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ibelieveinahappilyeverafter · 1 year ago

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A Matter of Perspective -- Original Story

A/N: Another original writing piece from college writing class! This time it's science fiction instead of romcom! I hope you guys enjoy!

Summary: Randy, a bounty hunter in charge of taking down dangerous hackers in a technologically advanced society, has been given a job that leads to him reconsidering his perspective on just where the world is going. It might have something to do with one of the hackers being his best friend from childhood.

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A Matter of Perspective

“We have always come from humble beginnings. Our company, Oracle, got its start in VR technology as far back as the early 2000s. Now, in 2123, we’ve grown in leaps and bounds. While we started small, today we have become the third largest tech conglomerate in the world and the top here in the United States. The world has changed a lot since we began, but we’ve made sure to never stop looking towards a brighter tomorrow.

“At the start of our company the world as it was then had no idea of what would come. They didn’t have the network that connects everyone together and they didn’t have the visors that would allow them to see and interact with the world in ways that had only been seen in science fiction novels. The people of a hundred years ago were scared, and alone, and cut off from each other. Even today, a great deal of the population doesn’t have access to visors and the network. We come to you today with a solution to that.

“This beautiful world we live in can be pushed and grown further still. To help begin that, I am endlessly proud to speak with you today about our latest project: the Farsight chips! There is much work to be done before we can take our next steps, but we want to show you just how committed we are to a better future.

“Farsight is designed to connect you to the network like never before, allowing you constant, uninterrupted access with all the features you know being activated by nothing more than a thought. It's the next stage for us as not only a society, but as a civilization. These chips, small enough to fit in your palm a hundred times over, are implanted at the base of the cerebrum-"

Well, Randy thought to himself, that isn’t going to go down well. That might even be an understatement, too, as the live news broadcast he was watching on his visor regulated itself and turned the volume down in response to the screaming and shouting of the people and news reporters on the scene.

Oracle often threw PR events and gave first looks at technology, but this seemed more like a bid to get public support — which made sense. Something like putting a chip in the brain was extreme even for the most network dependent of people.

With how intense and upset some of the crowd was looking on the broadcast, Randy also had the unsettling thought that it was a very bad time for him to be in an Oracle office waiting room like he was.

Thankfully, his worries were interrupted as an incoming alert message flashed on his visor, Randy opening it as soon as he saw the name. ‘Did you see the broadcast?’ Ah. The worries were back.

‘i’m going to assume you mean the chip in your brain one oracle just did’ The slew of exclamations and angry emojis he got in return was impressive, truly. ‘lot of angry people down there’

‘Yes! I’m one of them!’ Oh for fuck’s sake. Randy was already half out of the power seat he had been sitting in, all of his electronics giving a small beep to let him know they were fully charged, before he started pacing. Better than then running down there to drag Andrew out by the scruff of his neck. ‘Don’t come down here, I’m fine. I know you have a work request today.’

Randy sent in a call request, immediately talking the second it was picked up. The visor audio controls would ensure Andrew would hear his screaming than the screaming around him. “I can’t believe you went down to that thing! I know you’re not the biggest fan of technology taking over and all that, but I’d really rather not use the credits of my last job to bail you out of jail for taking part in a riot!”

“It’s not a riot!” Andrew defended himself over the call, Randy glaring at the little contact icon since he couldn’t glare at Andrew himself. “Seriously, I’m fine, Randy, I’m okay. Nothing aggressive is going on and none of the security look bothered. There’s just a lot of yelling and screaming and a couple of news reporters trying to climb the barricades.”

Before Randy could continue tearing into the stupid best-friend-slash-little-brother he had been stuck with since childhood, he heard the call of his name, “Randall Beaumont?”

“One moment,” Randy called over to the waiting receptionist politely before lowering his voice and trying not to glare. “You had better send me a text when you’re home safe and don’t think this conversation is over.”

“I’ll send you a million texts all complaining about today and how much of a paranoid mother bear you are,” Andrew said ‘sincerely,’ Randy hanging up the call and trying to pretend he was more upset than worried.

Shaking it off as best he could, Randy went over to the desk, the receptionist smiling at him, “Thank you for your patience in waiting today. We’ve confirmed your bounty license and rank and you’re all set to go back.”

