Overthrowby SlimeTheDude2ChaptersChapter One: Not-So-Humble Beginnings Chapter Two: Work and PlayChapter Three: Impostors and Black HatsChapter One: Not-So-Humble Beginnings Chapter One: Not-So-Humble Beginnings "Welcome, future employees to the Seaddle Headquarters of Blume Corporation. My name is Twilight Sparkle, CEO of Blume and your tour guide." Twilight Sparkle took in front of ten people. Her purple hair was put into a ponytail. She was wearing a suit with the Blume Corporation Logo on the right shoulder. "Here at Blume, we are the world's foremost innovator of high-tech, high-performance communications and security technology. Now, without further ado, let's start the tour." After three hours, the group had completed the tour. "Before you all leave, I have to talk about our crowning jewel: CTOS." As Twilight explained and showed the achievements of CTOS, one of the people who Twilight was talking to began writing. Every detail and every word were scribbled onto a notebook. The woman who was writing was wearing a semi-formal suit. She had a nametag, which stated her name was "Crimson Rose". Her was pink, yellow, and orange hair was tied into a bun. "While some people think that CTOS isn't anything good, I can guarantee that CTOS can and will make lives better." Everybody in the room, except for Crimson Rose, began to applaud Twilight Sparkle. "Now, everybody, go home. Get some rest, because you'll need it. Tomorrow you will begin work here." As everyone was leaving, Twilight Sparkle stopped Crimson Rose. "Hey, Crimson, I'm glad you're working with us. I have a feeling you'll be a great addition to our team... Just one thing, stay out of trouble." "Yeah, sure" responded Crimson, avoiding eye contact with Twilight. As she left, Twilight patted her on the back. Crimson drove home, changed into a white tank top and blue jeans. She started up her laptop and went to a forum. I'm in. Later that night at one of the CTOS server farms. Crimson climbed up onto a section of the roof. She was now wearing a gray hoodie, with the hood on, sunglasses, and a pink bandana covering her mouth and below. A distorted voice came in through a voice chat program. "Consider this a BlackOut initiation, Fl0wers. If you choose to accept, you will need to bypass security doors and get inside. Then, find and erase your personal CTOS profile." "Gladly. What they have on me is probably bullshit, and I sick of getting harassed for it," responded Crimson. "All the more reason for a purge. We'll be watching." Crimson started running. She slid across a vent, then jumped onto a heater and climbed up to a higher part of the roof. She saw a guard, hid behind a vent and waited. While waiting, she took out her thunder-ball. It was a billiards ball tied to a small bungee cord.On the other on of the cord, there was a handle. When the guard turned around, she ran up behind him. She put the cord of the thunder-ball around the neck of the guard, causing him to pass out, then hit the guard in the head with the ball as he fell to the ground. Crimson jumped from the section of the roof to a lower section, then to the parking lot. As she landed on the ground of the parking lot, a guard noticed her. Taking out her stun gun, she took the guard. The guard fell to the ground, unconscious. Sneaking through the parking lot, she saw another guard. She hid behind a car. When the guard turned around, she ran up to him and hit him in the back of the head with her thunder-ball, knocking him out. She ran up a staircase and found a locked door. "Shit," Crimson said. She took out her phone and scanned the area to find console to unlock the door. Finding it on the roof of the stairwell, she climbed up to the roof and went to the control box for the lock. Using her phone, Crimson hacked into the console and unlocked the door, and went into the stairwell. Meanwhile, three people were watching the cameras of the building Crimson was infiltrating. One of the three rapidly swapped between cameras. "You're wasting your time," said another. "She's not in." The first swapped the camera one more time and saw Crimson run down a hallway. "Gotcha," he said. "So that's him..." The first one typed 'Crimson Rose' into a CTOS search and found her profile. "She's got a gun. Is that a problem?" asked the first voice while pointing at the screen. "Problems are why you keep me around, right?" chimed in the third one. Her voice sounded robotic. Crimson began hacking into another lock. "Time her," said the second person. "I'm curious." "Too late. She's already in," responded the first person. Crimson opened the door and walked through. Two guards were walking down a hallway, coming up to a lounge area. The two were talking about a game that was about an alien. Randomly, both of their phones went off. “Are you having problems with your phone too?” asked the first guard. As the first guard checked their phone, Crimson jumped from the ceiling onto him, knocking him to the ground, "Oh God! Oh God!" yelled the other before he was hit in the head by Crimson's thunder-ball, knocking him out. The first guard started to get up, but Crimson turned around, swinging the thunder-ball to hit the guard in the face, knocking him out as well. Crimson took out her phone and hacked into one of the cameras. She began swapping between the cameras trying to find an access key. Eventually, she found the computer with the key in it. Through the camera, she hacked into the computer and got access to the key. Using the access key, she opened a locked door to the hallway which led to the server farm. "So, what's her deal?" asked the robotic voice, leaning back into her chair. "She was born in Detrot, but was raised in-" began the first person before being cut off by the laughter of the second person. "Her deal is: she's been hanging around the BlackOut IRC, and she's got cred. Figured we'd give her a test drive," said the second voice. "On the hardest difficulty. Nobody has been able to delete their CTOS profile before." "I want to see if she is smart, stubborn, or both." Crimson was making her way up the multiple stairwells of the server farm, making sure not to be seen by any guards. When she made it to the floor with the server tower, she shot both guards on the floor with her stun gun, making both of them unconscious. She went to the server tower and hacked it, shutting down most things. "She's done this before," claimed the robotic voice. "CTOS tagged her as a prime suspect of a suspect in a high-tech burglary, so..." responded the second voice. "She's done time?" "Community service. Not enough evidence, just the word of CTOS's 'predictive algorithms,'" said the second voice, trying to sound idiotic. "Once in the system, always in the system," said the first voice. Crimson completed the shutdown, turning off all the light. "Holy shit, she went for it," said the second voice in a surprised manor. "She won't have much time before the