"Time to confront Xavier once and for all." You say.
"Very well sir."

When you get online you conveniently see that you and he are the only ones currently on. You send Xavier a private invite, he accepts. Your Shelter goes into spy mode. You wonder what you can talk to him about, but then you think of something that wouldn't arouse too much suspicion and is completely plausible for you to need to address him privately.


Shadow21: Yeah? What do you want?
OmegaMan23: Hey I just wanted to talk to you about Becky.
Shadow21: What about her?
OmegaMan23: Well I just want to say I'm still trying to patch things up with her and I want to know if you're interested in her, because if you are you must know that I'm going to be doing everything in my power to win her back.
Shadow21: Wow. That sounds like a threat. I guess I better be careful if I ever show any interest in her and you're still around.
OmegaMan23: So what does that mean?
Shadow21: It means that even if I had any inclination to steal your little cyber girlfriend, I wouldn't since it would make me a bigger target than you.
OmegaMan23: I'm a target? Now that sounds like a threat.
Shadow21: It is, but not from me…come on I think we can stop beating around the bush here.  I've been monitoring the other shelters ever since Paul's went down. We got a hacker among us and your Shelter and Miranda's have been mighty active lately.
OmegaMan23: So, you think there's a hacker too eh?
Shadow21: I don't think it. I know it. Just like you know it. You've been monitoring the other shelters just like I have, and probably just like Miranda has. I can't prove who the hacker is for certain, but I know in my gut who it is, because it's really the only logical choice.
OmegaMan23: And?
Shadow21: Miranda obviously. She was jealous of your relationship with Becky so she's killing all the potential competition and have her all to herself.
OmegaMan23: If that is true, why not just hack me first?
Shadow21: Probably needed to practice first. From what I can tell your Shelter has some pretty cool protection, I had to modify all my shelter's systems to get it nearly as good as yours. Plus like I said she's also eliminating future competition.
OmegaMan23: While I'm fully willing to entertain this theory, what's keeping me from thinking you're the hacker and you're just trying to deflect the blame?
Shadow21: Nothing I suppose. I know you've always been irrationally distrustful of me, for whatever reason. The only thing I can say is I don't have any motive to be killing folks. I'm not some cyber serial killer and I don't have any interest in Becky like you and Miranda do. Besides I'm sure by now your Shelter has done a thorough spying on my internal activity logs and has found I haven't done anything wrong.

You're silent for a moment. Suddenly your Shelter speaks.

"He's clean sir."

Shadow21: Well?
OmegaMan23: My Shelter's report just confirmed you were clean.
Shadow21: I'm sure it did. Does it still talk to you?
OmegaMan23: Why is that so hard to believe?
Shadow21: It isn't really; I'm just fucking with you.
OmegaMan23: Okay so Miranda's the hacker, what are we gonna do about it?
Shadow21: Me? Nothing. I'm probably just going to disconnect my network system soon and access my elevator's controls to call it down so I can make a get away just in case. I figure I should be safe as long as I stay disconnected though.
OmegaMan23: What?! You're not going to help me stop her?
Shadow21: Why should I risk my neck? This is between you and Miranda…in fact if I were you, I'd disconnect from the system as well and cut your losses. Becky seems a bit flighty anyway if she broke up with you so quickly, I say let Miranda have her.
OmegaMan23: She's just young and doesn't like old people telling her what to do. She runs away from conflict. She's got some father figure issues. Doesn't mean I still didn't like her.
Shadow21: I see, so you're daddy and you're out to save your little girl from the psycho dyke then eh?
OmegaMan23: Something like that. Besides I don't like being run off like this, if I can do SOMETHING about it.
Shadow21: Well disconnecting is what I suggest you do. Because from what I can tell she's pretty good at what she does. While I'm no slouch myself at techie shit, I don't want to risk fighting her because even if I do beat her, she still might fuck up my shelter up. Not worth it in my opinion. Better to play it safe and live.

Xavier does bring up a few good points. Is it pointless to bother fighting a war over someone who doesn't really seem interested in you anymore? Not to mention getting yourself fucked up in the process? If Becky really is so much of a free spirit to go falling for Miranda because nobody else is around then is she really worth it?

You fight

Sure why not. People have fought wars over stupider shit than the attention of some young woman, besides if Miranda's willing to kill everyone just to be the only one left for Becky, its obvious she's pretty deranged. What would be stopping her from killing Becky too, if something went wrong their "relationship"? Miranda should be stopped just because she murdered Mark and Paul for that matter. Besides its like you told Xavier, you don't like running away if there's something you can do about it…and there's the fact that you don't buy Xavier's whole "I don't care" routine, not after taking a quick glance at some of his record logs of a couple private conversations he's had with Becky.

You ask the Shelter something before continuing your discussion with Xavier; the Shelter says you didn't even need to ask, as it was doing it anyway. Nodding, you go back to talking with Xavier.