A quick exchange of thanks and Randy was following the guiding lights into the back offices, taking quick looks around at everything. While it was an Oracle office building, it seemed just like any other office building Randy had been in — especially since it was an administrative one.

The guiding lights ended at an office door that slid open when he approached, a voice shouting out from inside for him to come in. The office definitely looked like it belonged to someone important, especially with the countless bookshelves of actual books made out of paper. Ah, Andrew would kill to have this room.

“You must be Randall Beaumont! Please, please, have a seat, make yourself comfortable.” The man, a quick look at the nameplate read Jonah Taylors, didn’t seem to give any indication as to what his job was. That left Randy to assume he had quite a bit of power in this office if nothing else.

“Randy, please,” Randy finally said, putting on his best customer service smile. “I have to say, as a bounty hunter I usually get requests from the station. Not often am I called in by a company.”

“Sounds like a waste of your skills as an alpha level hunter,” Taylors grinned, probably assuming he looked friendly. Randy would call the expression more smug, than anything. “My, how the days have changed. My grandad used to tell my stories about bounty hunters, you know. Back then they took down people who had arrest warrants out on them, you know, and now in this age it’s all about tacking down the hackers.”

“As times change, so do the people,” Randy said, doing his best to keep his smile on. He’d rather not have waited in a waiting room for almost an hour just to hear a history lesson he already knew. “If I may ask, though, why did you contact me? I assume it’s about a job?”

“You assume correctly!” Taylors placed his hand on the interface screen of his desk and swiped upwards, an information packet appearing on Randy’s visor that he didn’t hesitate to open. “Oracle is throwing a gala at one of our labs, an event for researchers, developers, and a couple of newsagents. We have some exciting projects in the works and we want to show the public that we operate with full transparency!”

Please, Randy thought to himself, trying not to laugh. A tech company as big as Oracle never operated with ‘full transparency.’ Still, the info packet looked clean, talking about the gala in more detail and showing a rough floor plan of the main floors and a couple of side rooms. Nothing about the labs, unsurprisingly. Taylors gave him a minute to look it all over, smiling when they made eye contact again. “We would like to hire you to work as security at the event.”

“Oh?” That was… interesting. Randy felt himself a little lost for only a couple of seconds before realization sunk in. “You think some hackers will try something?”

Taylors smiled, prim and proper, and tilted his head, “You’re an alpha ranked hunter, Mr. Beaumont. I wouldn’t call you in for something as simple as some hackers.” Ah… Randy was starting to see the picture.

These days, anyone could be a bounty hunter and track down hackers once they got their certifications, but there were some bounties that were dangerous and needed ranked hunters. Typically, though, the only jobs that needed hunters that were as high as alpha were jobs that dealt with the possibility of assassins.

Hackers were a dime-a-dozen, always trying to hack into the network and wreak havoc, transfer themselves a million credits, or prove to their friends they could actually do it. Assassins, though…

The network linked everything. Assassins could delete someone from the network, wipe all of their records, even destroy the physical servers where their information was stored. No records meant the person might as well not exist, unable to access anything from their funds to their work to even their home. It was, without a doubt, killing someone without the bloodshed and with a lot more work afterwards. They didn’t just go after people, either.

“You think an assassin is going to try and target your labs during the gala?” Randy asked, noticing that Taylors’ smile was a lot more tense than it had seemed at first glance. “Surely you have in-house security that already know all the systems and ins-and-outs, don’t you?”

“We do, but you’re not the only hunter we’ve been recruiting for this. While Oracle operates with transparency, part of the reason this gala is taking place, some of the lower labs contain sensitive information on projects that would negatively affect millions if it were to be lost or destroyed. On a normal day, with the security measures we have in place, no one would be able to get in to access the physical servers. With a public event like this…”

“Things slip through the cracks,” Randy finished, starting to feel a curl of excitement. He loved interesting, difficult jobs, and this seemed like it would be one. “When is your gala due to take place, Mr. Taylors?”

“Three days.” Oh, this was going to be fun.

⚞⛭⚟

Idly looking over the guests he could see, Randy completed his third circuit of the room and then decided that this job was going to be a lot less fun and a lot more boring. Four hours in and the most excitement Randy had gone through was helping an old lady find the bathroom.