back-ups kick in." Crimson used this time to quickly get to the entrance of the service tower. "She's going in the hot aisle," said the second voice as Crimson threw a glow-stick down the chamber to light it up. "It's at least 120 degrees in there," said the first voice. Crimson went into the chamber and press her feet and back against the wall to keep her from falling it. She stuck a device into the wall, took out her laptop and began hacking. When she finished, she put her laptop back into the bag it was kept in, took the device off of the wall, and climbed out. She jumped off the ledge, landed on a pathway to CTOS database. Inside the room, she found that the database was locked. She took out her phone and began rerouting the data to unlock the database. When she unlocked the database, she searching for her file. When she opened her file, she saw that her threat level was 87 percent. "What the fuck? Why is my threat so high?" She launched the CTOS live tracking, and it began showing her records. She then opened her criminal records. "This is bullshit." She deleted all her criminal records, reducing her threat level to 36 percent. Then, she deleted her entire profile and replaced it with another. Finally, she placed a backdoor into the system. "She's heading out," said the second voice, "bag her." "Yup," responded the robotic voice, as she got up from her chair and walked out onto the street. Inside the building, the alarm went off. "Droplets is out cold. We got an intruder," called out the intercom, "lock down the exits, and send somebody to check him out." Crimson enter the next room over, which had a guard walking towards her. She hacked a fuse box to shock a person when they get close to it, then attracted the guards to get into the range of the shock. The guard walked up to the fuse box and got knocked out by the shock. Crimson ran past the guard and went back to the server farm. She ran down multiple flights of stairs until she got to the ground floor. She opened a sliding door and made her way to a large vent shaft. Trying to open the door, two guards ran up to her and pointed their guns. "Stop there!" yelled one guard. "There is nowhere to go," mockingly said Crimson. "Arrowhead, help her," said the second voice. "Got it," complyed Arrowhead. The door Crimson was standing in front of suddenly swung up. Crimson then jumped backward into the vent, giving both of the guards the middle finger. Crimson found her way out of the building and began walking backward while flipping off the building. "Fuck you Blume!" yelled Crimson. Suddenly, a bag was put over Crimson's head and she was knocked out. Chapter Two: Work and PlayThe bag was taken off of Crimson's head, revealing to her that she was on a beach, "So..." Crimson began, "am I in?" Behind her were five other people. "Welcome to BlackOut," said the first voice. The person with the robotic voice and a new person brought Crimson to her feet and undid her handcuff. "I'm Moonshine." Her hair was baby blue and swept to one side. She was wearing an off-shoulder top, and jean shorts. "This sweetheart here is Arrowhead A.K.A. 'B@listics'," Arrowhead was wearing a black baseball cap, gray shirt, and black track pants. His hair was a dark brown. "Yo! You're B@listics? Man, I loved your Fraternity hack. Real talk," said Crimson. She put her hand out for a high-five, but Arrowhead didn’t do it. "... Thanks," he said. "This weirdo is Sledge," said Moonshine as she pointed at the person with the robotic voice. She was wearing a black leather vest over a dark gray hoodie with the hood on, black jeans, and a black mask that had a visor which uses LED lights creating pictures. A bit of her mint green and aquamarine hair hung slightly over her right eye. "The needs of the many," said Sledge as he separated her pinky and ring finger from her middle and index finger. "This enigma is Sequoia," said Moonshine as she pointed at a fourth person. Sequoia wore a white tank top and blue jeans. His hair was pastel red with gray stripes and was messy. Sequoia gave Crimson a sloppy two-fingered salute. "And this Casanova is Storm Call," said Moonshine as she pointed at the final person. Storm Call wore a hoodie with BlackOut written on the chest and baggy blue jeans. His hair was dark blue and shaggy. "What's up, man," said Storm as he grabbed Crimson by the hand, pulled her in, and patted her on the back. "'Sup, man," Crimson said in response. She looked over the five people. "It's the crew, huh? Took y'all long enough to get me, shit." Later that night, the six of them sat around a campfire and started drinking. "You saw Blume's bullshit. CTOS isn't just regulating infrastructure. The amount of personal data in that thing." Crimson was slurring because of all the drinks she had. "Yeah, it's Big Brother and little brother, all rolled up into one," added Storm. "Uh?" asked Sledge. She scratched her head in confusion. "It sees everything you do and tells on you," answered Arrowhead. Arrowhead was the only person that wasn't drinking. "Thank you Arrowhead," said Storm. "So what's the fix?" asked Moonshine. "Sledgehammers and fire," said Sledge excitedly. She pointed at the air. "No, sledgehammers ON fire." Sledge began to get up but spilled a drink onto Moonshine. "Oh sorry," Sledge said apologetically. "All that data in one place mean, they can reject your fucking application before you click on it," said Crimson. "Congratulations, you have been pre-rejected for our credit card," mockingly said Storm, trying to replicate the voice of an automated system. "Your house or your insurance." Crimson lied down on her back. "That's not even the worst case scenario. All the data in the hands of the government? They'll arrest you for shit before you even do it," said Moonshine. She pushed herself up slightly with her hands. "Yeah, I've been there. And now I fucking know why. You know what, fuck it. Fuck it!" Crimson stood up, "Fuck it, man. We're hackers. We, we outthink, we out-dare. I-I say we tear down the fucking wall. Show everyone what Blume's up to, man. Show the world that their personal information is being used to rob them of their fucking freedoms. Fuck..." Crimson took a sip of her drink. "I installed a backdoor, so all we got to do is walk right through." Everybody began to think. "Hold on, you what?" asked Storm. "He installed a back door, so all we have to do is walk through," Arrowhead repeated. "Bingo," said Crimson, elongating the "o" at the end. Later, Crimson went off to the said to vomit. As she finished a person jogging walked up to her. "Hey, man. You got the time?" he asked. His hair was sapphire blue, with cerulean and dark blue streaks, and was in a man-bun. His bushy beard was the same color. "Uh, yeah man," said Crimson as she took out her phone, but she dropped it. "I got it, I got it." The man picked up the phone and checked the time. "It's kinda late for a night run, isn't it? Hey, what