CyberAttack 3

22. ɴᴇᴡ ᴍᴇᴍᴏʀɪᴇꜱ

(Third Person POV)
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Plains, Outskirts of Stick City
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The huge orb didn't explode like anticipated, it just dissipated. Whatever happened, it worked, but no Other DJ or _nala in sight.

After that, everything just seemed to fix itself. Alan was sent back to his world and the barrier around the space went down. The tall cliff fell back down, leaving nothing but a few cracks and a broken machine.

Everyone was sent home. The Resistance informed them that they would update everyone if anything else happened.

The rest of the day was quiet. Not an eerie quiet.. just a peaceful quiet.

...

(Hotel, Room 407)

Other Alan blinked his eye a few times, waking up after hours of rest, slightly confused. Was all that a dream? Why was he back here?

"You're up, thank god." Other DJ walked in. "You were out for hours."

"Ok..? What happened? How are we here?"

"Dunno, I just woke up here and you were passed out on the floor. I thought you were dead because of how light you were breathing. Coffee?"

Other Alan sighed. "Oh hell yes.. I need some."

"I thought you might."

It was dusk by now. The sun was setting. How long did he sleep? It had been a while since he slept that well, so he was slightly grateful. After that thought passed, he thought about his and Other DJ's conversation earlier.

Fix things. Right. Fixing things.

Doing that was easy enough, but he didn't have his computer.

Once Other DJ came back, Other Alan sat up and took the cup from his hands.

"Hey DJ.."

"What's up?"

"Hate to ask, but can I borrow your laptop?"

"...really? We just had a whole moral lesson, dude.."

"No no no, not for that reason, god no."

"..I guess." He picked up his own laptop and handed it to Other Alan.

Time to work for the last time. Hacking into his own computer, he started to restore things. Old sites, computers, anything he had taken, including lives. Restoring citizens took more work, but it was worth doing. Though he couldn't save all of them, he saved most. He donated half of his savings to charities, thankfully he still had a lot left over.

And his final hack was a new website with a message.

Logging out of everything, he closed the laptop and sighed.

"So.. what did you do?" Other DJ asked.

"Turn on the TV. I'm sure the news will spread quickly."

Picking up the TV remote, he switched the TV on and flipped to the news.

"And in other news.. oh! New information, coming live from our studio! This is a shock. After years of hacking, the infamous internet crushing _nala has retired! A message came out just a minute ago regarding the hackers retirement.

'Hello, internet users.

I am _nala, and this is my last message to the public.

I am retiring.

It has been years since I first appeared on the internet, and I thank you all for the patience you've had with me and my irrational behavior.

I will go on now to lead an entirely new life, one that isn't built off the pain and injustice that built this one. My name will never be revealed, so stop trying to look for me. _nala will be no more after today. Know that and hold that information close.

You may see me under a new name, and I pray that you will never know that it is me. I want to leave this life behind. It had brought me nothing but misery.

I'm happy now.

Goodbye, now and forever.'

Wow, what a message. It seems there is a lot more to..."

"You.. retired?"

"I have better things to do. I've restored nearly everything. I just have one or two more things to fix. But.. I want to start a new life. You know.. I still want to be an animator. It's always been in the back of my mind."

"Lucky, I have no damn clue what I want to be.."

"Well, we still got time, don't we?"

"..Right. We do. We have time."