“It’s not too late to come work with me at the library,” Andrew piped up over the call he had going with him. No doubt it was unprofessional to have a call going while on the lookout for hackers and assassins, but, well. He was bored. Everyone else who was there as contracted security looked just as bored, too. “Much more excitement than helping people find the bathroom.”

“It was just the one person,” Randy felt the need to point out, immediately scowling after he did so. “Remind me to never accept a security position again.” He had, of course, been unable to tell Andrew just who and what he was playing security for, but he had said enough to be able to complain.

“Cute that you think you would ever actually listen to me.” Mm. True. “It can’t be that bad, especially if it’s so boring.” Andrew’s voice faded out for a moment, Randy waiting patiently and then snorting when he heard, “No, you idiot, that’s- Move aside, I’ll do it myself.”

“Your fancy college study group going well, then?” The huff was an answer in itself. “Correcting others' mistakes even when distracted. When did you get so smart?”

“The second you looked away,” Andrew laughed, the joke old and worn at this point, but no less comforting. “Sorry, Randy, I’d love to distract you from your job more, but I need to go. These people would be lost without me.” Not even audio regulation could drown out the offended swears of some of the people in the background. “Talk later?”

“Talk…” Randy trailed off, feeling a sense of unease as he looked around the room. His visor was filled with warnings and reminders and a million other things with how busy and communicative the gala was, but something about the movements of the people on the floor felt… different. “I gotta go. Work- Uh, study hard. Talk later.”

Ending the call before Andrew could worry at his tone shift, Randy lifted his visor up, getting rid of the warnings and reminders and everything else and looking around the room. Instead of the directionless drifting everyone had been doing, it seemed like ten or so people were suddenly moving in the same direction, both people on the floor and off to the sides.

“What’s wrong?” One of the contractors, another hunter, noticed where he was looking. “You think-” Before the question even finished, the lights went out.

“Shit,” Randy muttered, hearing similar swearing all around him as well as screams from the guests. He saw flashes of green spread out like a wave among the crowd, everyone’s visors sensing the sudden darkness and activating an automatic night vision program that would allow everyone to see.

Something kept Randy from lowering his visor back down, a sense of suspicion and unease that he was glad to have when all of the lights in the gala flared back on. With the night vision programs activated, it would have caused nothing short of blindness and severe spots in peoples’ vision, even with the way people were jerking their visors off and yelling and shouting.

Randy blinked at the few spots he had out of his own eyes and didn’t stick around to see if anyone else had avoided what had obviously been a planned distraction, instead turning and rushing for where the servers were supposed to be kept. He had a feeling the assassins they had been waiting for had shown up.

Randy hated to admit it, even to himself, but he was impressed. The gala was the best time to sneak in and destroy or steal whatever projects they were after, but using the lights and automatic night vision programs to blind everyone to their moves? It was clever, and he didn’t like it.

Assassins were always smart, there was no way for them to do what they did without being smart, but this was clever. What set him on edge, though, was that assassins tended to work on their own or in very small teams of two or three. Randy had seen ten people moving in the same direction. It was the same direction he had darted for and now, with the server doors in front of him, Randy had the vague feeling he should have waited for backup.

Putting the thought out of his head that Andrew would lecture him over this once he heard Randy did something as stupid as he usually did, Randy sucked down a breath and went to work.

Flicking his gloves on into interface mode and breaking down the hastily placed lock with his visor, Randy flicked his hands out hard to switch over into stun mode. He heard a quiet swear from behind the door and knew that there was no chance of getting the element of surprise on his side.

Frontal assault it was, then.

“Good evening!” Randy greeted as he pushed the doors open with his foot, keeping his hands up peacefully and making sure the voltage was high enough to drop someone. “I think you might be in the wrong place, right now.”

He was right. Ten people were in the room, all dressed in various states of looking like they had attended as guests, reporters, or even janitorial staff. There were a couple different hacking boxes and flash drives scattered around, which likely meant they were trying to see what the servers held or delete a specific project rather than everything there.

“You’d be better off turning back,” one of them spoke, raising his own hands peacefully with a smile. “We’re not here to hurt anybody — the opposite, in fact. Let us go, and you’ll be helping to save billions.”

“Not often I hear an assassin talk about saving people,” Randy said, trying to draw out the conversation as he gently flicked his hand to turn one of his gloves into interface mode, careful as possible to keep his hand still as he sent a message to the security team on where he was and how many hostiles there were. “Robin Hood types?”