are you... you're running from the cops?" jokingly asked Crimson and she giggled at herself. "Maybe I am one." The man made eye contact with Crimson "Hey, you... you look familiar." Crimson pointed at the man as she stumbled to her right. The man just gave her back her phone. "Have a good party." The man jogged away after that. Crimson shrugged and then looked at her phone. "Ping this, motherfuck..." said Crimson as she threw her phone into the water. The force of the swing made her fall over."Fuck you, Blume. I'm gonna go have a god damn good time." The next morning, Crimson woke up on the floor to a phone ringing. She was down to only her white tank top and tan shorts. Answering the phone she said, "Hello? Whose phone is this?" "It's your new phone." The voice was Moonshine's. "Where's my phone?" "In the ocean, where you threw it, I think? I don't remember. I was pretty smashed. Look, go to work, then meet us at the at the hackerspace." “Where is it?” asked a confused Crimson "Check your pics and figure it out." Crimson sighed and hung up. "Okay, c'mon, get the fuck up." Crimson slowly pushed herself up. She looked around and stopped. "Yo, whose place am I in?" Crimson turned around to see a half naked man sleep on the bed. Crimson went outside and looked out to the water from the porch. "Damn, last night was one party," said Crimson to Moonshine through the BlackOut channel. Moonshine laughed and said, "Like Mardi Gras. Go get yourself something to wear and I'll tell you how to get to your job from there. Oh, and you'll need your phone ready for operations, so hit the store and download your apps before you get there." "Damn, walk of shame on my first day." Crimson opened up the app shop on her phone and downloaded the apps "Car on Demand", "Nudle Maps", "Media Player", "SongSneak", “Driver SF” and "Director's Cut". Crimson called in a Driver SF worker to drive her to her house, and she got her work attire on. She got into her car and hurriedly drove to Blume Corporations Offices, with Moonshine giving her direction. She arrived to work on time, checked in, and sat down at her desk. About halfway through her work day, Twilight Sparkle walked up to Crimson. Twilight smiled at Crimson. "My brother told me you had quite the party last night," she said. "Who's your..." Crimson tilted her head slightly to the left. "Shining Armor. He asked you for the time last night." "Oh... I remember." "So tell me, what was the party for? Was it for getting hired?" Twilight grinned. "Naw, it was... it was just friends hanging out," said Crimson as she scratched her head. "You look pretty... shall we say, beat. Tell you what, I'll let you go home now. But let's keep this just between us, Shining gets upset when I let people go early." "Oh… thanks." Crimson got up from her seat. "Just, don't over do it next time." "Will do." Crimson walked out of the building and got into her car. Crimson entered the BlackOut channel and said, "Alright Moonshine, got out of work early. Where are you at?" "Sending you the location... and the passcode for the door," Moonshine answered. Crimson drove to the hideout: Games, Glory, and Goblins. Crimson parked her car and inside the car, changed into more casual attire. She entered the shop, and when into the back, where you found a door with a keypad on it. She entered the code Moonshine gave her and the door opened. It revealed a staircase leading to the basement, which was covered in wall art. There were multiple screens as well. "Yo!" "Finally!" said Moonshine. "So, Arrowhead and I spoke, and fucking over Blume has been a long-standing project." "You need two things to take down Blume. You need to get people to rally behind your cause to separate you from the trolls," added Storm. "And we need bots and a lot of them to handle the data CTOS is processing," said Arrowhead. "Thank you Arrowhead." "We spent all night modifying our app, so you can get followers to download the app, so we can use their processing power for the cause," said Moonshine. "This is happening? It's really happening?" wondered Crimson. "Mmhm." "Yeah man, this is happening! You'd better get to it!" exclaimed Storm. Sledge chimed in. "Hell yeah, man! Barbarians are at the gate and ready to burst some Gryphon heads." "Yeah, we gonna focus on some high-profile ops and play them for exposure and laughs to get people to download our app," said Storm. "Don't worry, we'll start with something fun," said Moonshine extending the "u" in "fun". "Well, this will be interesting," said Crimson as she walked off to begin her work as a BlackOut member. Chapter Three: Impostors and Black Hats"Yo Crimson! Check this out!" yelled Sledge, motioning Crimson to come over. Sledge was standing in front of a large object build into the wall. The object was large, and had two doors on it, On said doors was a chalkboard with multiple illustrations on it. Crimson tilted her head to the left. "If you don't mind me asked, what is that?" "It's the Annihilator!" excitedly yelled Sledge, putting on a Marelin accent. "It is capable of producing working weapons and gadgets using molten plastic and metal!" She put her arms into the air in triumph. Her mask showed two circumflexes, making her look happier than she already is. "So... a very advanced 3D printer?" Crimson crossed her arms. Inside, Crimson was excited, but she wasn't sure whether it would be appropriate to act excited. On the outside, Crimson put on her best 'unimpressed' face. "You're... you're not the least bit amped about this?" Sledge slowly lowered her arms. Her mask showed a forward slash and a backslash to illustrate her sadness. Oh thank celestia, thought Crimson. "Nah," Crimson walked up to Sledge, and slightly punched her in the arm, "I'm just rusting your chain." "Oh, okay," chirped Sledge. She almost instantly got back into her chipper mood. "Well... what are you waiting for? Try it." Sledge gently pushed Crimson to the control panel. After figuring out how it worked, Crimson make a purple and gray handgun, and an RC car. "Oh sweet!" Crimson was thoroughly examining the gun. When she finished, she took a clip and loaded the handgun. "So, what now?" asked Crimson as she put the handgun into her bag. "Just head over Sequoia and Moonshine and they'll tell you everything you need to know." Sledge pointed in the general direction . "Alright, see ya around Sledge." Crimson walked up to Sequoia, who was sitting at a desk and said, "So, what missi-" before she was cut off. Sequoia raised his hand, with the index finger pointing out. He typed something into a computer and then turned around. He handed Crimson a folder. Looking inside, she saw a printed report and a picture of what looked to be a young teenager. "Um... what I'm I supposed to do?" "You and Storm Call," said Moonshine. Storm Call turned to look at Moonshine. "You two are tasked with finding and interrogating Button Mash." "Why, exactly?" "He's claiming that