OmegaMan23: I'm fighting her, and you should help me.
Shadow21: I told you I don't see why I should risk my neck.
OmegaMan23: Because if we work together we can easily take out Miranda, then we can work out our differences later.
Shadow21: Our differences? I told you I don't…
OmegaMan23: Cut the bullshit. I just glanced through some of your private record logs. In fact ALL of those private conversation were initiated by YOU!
Shadow21: Fuck! I thought I erased them all!
OmegaMan23: Yeah, well you didn't, I think it's obvious by the flirty comments that you DO have your eyes on Becky, though I don't know why you haven't made a committed move yet.
Shadow21: Because of fucking Miranda that's why. I figured I'd buy myself some time for preparation if I didn't get properly involved with Becky. I figured maybe Miranda would attack you soon, but she hasn't yet, I guess she doesn't know who's the bigger threat yet, I'm pretty confident that she wants to get rid of both of us though.
OmegaMan23: So let me guess, you're plan was either let me fight Miranda and probably let us fuck each other up while you finished off the winner OR scare me off completely and convince me to disconnect so then you'd only have to deal with Miranda. Am I right?
Shadow21: Sadly that sounds about right. Although I still don't see how you're going to make me help you.
OmegaMan23: Easy, because if you don't help me take Miranda down, I'm gonna send the whole record log to Miranda and I guarantee she'll attack you first and even if you disconnect she'll wait for you. So if you want ANY shot at Becky, you'll help me!
Shadow21: Arrrgh! Alright, I'll help! You gotta gimme time to prepare though.
OmegaMan23: Fine by me, I gotta prepare too. You got ten minutes; Miranda always comes online about this time so she should be here soon.

You disconnect from Xavier and address the Shelter about that business you asked it before.

"You said you recorded all that right?"
"Of course sir."
"Good send the entire conversation to Becky, it'll save me time to explain everything to her. Hopefully she'll realize I am trying to do this to protect her and to stop a murderer. Not mention it should expose Xavier for being a fucking opportunistic vulture too. Also add a message on to it that after she reads it there probably will be a bunch of shit going down and she should get off line so she doesn't get hit in the crossfire. And send Xavier's private record logs to Miranda anyway, it should give me some extra time to break through Miranda's protection while she concentrates her fury more on him."

While the Shelter carries out your orders, you do some last minute checking on your firewalls while waiting for the fireworks to begin.

Five minutes pass and you see Miranda's name arrive online.

Another five minutes pass and you see a private window pop up from Xavier.

Shadow21: YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU TOLD MIRANDA ANYWAY! SHE'S ATTACKING ME!
OmegaMan23: Well I suggest you stop talking to me and concentrate on her then, besides you had ten minutes of prep Mr. tech wizard.

"Alright Shelter, let's get to work."


You attempt to hack Miranda's files, and start trying to break down her protection. While you're trying to decrypt the coding, you get another private window pop up. It's Miranda this time.

MissKitty25: Fucking trying to sneak around huh? You and fucking Xavier think you can gang up on me? Well I can take the both of you fuckers! Try this, you backdoor bastard!

Miranda sends a power surge and overloads some of your components, frying them. Some of your lighting goes out and you hear something explode in the living area but fortunately nothing else happens.

"Shit!"
"Some of my files have been destroyed sir, attempting to correct…"

You concentrate on rebuilding your protection while Miranda focuses back on Xavier.

Shadow21: What the fuck man? Are you even helping? My fucking shelter is getting shit on over here! Move in you dickhead! Attack the bitch!

You ignore Xavier's plead when you see Becky log on.

"Please. Please, read the damn message and get off as quick as you can…" you mutter, while launching your second assault on Miranda.
"Sir, I have been monitoring Shadow21's shelter and it's running dangerously low on power, Miranda's apparently siphoning it. He probably won't survive another attack."
"All he needs to do hold out a bit longer…there that should do something…"

You send a virus to corrupt some of Miranda's systems, during this time you see Becky go offline.

"Good girl." You say and start your next round of malicious coding. You notice Xavier's name has disappeared.

MissKitty25: Xavier's fucking dead and you're next shithead! Don't think your weak ass virus is gonna stop me either!

Another power surge hits you. This time ALL the lighting goes out, and you even get a couple sparks coming from the computer, you're lucky it didn't do more damage.

You redouble your protection

You cease your attack and attempt to redouble your protection, unfortunately while you're fumbling around and retyping, Miranda sends a worm and completely wrecks your system, making it slow to a crawl, then she follows up with another power surge, and this one blows out your most of the hard drive.


"POWE….RRRRR FFFFFF…….AAAAAIIIIILLLLINNN….GGG….." the Shelter utters as everything begins to flicker and eventually go out, leaving you in the dark and powerless.

You've lost.

Death is the price of your failure.