Time is not flowing, but thrashing; our waking minds do not notice the inconsistency as they have always lived within it

However, the unconscious mind can see far more than the awake...

And thus begins our story: Hacker

In a humble country ruled by three parties democratically: Anvil, Labour and independent parties owned by corporations, often backing capitalism

Our story begins in a bank, owned by a capitalist party Ban'qi

"Yeah. Yeah. I've got it. I know." The man talks on a phone, rather archaic looking in style. He stands tall clad in beige business garb, tuxedo and all. Yet the smell of sweat emenates from him. In his other hand is a small blue satchel.

"Yeah, I've got it. I'll keep the weapon--" he stops. On the outside of the phone booth within the bank, a guard is looking straight at him. He stutters. "Hah, hahah, yeah I'll keep our secret weapon down until we're ready for that big stock! I've gotta go. Yeah. Bye." The phone clacks as he places it back on the receiver, but the guard still stands tall staring at him.

Without a word, the guard forces the man's hand up to his chest and clicks a tracker to it, and quickly hands it back to the man. He nervously chuckles and rushes past the guard, but not soon after the tracker beeps to life and scans the item.

"Shit." The guard sees quite literally right through him. "Fuck it." The man swiftly rips the satchel's zippers open and pulls out the fully loaded pistol from it. The lone guard is the first victim of this operation, and as he's shot down, vital scanners activate the silent alarm.

The man does not hesitate. He's pulled the trigger on the gun and the op. He's going to deal with it. He picks up the satchel and grabs the two extra magazines and knife out of it and brings out his pager. "Op is on."

As soon as the pager beeps out the communication, in through the door bursts another man clad in blue business attire. He's thin, but in his hands are two guns. "Are you serious?" he asks rhetorically, wondering if he should have even brought along this idiot. No reply. The two go straight for the elevator.

"Dan, we can't deal with starting too early," says the man in blue. "I fucking know. I did something dumb and I'll pay for it. But right now all we need to worry about is getting the fucking expplosives in place on the 73rd."

"Whatever." He presses the button for the 50th floor. "We'll go up to 50 first. The elevator breakers will be offed by then. After that we'll have to walk."

"...And Dan," he continues, "fuck you."

The bad blood between them started many months ago, during their first operation. As rebels against the ruling capitalist party, they worked in secret to destroy vital components of their political framework. Often through more subtle sway than terrorism, of course. Dan did not agree with these acts of peaceful rebellion, but in their first outing, nearly got both of them killed.

The two stand silent in the elevator as it hums along to the 50th floor. When planning, they had revealed that after the silent alarm is activated, it would stop after approximately 70 seocnds. This was enough time, he pondered, to make it up about 50 floors, a safe estimate.

The elevator dings as it arrives at the 50th floor. This one was rather arhcaic and did not have any kind of announcement besides a ding, nor a elevator operator. The man in blue and man in beige make their way out and quickly get into trouble. Their guns burst like deadly firecrackers going off on a holiday. Of the dozen or so guards in their path, none of them even manage to raise their gun before being shot down by the deadly duo.

As is in the plan, they make their way to a private service elevator, one that wouldn't be shut down so easily. In it is a woman, clad in beautiful middle eastern garments. The man in beige barely notices, but the man in blue stares for a moment. Thinking of the damage this could do to the civilians who get caught up in the crossfire. Thinking of the reprecussions of their actions.

"Get the fuck in!" Dan shouts. His patience for these moments of reflection is nil. The man in blue quickly steps in the elevator as Dan reaches for the buttons. Just as he does, thouhg, in bursts two -- no, three, four men. They'd been followed the whole time by spec ops. In full black kevlar suits and balaclavas these four stood, machine pistols at the ready. They were ready to shoot regardless of the woman.

The man in blue had enough. He could see in their eyes that they were going to open fire at a moment's notice, fingers on their triggers. Blue had had enough. His arm extended to the frame of the door and pulled it shut faster than the spec ops had time to react, and pulled it completely shut with inhuman strength.

"72nd," As he barked the command, Dan pressed the button straight away.

"What the fuck?" Dan asked, but to no reply. Their trip up was rather silent. The elevator moved quicker than feet could, and there was no other available due to the circumstances. As they reached the 72nd floor, Blue took a block of plastic explosives out of his jacket. The woman, scared and panicked but silent, stayed there without a word. The two got off and continued their violent rampage down the hallways of the giant building. They'd reached their final destination, an unmarked room with an unusual black door. Blue sets the explosives and they back away from the door.

A medium sized boom crackles through the air, and the two walked right through the now-combusted doorway. Inside was a single server rack connected through the walls by dozens of cables. On the other side is a singular monitor, with nothing on display. Blue handed the rest of the explosives to Dan, as he walked over to the monitor and Dan walked over to the server. He turned on the monitor and after a few loading screens a login prompt appears. He exploits a security flaw in the printing dialogue for the help menu to log in as the administrator. As he looks through the files on the server, he notices a folder of alphabetized workers for the Ban'qi internal organization.

And on that list of folders appears "Daniel Blackside." Dan finishes setting up the timer and wiring for the explosive and turns to see what Blue is seeing.

His automatic response is to pull his gun and aim it to Blue's head.

"I had a feeling...." remarks Blue. "I told you not to fuck around on this op," says Dan, bringing his gun up to Blue's temple and grabbing him by the neck from behind. "You'll be my shield now. They want you."

Blue doesn't react, except to stand up from the chair and put his hands up to the air. Dan moves to the window, and jumps out of it with Blue in hold. The explosives detonate as they fall through the air.