he is a full-fledged member of BlackOut, which we cannot let slide." "Fair enough." Storm Call got up from the couch he was sitting on. "Come on, let's go," said Storm Call as he walked pass Crimson, "I'll even drive too." During the car ride, Crimson took out her laptop and began searching for the whereabouts of Button Mash. Eventually, she found a signal from him and began scanning for his exact location. "So... what's up with Sequoia?" asked Crimson. "What?" responded Storm Call. "What's up with Sequoia? Like, why is he so quiet?" "I don't know the answer to that... he wouldn't tell me." "Well, what do you know?" asked an annoyed Crimson. A few seconds. "He comes from Manehattan. I know that from looking up his criminal records." "He's a criminal?" "Nothing too major, plus they're from when he was 18. Turns out he's an orphan." "That's... sad." "Yeah.” Another interval of silence. “One day I found him on the app. He did some ATM hack... free money basically, and I decided to contact him. No response for a couple months, then one day he comes to our headquarters and said he was looking for me," Storm Call chuckled ,"One of the few times I saw legitimate panic in his eyes. Turns out he's an excellent hacker." "Interesting." "Indeed. Oh, and here's a tip: don't get in a fight with him. He will lay you flat on your ass fast than you can count to three." "I'll take note of that." A few minutes later, the scan finished. "He's at Grand Colt park." "Got it." "So yeah, I'm part of BlackOut," said a young boy. He was sitting on a park bench. He wore a brown sweatshirt and Jeans. He has was two tones of orange. He also had a laptop in his lap. "That's so cool!" said one girl, laying down on another park bench. Her hair was short and cerise. She wore green cargo pants and a black track jacket over an orange shirt. "I don't know, Scootaloo. Applejack sure doesn't like BlackOut, especially after their first attack on Tidas," said another girl. Her blue jeans were rolled up to her knees and her light green shirt covered her waist. He was was red, and a big bow in it. She sat on the ground next to the bench Scootaloo was on. "What's the worst that could happen, Apple Bloom? " asked the third girl. She wore a light gray sweater and a pink skirt. Her hair was mulberry and light rose and was put into neat curls. She sat next to the boy on the bench. "Sweetie Belle's got a point," said Scootaloo. "What do you think, Button Mash?" "She'll never know," began Button Mash. "Know what?" asked Crimson. She sat down on a park bench across from Button Mash and Sweetie Belle. "That I'm a BlackOut member," said Button Mash, trying to sound as cool as possible. "Oh really?" Crimson raised one of her eyebrows. "I've been trying to get in for months. Turns out they're very exclusive." "Yeah, I know. I'm just that good." "Oh. Say, if you don't mind, why don't you show us some of your hacking skills." Crimson was grinning. Grimace set in of Button Mash's face. "Yeah Button!" called Scootaloo, who was now sitting up. "It would be so cool," said Sweetie Belle. Button Mash was practically frozen in time. "You okay there, buddy?" asked Crimson. Sweetie Belle waved her hand in front of Button Mash's face. Then, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle got a message on their phones. As they checked their phones, Crimson installed a virus into Button Mash's laptop and Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle's phones. "Hey, shithead!" yelled Scootaloo as she slapped the back of his head, sending back into reality. "Are you gonna show us some hacking, or what?" "I..." began Button Mash. He lowered his head in shame. At that moment, the virus activated. The phones and laptops turned on. Classical music blaring through the devices. Button Mash, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle looked at each other, then a Crimson, then at each other again. They knew Crimson was a member of BlackOut. They ran away, all in separate directions. Crimson chased after Button Mash. Storm Call, who was sitting on the hood of his car, saw Crimson run after Button Mash. He stood up, and when Button Mash passed him, Storm grabbed Button Mash's hood, stopping him in his tracks. "Not so fast," said Storm Call mockingly. "You've been claiming that you're a full-fledged member of BlackOut." "I-I am, though!" yelled Button. "Who initiated you then?" asked Crimson. "Whirlwind." "Who?" "Whirlwind, or that's what he calls himself. He said told me if I give 100 bits, he'll let me be a BlackOut member." Storm Call sighed. "Kid, I think you got ripped off. Nobody in BlackOut is called Whirlwind," said Storm Call. Button Mash's face saddened. "Now, go find your friends, and go tell them that everything is okay." Before Button Mash could respond Crimson and Storm Call had already gotten into the car and drove away. Back at the headquarters, Crimson and Storm Call told the rest about Whirlwind. For a couple of days, they tried to find the guy, but they couldn't find him. The crew had given up on the search. Crimson was sitting at her desk at work. Twilight walked up to her. "Can I ask you a question?" asked Twilight. "Sure, go ahead," responded Crimson. She turned her chair to face Twilight. "Siblings of two of my friends, plus two more, met a BlackOut member. You wouldn't happen to know about that, right?" Crimson waited for a second. "No. I don't." "Okay, good. Those no good hackers do no good to the world." As Twilight finished her sentence, the lights, and all the computers turned off. "Hello Blume," said a voice trying to sound menacing. It was distorted. "My name is Whirlwind, a member of BlackOut." the workers of the room began to chatter. Crimson had a face of slight annoyance. "See? This is what I'm talking about!" exclaimed Twilight. The computer screens turned on, all showing a live feed of what people assumed to be Whirlwind. He wore a mask that depicted a smiling griffin. On the back his neck he had a unique marking, five medium-sized dots. "I have a very simple request: transfer one million bits to my account in one hour. If you do not comply, I will shut down your company for good," said Whirlwind. Twilight took out a pager. "Code Red, shut down the CTOS system for now." Crimson began to hack into Whirlwind's system, trying to find a signal. She quickly found a match. "Ha! He can't even mute his own signal, let alone shut down a company. Now all I need to do is download," said Crimson. She almost finished downloading his location but the CTOS shutdown commenced, cutting off her connect to Whirlwind. "Damn it!" Crimson went home and sat down on his couch. She turned on the television and tried to fall asleep. Just as she was about to fall asleep she remembered about her backdoor in the system. Taking out her laptop she enters the CTOS system trying to find a possible match for Whirlwind. "No. No. No. No. and No." After half an hour she found somebody. He had the same five markings on the back of his neck. Sky Stinger.
