Digimon Story: Rainbow Traverse -- Chp 24

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Raising an eyebrow, Keilani dipped into a pocket to pull out her wallet.

"Alright," she said, quarter in hand. "Heads, we go, tails you go."

*Rollz*

Flipping the coin, Keilani put her leg in front of Gammy as she let the quarter fall to the ground. As one, the group leaned forward, their shadows killing the gleam of sunlight off the spare change to reveal...

"Tails it is," said Renamon.

"Typical," said Keilani. "Alright bro, you and Rena get first crack at this."

Al couldn’t help but smirk slightly when the coin landed tails, and he would softly pet Renamon’s “Tails always win! Alright, we’re going in. When the others show up let ‘em know what’s going on okay?”

And he would take a breath. “Let’s do this, Renamon!”

"Yeah, will do."

"Ooh ooh!" said Gammamon, arms in the air. "Keilani, can I keep the quarter?"

"Sure thing, Gammy. We can put it in your piggybank." Gesturing towards her car, the scientist led her partner away from the INAS, watching from afar as Al and Renamon stepped through.

...

Not even a minute inside the node, and the similarities to the one at the zoo were apparent. Cyberspace was still visible above, the node's skybox represented by pixelated patches of blue that hung in fixed positions. Meanwhile, on the ground, endless fields of flowers and grass were bisected by a long strip of road, one that defied gravity as it rose up to form spirals, loops, and even turn upside down circuit high in the air. Holographic road signs blinked in and out of view, showcasing numbers and digicode for routes that didn't exist or cautioned speed limits impossible for any conventional vehicle to reach.

("I don't see any digimon,") thought Renamon. ("This node must be relatively new in the Network, not just its INAS.")

Looking about at it, Al would give a faint smile. If it was still nascent.. they could take control of the INAS and seal it before any major problems happened.

“Well in that case, we better hurry and put it under lock and key before some asshole digimon tries to use it for their own gain.”

"Understood," said the vulpine. She gave the area another sweeping glance before looking back at Al. "Don't suppose you remember how to access the node's admin controls, do you?"

“I should be able to figure it out, easily enough. If Vivi can puzzle it out I believe I can too. I do work on coding every now and then if you remember.” He teased

Smirking, Renamon elbowed the teen's side. "Alright then, how do we access the node's system from here?"

“Hmm.. let’s see.” He would bring up his Digivice “Well this is integral for closing the INAS.. so maybe..”

[Hmm... roll me Computers]

[Rolling: 5,5,5 + 9= 24]

[Pffft, Christ]

Inspecting his digivice, Al opened up the map function, combing through the data presented till he found a way to access the program's coding. The text was in digicode, yet bit by bit each glyph flickered into alphabetic letters and numbers he could understand. A dash here, a tilde there, Alemana was halfway through writing out a new command when the code in his head began typing itself out on its own... and kept going... walls upon walls of text. Without warning, the editing window closed, revealing an angular trail of dots leading further into the node.

"Al," said Renamon. "What did you do...?"

It was like a puzzle, in a way. That's what Alemana always found so interesting about coding work, examining what characters went where and what could be out of place.. it was calming in ways that his other hobbies didn't really offer- an escape from everything else where only the purity of the equation mattered. And as Al worked to decipher the digicode, he got into his flow state. That line.. and that one there.. yes, he was starting to see how things worked.. at least in bits and pieces. For a few minutes it was like he was the only person in the room with how focused he was as he typed away, he didn't even seem to perceive anything beyond his screen and the slowly decoding characters displayed upon it.

He didn't even seem to realized how things clicked into place as he worked.. things just made sense. In this flow state, everything was so obvious to him-

Then he was jerked back to the present as the window closed, looking at the trail of dots in a daze.. as if mesmerized for a moment. He didn't answer her question right away, merely looking over his shoulder at her with a perplexed expression. "What?"

He then shook his head, glancing at the trail. "Oh, uh. I set up a route to take us to the core of the Node.. I think. We should be able to fully take care of things there."

[Gain +1 Inspiration]

Alemana felt his partner's eyes on the back of his neck even before he saw through them via their link. Staying close, Renamon followed the teen, shifting her attention to the ever growing road streaking through the patchwork heavens.

Into the flowering fields the lovers trekked, further and further away from the painted strip of tarmac. On the map, the dotted line broke off as they approached the lone rock jutting out from the blooming earth. Renamon tensed, grabbing firm onto Al's shoulder as she went still as a statue, for in that instance, a cone of light flashed into being upon the stone -- as if it were center stage at a school's theater production. A moment later, and a holoscreen blinked into view, hovering above the rock as walls of encryption flowed across the surface.

("Looks like we found it,") thought Renamon, the vulpine easing her hold. ("Think it's safe to access?")

Al glanced about as they approached the holoscreen, reaching his hand behind him for Renamon to grasp

“It should be safe.. probably. I mean no one is challenging us for control as far as I can tell…  so it should be easy for us to just log in and get Administrator privileges.”

On touching the screen, static shock sparked between it and Al's hand. Suddenly, the encryption swiped left as several windows opened, each flashing a red, segmented triangle with an exclamation point inside. In the foreground, a bar then bisected the screen from side-to-side, reading: WARNING in capital letters.

"++Alert++" said a voice. "++Faultline detected. Network connection unstable++"

"Unstable?!" echoed Renamon.

The voice continued. "++Immediate action required. Please advise++"