Be Brave on Broadway

Chapter 2

I tried everything I could to stop them but user Ghost28 was as quick as I was, maybe even faster, as they had managed to create a back door into my computer before I could even try and find what I wanted on their's.

I started panicking as my data started to erase or rather transfer itself. If Ghost28 had deleted my files then I would've been fine, re-recording Mikey's Christmas album would've been fine, but the fact that they were transferring it was not fine.

That was everything but fine.

Normally, no one took note of what I was doing at my computer, they usually just walked by but that was not the case today. Leo must have seen me panicking as he passed by, as he approached me.

"Donnie, what's going on?", he asked, leaning closer to my screens to see what I was doing, careful not to be in my way.

"We may have to postpone that recon mission another day or so", I said as my personal pictures started to transfer.

Leo looked at every monitor, trying to figure out what was going on but all he could see was warning signs and data deletion bars. "None of this looks good, Donnie. What's going on?"

I sighed as my keyboard stopped working again as April and Casey's personal folders transferred over. "I've just lost everything. This hacker I've been trying to get codes from just chewed me up and spat me back out".

"What do you mean?", Leo asked, worry evident on his tone.

"They just wiped my entire system and then some. I may not be able to use any of this tech, it's probably infected with malware that will fry everything even if I try to do something", I said, attempting a last ditch effect to cover up our exact location, luckily for me it worked as I piggybacked on whatever trail Ghost28 left and redirected to Italy.

Everything shut off as soon I pressed enter, no dramas for Sensei, no games for Mickey and no workout music for Ralph. I stared at my screen defeated, but mostly shocked as that was the first and only time we had ever been hacked and I hadn't a thought as to how I was going to get everything back up and running properly again.

I sighed as I removed my glasses, rubbing my eyes aggressively as I felt a headache set in.

"Donnie, look. Somethings happening", Leo said as he shook my shoulder.

I slipped my glasses back on my face as my central monitor came back to life, a two way chat room had opened up and Ghost28 had sent me a message.

Ghost28: Not bad. Stupid but not bad.

"Whose that?", Leo asked.

"The person who just wiped the floor with me", I said, trying not to laugh as my data started to restore itself. "Go see what's not working, I'll keep them busy while everything is restoring itself".

Leo nodded before he went off to check what was working and what wasn't.

I replied.

TurtleGenius: Not the first time you had kicked me while I was down.

Ghost28: I apologize for hurting your feelings. I'm restoring your data, aren't I?

I sucked my teeth as they played dumb.

TurtleGenius: You've duplicated everything. It's running through duplication software before it gets sent back!

Ghost28: Caught red handed. I surrender. Truce?

I sighed as I agreed to a truce, at that point there wasn't anything I could do, they had my data and I had their IP address, I could delete my data later but if they had seen it already or transferred it over to an external hard drive it was pointless then.