Chapter One: Not-So-Humble Beginnings Chapter One: Not-So-Humble Beginnings "Welcome, future employees to the Seaddle Headquarters of Blume Corporation. My name is Twilight Sparkle, CEO of Blume and your tour guide." Twilight Sparkle took in front of ten people. Her purple hair was put into a ponytail. She was wearing a suit with the Blume Corporation Logo on the right shoulder. "Here at Blume, we are the world's foremost innovator of high-tech, high-performance communications and security technology. Now, without further ado, let's start the tour." After three hours, the group had completed the tour. "Before you all leave, I have to talk about our crowning jewel: CTOS." As Twilight explained and showed the achievements of CTOS, one of the people who Twilight was talking to began writing. Every detail and every word were scribbled onto a notebook. The woman who was writing was wearing a semi-formal suit. She had a nametag, which stated her name was "Crimson Rose". Her was pink, yellow, and orange hair was tied into a bun. "While some people think that CTOS isn't anything good, I can guarantee that CTOS can and will make lives better." Everybody in the room, except for Crimson Rose, began to applaud Twilight Sparkle. "Now, everybody, go home. Get some rest, because you'll need it. Tomorrow you will begin work here." As everyone was leaving, Twilight Sparkle stopped Crimson Rose. "Hey, Crimson, I'm glad you're working with us. I have a feeling you'll be a great addition to our team... Just one thing, stay out of trouble." "Yeah, sure" responded Crimson, avoiding eye contact with Twilight. As she left, Twilight patted her on the back. Crimson drove home, changed into a white tank top and blue jeans. She started up her laptop and went to a forum. I'm in. Later that night at one of the CTOS server farms. Crimson climbed up onto a section of the roof. She was now wearing a gray hoodie, with the hood on, sunglasses, and a pink bandana covering her mouth and below. A distorted voice came in through a voice chat program. "Consider this a BlackOut initiation, Fl0wers. If you choose to accept, you will need to bypass security doors and get inside. Then, find and erase your personal CTOS profile." "Gladly. What they have on me is probably bullshit, and I sick of getting harassed for it," responded Crimson. "All the more reason for a purge. We'll be watching." Crimson started running. She slid across a vent, then jumped onto a heater and climbed up to a higher part of the roof. She saw a guard, hid behind a vent and waited. While waiting, she took out her thunder-ball. It was a billiards ball tied to a small bungee cord.On the other on of the cord, there was a handle. When the guard turned around, she ran up behind him. She put the cord of the thunder-ball around the neck of the guard, causing him to pass out, then hit the guard in the head with the ball as he fell to the ground. Crimson jumped from the section of the roof to a lower section, then to the parking lot. As she landed on the ground of the parking lot, a guard noticed her. Taking out her stun gun, she took the guard. The guard fell to the ground, unconscious. Sneaking through the parking lot, she saw another guard. She hid behind a car. When the guard turned around, she ran up to him and hit him in the back of the head with her thunder-ball, knocking him out. She ran up a staircase and found a locked door. "Shit," Crimson said. She took out her phone and scanned the area to find console to unlock the door. Finding it on the roof of the stairwell, she climbed up to the roof and went to the control box for the lock. Using her phone, Crimson hacked into the console and unlocked the door, and went into the stairwell. Meanwhile, three people were watching the cameras of the building Crimson was infiltrating. One of the three rapidly swapped between cameras. "You're wasting your time," said another. "She's not in." The first swapped the camera one more time and saw Crimson run down a hallway. "Gotcha," he said. "So that's him..." The first one typed 'Crimson Rose' into a CTOS search and found her profile. "She's got a gun. Is that a problem?" asked the first voice while pointing at the screen. "Problems are why you keep me around, right?" chimed in the third one. Her voice sounded robotic. Crimson began hacking into another lock. "Time her," said the second person. "I'm curious." "Too late. She's already in," responded the first person. Crimson opened the door and walked through. Two guards were walking down a hallway, coming up to a lounge area. The two were talking about a game that was about an alien. Randomly, both of their phones went off. “Are you having problems with your phone too?” asked the first guard. As the first guard checked their phone, Crimson jumped from the ceiling onto him, knocking him to the ground, "Oh God! Oh God!" yelled the other before he was hit in the head by Crimson's thunder-ball, knocking him out. The first guard started to get up, but Crimson turned around, swinging the thunder-ball to hit the guard in the face, knocking him out as well. Crimson took out her phone and hacked into one of the cameras. She began swapping between the cameras trying to find an access key. Eventually, she found the computer with the key in it. Through the camera, she hacked into the computer and got access to the key. Using the access key, she opened a locked door to the hallway which led to the server farm. "So, what's her deal?" asked the robotic voice, leaning back into her chair. "She was born in Detrot, but was raised in-" began the first person before being cut off by the laughter of the second person. "Her deal is: she's been hanging around the BlackOut IRC, and she's got cred. Figured we'd give her a test drive," said the second voice. "On the hardest difficulty. Nobody has been able to delete their CTOS profile before." "I want to see if she is smart, stubborn, or both." Crimson was making her way up the multiple stairwells of the server farm, making sure not to be seen by any guards. When she made it to the floor with the server tower, she shot both guards on the floor with her stun gun, making both of them unconscious. She went to the server tower and hacked it, shutting down most things. "She's done this before," claimed the robotic voice. "CTOS tagged her as a prime suspect of a suspect in a high-tech burglary, so..." responded the second voice. "She's done time?" "Community service. Not enough evidence, just the word of CTOS's 'predictive algorithms,'" said the second voice, trying to sound idiotic. "Once in the system, always in the system," said the first voice. Crimson completed the shutdown, turning off all the light. "Holy shit, she went for it," said the second voice in a surprised manor. "She won't have much time before the back-ups kick in." Crimson used this time to quickly get to the entrance