry,” she snapped, eyes rolling. ”I figured since I was doing it right in front of your face, detection wasn’t exactly a problem.” Still, her eyes were curious as she scowled at the criticism. It wasn’t so easy to brush it off when it came from someone who actually knew what they were talking about. Maybe more than her, even. She was good, damn it. He’d studied her work. So why did his opinion bother her? Mia had no formal training in computer sciences, her methods came from her abilities and trial and error. That was a comforting thought; he may know the formal ways to handle everything, but there was no way he could codesurf like she could.

Even if he was a cyborg.

Like a bolt from heaven though, Aternity threw her a bone. A very nice one too. No theory! Critizism forgiven in an instant, the short girl grinned. ”Sweet!” she nodded, and it was a point to him that he’d kept his side of the deal. Unkept promises earned a black mark in Mia’s little black ok.

Feeling vaguely bipolar, the grin was again replaced with a frown as Mia looked at the cube in her hand, then looked back up at Aternity even as she started writing a program to start solving the cube for her. ”Why do I need to do this?” she asked, one eyebrow rose. ”How does this relate to anything I do? And what do those words even mean?” Sure, she could look them up in a second, but with the program running it would take more effort than just asking.

Kaylee was already running possibilities for solving the puzzle; it would only take a few minutes. In the meantime, Mia tossed the thing up into the air and caught it again, still looking at Aternity with an expression that said very clearly you’ve lost me, mate.

[Dr. Aternity Awren]

"It was a complete accident really. But for the lack of better phrasing, yes, yes I did."

Aternity sounded mildly amused. She seemed rather amused by it, and to be frank, he did too. Surprisingly, it hadn't actually hurt all that bad. Since the portal closed instantaneously, the body honestly didn't have time to react to it actually being cut off. That said, the aftershock was an absolute bitch, and was not something he would go through again without being under the influence of a powerful anesthetic first. And even then...he'd mastered his power. It probably wouldn't happen again. He hoped. Now...there was the problem with Mia. A logical problem if you will.

"Generally it's not a problem. But you just used the same method you used to crack a few other machines. It made you easy to study, and is probably why you can't break into Hammel's security systems. And it's how I know you."

He made a rather off-putting comment. He obviously wasn't impressed.

"You're predictable."

It was a fact. Most hackers did leave some sort of signature trail...a preferred method of working through systems, yet they were still difficult to spot. However, if a good hacker was like tracking a small woodland creature through the forest, tracking Mia was akin to following a rolling blue whale. Not only did it not belong, but the sheer whatthefuckery made it easy to spot, and was a riot with information security specialists. It was effective, but way over the top and brutal. And to some, downright lazy and silly.

It was a wonder she was still alive.

"Every major system generally uses some sort of encryption key. You're probably used to hitting it with a sledgehammer of sorts. A Rubik's cube is another style of algorithm. Not quite the same, but the overall general idea is. Solve it, and nudge cracks out of the way, and generally people won't even notice you've been there until you're gone. Or if you've been there at all."

Aternity frowned a little bit.

"So. Solve the cube, save the world. Or something like that. And if you find that one easy, try doing a 5x5 cube instead."