“Which means no monologue,” the man joked, no doubt the one in charge of the operation. Randy memorized his face as best he could. “Kid, you’re up.”

A flash of black out of the corner of his eyes had Randy putting both gloves back on stun and spinning neatly to the left, raising his arms to block a punch. He blocked it, but everything in him went blank and still at seeing Andrew’s apologetic green eyes. “Please don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

At a barked out order to pack up and run, Randy tried to break away and get to the obvious leader, instead cut off by Andrew getting in his way again. Randy wished he had hesitated, but he didn’t as he went to slam his fist into Andrew’s chest, stun mode still on and high. He wasn’t sure if he was grateful or not that Andrew caught the hit with the flat edge of a knife, a rubber handle ensuring he didn’t get shocked.

“You finally get to meet my study group, at least?” Andrew joked, a million words bubbling up in Randy’s chest and getting trapped in his throat as he looked up to see the other nine were packed up and starting to run for an exit. “Please, please, please just let this go-”

“How long,” Randy cut off fiercely, throwing Andrew’s knife and his hold on it to the side before kicking a leg out to hit him in the side. He couldn’t help but feel a spark of pride as Andrew caught the leg and went with the momentum, throwing them both off balance and giving the others even more time to get away-

“I’m sorry!” Andrew caught the fists again, this time following it up quickly with a knee to his chest. In the same moment Andrew used his knife to slide his fists down and away from them both. “I don’t have time- There’s no time to explain everything, but we’re just here for the Farsight project. That’s it. That’s all we took. Randy- Randy, please, you know that nothing good will come of that-!”

“How long have you been an assassin!” Randy shouted back- There were only two others left in the room, not counting him and Andrew. A knife getting dangerously close to the edge of his face had him jerking backwards, a hand swiping his visor off before Andrew was suddenly a few feet back and away from him.

“I-” Andrew’s expression wavered, his smile falling and rising like he was trying to keep it on. “It’s a long story, but I’m not- Not really. I just do this- help with things like this. Stop things that would hurt people. Things like putting chips in people’s brains- Randy. Please.”

He couldn’t tell how many people were left, not with his visor gone and his own night vision guides out. The room was dark and only lit up by blinking lights from the servers. He could still see Andrew, though. Enough to see him coming in for another hit.

Not sure if he hated himself or not as he did it, Randy flicked his gloves back to their default, inert state, catching Andrew’s wrist and twisting to get him to drop the knife. It would have been the perfect moment to stun him and take him out, but he couldn’t. He knew he couldn’t.

Andrew was silent in his hold, even as they both knew he could break out. “Visor, please,” Randy finally said, voice sounding like he had run a double marathon back-to-back. Andrew, to his credit, immediately put it back on him. It was a little crooked, but it was enough to see that the security he had called was on their way. From what he could tell, someone was throwing up locks on every door between here and the gala and slowing them all down.

“You’re the reason I’m going to go gray,” Randy finally huffed, meeting Andrew’s gaze to see he was giving that shy, nervous and apologetic smile he always gave when he did something that was sure to piss Randy off. “Why?”

“It’s not right,” Andrew said immediately — firmly. “I’m not an assassin- Or I guess I am? It’s… a matter of perspective. Whether I am or not, though, I’m not going to just sit aside and- And let even the possibility of something like this happen. I don’t do this to hurt people. I- I do it to be like you. Keeping people safe one job at a time, right?”

Randy couldn’t have stopped his laugh if he tried, his grip on Andrew all but gone as he looked down at this brat who had somehow grown up to be someone so good. Stupid, of course, but good. “When did you get so smart, huh?”

Andrew smiled, bright and happy, as he gently knocked his forehead against Randy’s. “The second you looked away.”

Watching Andrew slip his grip and disappear around a bank of servers, Randy sighed and set to scrubbing any audio or video from his visor on what he had seen. If anyone wondered about him not doing his job, well…

That was all a matter of perspective, really.

#original story #science fiction #scifi #a matter of perspective #my og writing #yes i used andrew and randy both from danny phantom #which made class awkward because i changed my name to andrew thanks to fucking danny phantom ghostwriter #it was a long writing class

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