of the service tower. "She's going in the hot aisle," said the second voice as Crimson threw a glow-stick down the chamber to light it up. "It's at least 120 degrees in there," said the first voice. Crimson went into the chamber and press her feet and back against the wall to keep her from falling it. She stuck a device into the wall, took out her laptop and began hacking. When she finished, she put her laptop back into the bag it was kept in, took the device off of the wall, and climbed out. She jumped off the ledge, landed on a pathway to CTOS database. Inside the room, she found that the database was locked. She took out her phone and began rerouting the data to unlock the database. When she unlocked the database, she searching for her file. When she opened her file, she saw that her threat level was 87 percent. "What the fuck? Why is my threat so high?" She launched the CTOS live tracking, and it began showing her records. She then opened her criminal records. "This is bullshit." She deleted all her criminal records, reducing her threat level to 36 percent. Then, she deleted her entire profile and replaced it with another. Finally, she placed a backdoor into the system. "She's heading out," said the second voice, "bag her." "Yup," responded the robotic voice, as she got up from her chair and walked out onto the street. Inside the building, the alarm went off. "Droplets is out cold. We got an intruder," called out the intercom, "lock down the exits, and send somebody to check him out." Crimson enter the next room over, which had a guard walking towards her. She hacked a fuse box to shock a person when they get close to it, then attracted the guards to get into the range of the shock. The guard walked up to the fuse box and got knocked out by the shock. Crimson ran past the guard and went back to the server farm. She ran down multiple flights of stairs until she got to the ground floor. She opened a sliding door and made her way to a large vent shaft. Trying to open the door, two guards ran up to her and pointed their guns. "Stop there!" yelled one guard. "There is nowhere to go," mockingly said Crimson. "Arrowhead, help her," said the second voice. "Got it," complyed Arrowhead. The door Crimson was standing in front of suddenly swung up. Crimson then jumped backward into the vent, giving both of the guards the middle finger. Crimson found her way out of the building and began walking backward while flipping off the building. "Fuck you Blume!" yelled Crimson. Suddenly, a bag was put over Crimson's head and she was knocked out.
Chapter Two: Work and PlayThe bag was taken off of Crimson's head, revealing to her that she was on a beach, "So..." Crimson began, "am I in?" Behind her were five other people. "Welcome to BlackOut," said the first voice. The person with the robotic voice and a new person brought Crimson to her feet and undid her handcuff. "I'm Moonshine." Her hair was baby blue and swept to one side. She was wearing an off-shoulder top, and jean shorts. "This sweetheart here is Arrowhead A.K.A. 'B@listics'," Arrowhead was wearing a black baseball cap, gray shirt, and black track pants. His hair was a dark brown. "Yo! You're B@listics? Man, I loved your Fraternity hack. Real talk," said Crimson. She put her hand out for a high-five, but Arrowhead didn’t do it. "... Thanks," he said. "This weirdo is Sledge," said Moonshine as she pointed at the person with the robotic voice. She was wearing a black leather vest over a dark gray hoodie with the hood on, black jeans, and a black mask that had a visor which uses LED lights creating pictures. A bit of her mint green and aquamarine hair hung slightly over her right eye. "The needs of the many," said Sledge as he separated her pinky and ring finger from her middle and index finger. "This enigma is Sequoia," said Moonshine as she pointed at a fourth person. Sequoia wore a white tank top and blue jeans. His hair was pastel red with gray stripes and was messy. Sequoia gave Crimson a sloppy two-fingered salute. "And this Casanova is Storm Call," said Moonshine as she pointed at the final person. Storm Call wore a hoodie with BlackOut written on the chest and baggy blue jeans. His hair was dark blue and shaggy. "What's up, man," said Storm as he grabbed Crimson by the hand, pulled her in, and patted her on the back. "'Sup, man," Crimson said in response. She looked over the five people. "It's the crew, huh? Took y'all long enough to get me, shit." Later that night, the six of them sat around a campfire and started drinking. "You saw Blume's bullshit. CTOS isn't just regulating infrastructure. The amount of personal data in that thing." Crimson was slurring because of all the drinks she had. "Yeah, it's Big Brother and little brother, all rolled up into one," added Storm. "Uh?" asked Sledge. She scratched her head in confusion. "It sees everything you do and tells on you," answered Arrowhead. Arrowhead was the only person that wasn't drinking. "Thank you Arrowhead," said Storm. "So what's the fix?" asked Moonshine. "Sledgehammers and fire," said Sledge excitedly. She pointed at the air. "No, sledgehammers ON fire." Sledge began to get up but spilled a drink onto Moonshine. "Oh sorry," Sledge said apologetically. "All that data in one place mean, they can reject your fucking application before you click on it," said Crimson. "Congratulations, you have been pre-rejected for our credit card," mockingly said Storm, trying to replicate the voice of an automated system. "Your house or your insurance." Crimson lied down on her back. "That's not even the worst case scenario. All the data in the hands of the government? They'll arrest you for shit before you even do it," said Moonshine. She pushed herself up slightly with her hands. "Yeah, I've been there. And now I fucking know why. You know what, fuck it. Fuck it!" Crimson stood up, "Fuck it, man. We're hackers. We, we outthink, we out-dare. I-I say we tear down the fucking wall. Show everyone what Blume's up to, man. Show the world that their personal information is being used to rob them of their fucking freedoms. Fuck..." Crimson took a sip of her drink. "I installed a backdoor, so all we got to do is walk right through." Everybody began to think. "Hold on, you what?" asked Storm. "He installed a back door, so all we have to do is walk through," Arrowhead repeated. "Bingo," said Crimson, elongating the "o" at the end. Later, Crimson went off to the said to vomit. As she finished a person jogging walked up to her. "Hey, man. You got the time?" he asked. His hair was sapphire blue, with cerulean and dark blue streaks, and was in a man-bun. His bushy beard was the same color. "Uh, yeah man," said Crimson as she took out her phone, but she dropped it. "I got it, I got it." The man picked up the phone and checked the time. "It's kinda late for a night run, isn't it? Hey, what are you... you're running from the cops?" jokingly asked Crimson and