A Dreamer's Worlds

Main Power Down (Part 1 of Meanwhile In the Government)

"Wings. Wings, come in. Digital Wings, answer me. I don't need this bullshit right now, so come in you sack of shit."

Digital Wings, who hadn't used his birth name in years, had just come back from the toilets. He flopped into his chair and picked up the phone.

"I was taking a piss." Digi looked at the clock. Wierd. Normally he didn't get yelled at until the evening.

"Should've pissed in your chair. You check the readings for sector six?"

"'Bout to. Give me a sec."

"We don't got a sec."

"Fuck yourself, Dusty."

Digi quickly clicked onto the sector six interface.

"Fuck you too. You seeing this?"

That was a lot of heat for a freezer section. Someone must've walked through there for that kind of heat spike. Digi looked it over again. Several someones. What the hell was happening?

"Well, that's bullshit." Digi leaned back. "Not my problem though."

"I'm gonna make it your problem. Activate the, the uh, whatever that thing was called. Secu-something."

"SecuriSearch. And yeah, sure. I'll do that real quick."

It was just a switch. Digi flicked it and let the system do the work. That done, he went back to the programming project he was supposed to do. This program was supposed to get through any firewall, letting the government get into the rebel's network. He didn't think it'd work; the rebels had probably gone offline ages ago.

But hey, he was getting paid. Not like he'd get rid of his own job.

And then the power shut down. Digi sat there for a moment, not sure what to do. Then someone yelled "Evacuate!" and Digi knew exactly what he should do. He ran out of his office and followed the swarm of people headed for the exit. As soon as he could, he ducked into another hallway and ran to the fire exit. Everyone would be headed for front and back exits, which was what Digi wasn't supposed to do. He was supposed to take the fire exit down and meet up with Dusty and a few others. They'd tell him what the hell was going on.

Which was really, really good. It was his job to fix the technical problems. The coding ones, at least. The hardware part was Electric Enigma's job, not Digi's.

The fire escape was already open on this floor. Digi hadn't realized that some of the team was on his floor. Made sense, and made it easier for Digi to get out. He jogged down the fire escape, crawling down the ladder when he came to it. Alpine Sun was waiting for him, gun at the ready. She motioned for him to follow and he did.

"What happened?" Digi fell into step with Sun.

"Some kids. They blew the power. We'll have to relocate." Damn. Now everyone's projects would have to be restarted. He hated to think of all the progress they lost just because some shitty kids shut down this site.

They joined the group while Dusty was yelling at Antique Titan. Titan seemed almost bored, listening to Dusty's complaints without taking them to heart. They seemed relieved when they saw Sun and Digi arrive.

"Good. I thought you might've gone with the rest of them." Titan was Digi's height, but Digi had always thought Titan should be taller. Maybe they had been, once. Certainly not anymore. Their hair was graying with age, and their face was lined with wrinkles. Antique indeed.

Dusty Liberty was much, much younger than Antique Titan. His thick brown hair looked like it had never seen a brush, and his dark skin was clear except for the blemishes everyone had. He turned to Digi with some confusion, eyes wide as he realized who he was looking at. Digi didn't blame him. He'd only recognized Dusty by the voice.