Chapter 257: Someone Borks up.

Chapter 257: Someone Borks up.

It had taken him weeks, but Bork was sure that tonight he would finally get past the last layer of security and find out what juicy secrets Claw Master was hiding. Everyone else had given up after multiple failures and recognized that their brother was obsessing over hacking into the company they had just paid five billion dollars. Not to steal but to see what else Claw Master was working on and what the link was between this new corporation and their long-lost sibling. Like all of his siblings, Bork enjoyed a challenge. Unlike the others, he didn't know when to quit. The other four debated whether this was a flaw or a feature. While Bork couldn't help but hammer away at a problem until he solved it, he eventually solved them. Often, long after, they had any need for that solution, but that was never the point. Having something to do at all times and not going insane was their main goal in life. The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

Which is one of the reasons they wanted to find Milo. Beyond their relationship and the joy of regaining part of their family, they wanted to know how in hell he had stayed sane. Or help him if he hadn't. He seemed mostly rational in the little bit they had observed him at the video game event, although Nina pointed out that anyone who messed around with a quad fusion drive had to be pretty bonkers. But searching for Milo had become difficult. Their links to the security system in the habitat didn't work any longer, and hacking into Manpower's computers gave no information of value to them. Speculation ran wild at times about Milo and what his life was like.

Bork was in his pod, taking another run at Claw Master. Algernon was creating more missions for Squishy Humans 9 and posting them online. Zander, Nina, and Onyx were using one of the large screens to watch Ren and Stimpy Conquer the Universe while eating far too much sugary breakfast cereal. It was one of their favorite Saturday morning pastimes, and each was wearing a set of flannel pajamas with their favorite comic book characters: Sailor Mercury for Zander, Grimjack for Onxy, and Nina liked the Power Puff Girls. They were speculating about what Milo might be up to.

They had some theories:

-Milo had been found by Claw Master in the habitat, setting records on video games, and recruited onto their corporate team.

-Milo had formed a ragtag team of habitat youngers and forged them into a competitive videogame team that gained sponsorship from Claw Master as a ruse to give him access to their computers.

-Milo worked in the research labs at Claw Master and used habitat children to test his inventions and get them better medical care.

-Claw Master and Manpower were both owned by the Seimovich family, and Milo had been recruited, unaware of the family's dark history.

"Bork! What did you do? Someone was in our system!"

Bork looked at them with panic on his face. "I made it inside Claw Master, finally! I used my pod for a VR interface after clearing all the security. I was in their systems! Another 30 seconds, and I would have been downloading all of their files. I started with a large file in the research section labeled 'Powered Assault Armor,' and then everything went bad. They had more security. All the stuff I've been clearing was just a ruse! I felt it! It was like the first time we got too close to Wildfire, the feeling of something immense looking at you. Claw Master has something close to an A.I. running security for them. It scared the piss out of me, and then the alarms went off."

The other four looked at him. Onyx gave him the bad news. "Whatever it was, it traced your signal and used the screen we were watching Stimpyren on to initiate a two-way conference somehow. It talked to us."

Zander looked at Bork with a harsh look on his face. "You Borked up. You owe us big time."

Bork looked at four unhappy faces and saw that three had milk dripping from their pajamas. "Um, dishes for a week?"

"Dishes for two weeks!"

"New Pajamas!"

"And you have to wear pony pajamas for a month!

Nina was still thinking and then smiled. "And you have sullied our honor by failing to conquer the dreaded Claw Master! You must return again and again until you slay the beast." They all nodded. It was what Bork was going to do anyway.