she giggled at herself. "Maybe I am one." The man made eye contact with Crimson "Hey, you... you look familiar." Crimson pointed at the man as she stumbled to her right. The man just gave her back her phone. "Have a good party." The man jogged away after that. Crimson shrugged and then looked at her phone. "Ping this, motherfuck..." said Crimson as she threw her phone into the water. The force of the swing made her fall over."Fuck you, Blume. I'm gonna go have a god damn good time." The next morning, Crimson woke up on the floor to a phone ringing. She was down to only her white tank top and tan shorts. Answering the phone she said, "Hello? Whose phone is this?" "It's your new phone." The voice was Moonshine's. "Where's my phone?" "In the ocean, where you threw it, I think? I don't remember. I was pretty smashed. Look, go to work, then meet us at the at the hackerspace." “Where is it?” asked a confused Crimson "Check your pics and figure it out." Crimson sighed and hung up. "Okay, c'mon, get the fuck up." Crimson slowly pushed herself up. She looked around and stopped. "Yo, whose place am I in?" Crimson turned around to see a half naked man sleep on the bed. Crimson went outside and looked out to the water from the porch. "Damn, last night was one party," said Crimson to Moonshine through the BlackOut channel. Moonshine laughed and said, "Like Mardi Gras. Go get yourself something to wear and I'll tell you how to get to your job from there. Oh, and you'll need your phone ready for operations, so hit the store and download your apps before you get there." "Damn, walk of shame on my first day." Crimson opened up the app shop on her phone and downloaded the apps "Car on Demand", "Nudle Maps", "Media Player", "SongSneak", “Driver SF” and "Director's Cut". Crimson called in a Driver SF worker to drive her to her house, and she got her work attire on. She got into her car and hurriedly drove to Blume Corporations Offices, with Moonshine giving her direction. She arrived to work on time, checked in, and sat down at her desk. About halfway through her work day, Twilight Sparkle walked up to Crimson. Twilight smiled at Crimson. "My brother told me you had quite the party last night," she said. "Who's your..." Crimson tilted her head slightly to the left. "Shining Armor. He asked you for the time last night." "Oh... I remember." "So tell me, what was the party for? Was it for getting hired?" Twilight grinned. "Naw, it was... it was just friends hanging out," said Crimson as she scratched her head. "You look pretty... shall we say, beat. Tell you what, I'll let you go home now. But let's keep this just between us, Shining gets upset when I let people go early." "Oh… thanks." Crimson got up from her seat. "Just, don't over do it next time." "Will do." Crimson walked out of the building and got into her car. Crimson entered the BlackOut channel and said, "Alright Moonshine, got out of work early. Where are you at?" "Sending you the location... and the passcode for the door," Moonshine answered. Crimson drove to the hideout: Games, Glory, and Goblins. Crimson parked her car and inside the car, changed into more casual attire. She entered the shop, and when into the back, where you found a door with a keypad on it. She entered the code Moonshine gave her and the door opened. It revealed a staircase leading to the basement, which was covered in wall art. There were multiple screens as well. "Yo!" "Finally!" said Moonshine. "So, Arrowhead and I spoke, and fucking over Blume has been a long-standing project." "You need two things to take down Blume. You need to get people to rally behind your cause to separate you from the trolls," added Storm. "And we need bots and a lot of them to handle the data CTOS is processing," said Arrowhead. "Thank you Arrowhead." "We spent all night modifying our app, so you can get followers to download the app, so we can use their processing power for the cause," said Moonshine. "This is happening? It's really happening?" wondered Crimson. "Mmhm." "Yeah man, this is happening! You'd better get to it!" exclaimed Storm. Sledge chimed in. "Hell yeah, man! Barbarians are at the gate and ready to burst some Gryphon heads." "Yeah, we gonna focus on some high-profile ops and play them for exposure and laughs to get people to download our app," said Storm. "Don't worry, we'll start with something fun," said Moonshine extending the "u" in "fun". "Well, this will be interesting," said Crimson as she walked off to begin her work as a BlackOut member.
Chapter Three: Impostors and Black Hats"Yo Crimson! Check this out!" yelled Sledge, motioning Crimson to come over. Sledge was standing in front of a large object build into the wall. The object was large, and had two doors on it, On said doors was a chalkboard with multiple illustrations on it. Crimson tilted her head to the left. "If you don't mind me asked, what is that?" "It's the Annihilator!" excitedly yelled Sledge, putting on a Marelin accent. "It is capable of producing working weapons and gadgets using molten plastic and metal!" She put her arms into the air in triumph. Her mask showed two circumflexes, making her look happier than she already is. "So... a very advanced 3D printer?" Crimson crossed her arms. Inside, Crimson was excited, but she wasn't sure whether it would be appropriate to act excited. On the outside, Crimson put on her best 'unimpressed' face. "You're... you're not the least bit amped about this?" Sledge slowly lowered her arms. Her mask showed a forward slash and a backslash to illustrate her sadness. Oh thank celestia, thought Crimson. "Nah," Crimson walked up to Sledge, and slightly punched her in the arm, "I'm just rusting your chain." "Oh, okay," chirped Sledge. She almost instantly got back into her chipper mood. "Well... what are you waiting for? Try it." Sledge gently pushed Crimson to the control panel. After figuring out how it worked, Crimson make a purple and gray handgun, and an RC car. "Oh sweet!" Crimson was thoroughly examining the gun. When she finished, she took a clip and loaded the handgun. "So, what now?" asked Crimson as she put the handgun into her bag. "Just head over Sequoia and Moonshine and they'll tell you everything you need to know." Sledge pointed in the general direction . "Alright, see ya around Sledge." Crimson walked up to Sequoia, who was sitting at a desk and said, "So, what missi-" before she was cut off. Sequoia raised his hand, with the index finger pointing out. He typed something into a computer and then turned around. He handed Crimson a folder. Looking inside, she saw a printed report and a picture of what looked to be a young teenager. "Um... what I'm I supposed to do?" "You and Storm Call," said Moonshine. Storm Call turned to look at Moonshine. "You two are tasked with finding and interrogating Button Mash." "Why, exactly?" "He's claiming that he is a full-fledged member of BlackOut, which we cannot let slide." "Fair enough." Storm Call got up from the couch he was sitting on. "Come on, let's go," said Storm Call as he walked pass Crimson, "I'll even drive too." During the car ride, Crimson took out her laptop and began searching for the whereabouts of Button Mash. Eventually, she found a signal from him and began scanning for his exact location. "So... what's up with Sequoia?" asked Crimson. "What?" responded Storm Call. "What's up with Sequoia? Like, why is he so quiet?" "I don't know the answer to that... he wouldn't tell me." "Well, what do you know?" asked an annoyed Crimson. A few seconds. "He comes from Manehattan. I know that from looking up his criminal records." "He's a criminal?" "Nothing too major, plus they're from when he was 18. Turns out he's an orphan." "That's... sad." "Yeah.” Another interval of silence. “One day I found him on the app. He did some ATM hack... free money basically, and I decided to contact him. No response for a couple months, then one day he comes to our headquarters and said he was looking for me," Storm Call chuckled ,"One of the few times I saw legitimate panic in his eyes. Turns out he's an excellent hacker." "Interesting." "Indeed. Oh, and here's a tip: don't get in a fight with him. He will lay you flat on your ass fast than you can count to three." "I'll take note of that." A few minutes later, the scan finished. "He's at Grand Colt park." "Got it." "So yeah, I'm part of BlackOut," said a young boy. He was sitting on a park bench. He wore a brown sweatshirt and Jeans. He has was two tones of orange. He also had a laptop in his lap. "That's so cool!" said one girl, laying down on another park bench. Her hair was short and cerise. She wore green cargo pants and a black track jacket over an orange shirt. "I don't know, Scootaloo. Applejack sure doesn't like BlackOut, especially after their first attack on Tidas," said another girl. Her blue jeans were rolled up to her knees and her light green shirt covered her waist. He was was red, and a big bow in it. She sat on the ground next to the bench Scootaloo was on. "What's the worst that could happen, Apple Bloom? " asked the third girl. She wore a light gray sweater and a pink skirt. Her hair was mulberry and light rose and was put into neat curls. She sat next to the boy on the bench. "Sweetie Belle's got a point," said Scootaloo. "What do you think, Button Mash?" "She'll never know," began Button Mash. "Know what?" asked Crimson. She sat down on a park bench across from Button Mash and Sweetie Belle. "That I'm a BlackOut member," said Button Mash, trying to sound as cool as possible. "Oh really?" Crimson raised one of her eyebrows. "I've been trying to get in for months. Turns out they're very exclusive." "Yeah, I know. I'm just that good." "Oh. Say, if you don't mind, why don't you show us some of your hacking skills." Crimson was grinning. Grimace set in of Button Mash's face. "Yeah Button!" called Scootaloo, who was now sitting up. "It would be so cool," said Sweetie Belle. Button Mash was practically frozen in time. "You okay there, buddy?" asked Crimson. Sweetie Belle waved her hand in front of Button Mash's face. Then, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle got a message on their phones. As they checked their phones, Crimson installed a virus into Button Mash's laptop and Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle's phones. "Hey, shithead!" yelled Scootaloo as she slapped the back of his head, sending back into reality. "Are you gonna show us some hacking, or what?" "I..." began Button Mash. He lowered his head in shame. At that moment, the virus activated. The phones and laptops turned on. Classical music blaring through the devices. Button Mash, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle looked at each other, then a Crimson, then at each other again. They knew Crimson was a member of BlackOut. They ran away, all in separate directions. Crimson chased after Button Mash. Storm Call, who was sitting on the hood of his car, saw Crimson run after Button Mash. He stood up, and when Button Mash passed him, Storm grabbed Button Mash's hood, stopping him in his tracks. "Not so fast," said Storm Call mockingly. "You've been claiming that you're a full-fledged member of BlackOut." "I-I am, though!" yelled Button. "Who initiated you then?" asked Crimson. "Whirlwind." "Who?" "Whirlwind, or that's what he calls himself. He said told me if I give 100 bits, he'll let me be a BlackOut member." Storm Call sighed. "Kid, I think you got ripped off. Nobody in BlackOut is called Whirlwind," said Storm Call. Button Mash's face saddened. "Now, go find your friends, and go tell them that everything is okay." Before Button Mash could respond Crimson and Storm Call had already gotten into the car and drove away. Back at the headquarters, Crimson and Storm Call told the rest about Whirlwind. For a couple of days, they tried to find the guy, but they couldn't find him. The crew had given up on the search. Crimson was sitting at her desk at work. Twilight walked up to her. "Can I ask you a question?" asked Twilight. "Sure, go ahead," responded Crimson. She turned her chair to face Twilight. "Siblings of two of my friends, plus two more, met a BlackOut member. You wouldn't happen to know about that, right?" Crimson waited for a second. "No. I don't." "Okay, good. Those no good hackers do no good to the world." As Twilight finished her sentence, the lights, and all the computers turned off. "Hello Blume," said a voice trying to sound menacing. It was distorted. "My name is Whirlwind, a member of BlackOut." the workers of the room began to chatter. Crimson had a face of slight annoyance. "See? This is what I'm talking about!" exclaimed Twilight. The computer screens turned on, all showing a live feed of what people assumed to be Whirlwind. He wore a mask that depicted a smiling griffin. On the back his neck he had a unique marking, five medium-sized dots. "I have a very simple request: transfer one million bits to my account in one hour. If you do not comply, I will shut down your company for good," said Whirlwind. Twilight took out a pager. "Code Red, shut down the CTOS system for now." Crimson began to hack into Whirlwind's system, trying to find a signal. She quickly found a match. "Ha! He can't even mute his own signal, let alone shut down a company. Now all I need to do is download," said Crimson. She almost finished downloading his location but the CTOS shutdown commenced, cutting off her connect to Whirlwind. "Damn it!" Crimson went home and sat down on his couch. She turned on the television and tried to fall asleep. Just as she was about to fall asleep she remembered about her backdoor in the system. Taking out her laptop she enters the CTOS system trying to find a possible match for Whirlwind. "No. No. No. No. and No." After half an hour she found somebody. He had the same five markings on the back of his neck. Sky Stinger.
