The next morning, Minako stood up especially late so she would not have to meet her father. Somehow, she always felt bad when she did something she wasn't really supposed to do and then looked at her father's face. She even managed to evade him for most of the rest of the day.
Only at dinner did she see him again. When she saw his cheerful face, she knew that he wasn't able to find out just what she did. Inwardly, she let out a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, the phone rang. Her father frowned, stood up and answered the call. When he came back shortly after, all traces of cheerfulness had vanished from his face.
"I have to go back to the company," he said with a grim face.
"At this time?" his wife wondered. "Did something happen?"
"I'm afraid so. The processor has crashed."
Minako took a deep breath.
"Crashed?" her mother asked. "Which processor?"
"The mainframe," her father replied. "The whole system is down. Do you have an idea how much money the company is going to lose if the mainframe is down for even just an hour? Looks like someone has hacked his way into the main processor and caused a big amount of chaos there."
Minako felt as if her innards were turning into ice. "And they... can find out who did it?" she asked.
"Well whoever did it, he left a few traces. And if he did only one mistake, I'll be able to track him down. And once I find out, well, I wouldn't want to be in his place."
That was what Minako thought as well.
But it looked like she didn't have that choice anymore.
The next day was a Sunday, but Minako's father still wasn't home at morning. And there wasn't even an escort of policemen waiting for her in front of the house. It seemed to be a normal, peaceful morning.
Minako had decided to tell neither Artemis nor her friends about what she did, as she was still afraid what might happen if they learned about the truth. And maybe the technicians at COMPUTRON wouldn't even be able to trace her down...
When her father came home in the afternoon, she seemed to be in luck yet again, as he was way too tired to talk to her and he laid down to get some sleep. Minako tried to distract her thoughts by tidying up her room, but almost every few minutes, her gaze fell on her computer, which reminded her of what she had done.
In the evening, she went downstairs to join her parents for dinner, but after heading down the stairs, she noticed that the table wasn't even set, and her parents were sitting on the living room's couch, looking at her seriously.
"Is there... is there something wrong?" she said uncertainly.
Her father looked at her grimly before answering: "Yes, there is! And it's a pity that you don't even seem to be courageous enough to tell me the truth. So, isn't there anything you have to tell me?"
Minako grimaced. Courageous? If her father knew how she and her friends were fighting almost weekly against horrible Youmas and other creatures, he wouldn't talk like that.
"What am I supposed to say?" she asked. "I mean, okay, I did it, and I'm sorry, but it just happened, okay?"
"It just happened?" her father snapped. "IT JUST HAPPENED? Minako, do you even have an idea what you did?"
"Your father told me everything," her mother said with a sad voice. "Did you really use his password to break into his company's mainframe?"
"But... but I didn't destroy anything," Minako defended herself. "I just played a game. You told me yourself, your computer at the company is one of the biggest and most compatible there is."
"That it is," her father nodded. "And by the way, it's also the most expensive one."
"But what's so bad about it?" she asked. "I just took a tiny bit of memory space."
"A tiny bit that doesn't belong to you," her father pointed out. "And besides, this 'tiny bit' has caused a reaction that we aren't able to stop anymore."
"Wh-what?" Minako uttered.
"You didn't know that, right? I just discovered it tonight, when I was going to load one of the company's programs. I was shocked when instead of that program, I was seeing a battle between green-skinned monsters and armored knights on a battlefield. I would have probably never known who was behind this, if I hadn't recognized a few of your characters."
He nodded upon seeing his daughter's pale face. "You heard me. Princess Amelia and Gourry Gabriev... do these names sound familiar? I thought so. But the most peculiar thing about this whole situation is... the portion of the drive that was used by the game isn't as tiny as it had been at the beginning, Minako! It is growing!"
"It's WHAT?" Minako screeched in disbelief. "But... HOW?"
"We don't know that either," her father sighed. "But we tried everything. The program can't be deleted, it just stays and it's getting bigger with every minute. If it keeps growing like that, it'll most probably reach the processor's capacity within a week. And no one knows what will happen then. Maybe it will stop growing, but maybe it will destroy other programs to make room. Our customers are going to have a fit when their orders aren't dealt with in time. We have worked throughout the whole night, every single member of the staff. And tomorrow we'll expect the arrival of a specialist team."
"But who... who's gonna pay for...?" Minako stuttered.
"For all the damage? I'd say the person who caused it. But as I am your father, it might just be that I have to pay for it. But still, I don't believe others will be able to find you out. You managed to cover your tracks very well, and I only managed to find out that you did it by identifying your characters. I even helped you by wiping your traces."
"You did...?"
"Yes, but only because our family won't be able to afford a scandal like that. If we had to pay for the damages, we'd be broke, Minako! I never dreamt that I would have to lie to my boss, but you left me no choice. I deleted all files that might point to you, and I deleted the whole 'Warcraft Maker' program from my own computer. You will do the same. And do you have any other hiding places for your little game?"
"Just... just a copy on CD," Minako admitted. "And the original CD, of course."
"Okay, you'll give those to me. Maybe I can find out what happened by asking in the store where you bought it. Do you remember the store?"
Minako stayed silent, and her father sighed. "So on top of everything, it's a pirate copy. Oh boy! But maybe it's better this way. It will be harder for them to find out the truth. Is there something else you have to tell me?"
"No," Minako murmured. "Only that I'm sorry..."
"Well, I hope so." Her father stood up and wanted to leave the room, but before he left, he turned around one more time to her and said: "I believe you have to do something on your computer. And afterwards, you're grounded!"
Minako didn't even ask for how long. But she believed it might be a time span of about ten thousand years...
----
When she returned to her room, Artemis was already waiting for her. He shook his head.
"I could listen to everything she said. And I hate to say it, but..."
"Artemis... please! Not now! We can talk about this later, but... please leave me alone for now, okay?"
Realizing that she was taking it much worse than he thought, the white moon cat wisely decided to stay quiet for now.
Minako didn't only just delete her own version of the game on her computer, she even formatted her computer's hard drive, so that no trace of her own, created version of Azeroth was left. She knew she did nothing but deleting a big amount of zeros and ones, but still she felt as if she had just killed a good friend.
When she got ready to go to bed, she took a glance at the computer and sighed. Then she reached out to turn it off for the night.
But before she could reach the button, something strange happened: Her monitor suddenly sprang to life, flickered a bit, and then... a face appeared on it. A face she knew very well.
The face of Amelia Wil Tesla Lothar, princess of Azeroth!
The image was very blurry and shrouded by weird clouds, but it was clearly her virtual friend she had created for her own version of the Warcraft game.
"Miss Lina!" Amelia shouted with relief. "Finally, I found you! You have to come for our aid! We..."
She then blinked and leaned closer to the screen. "Miss... Miss Lina!"
That was downright impossible! Amelia only existed on her own version of Warcraft Maker. A version which she had personally deleted within the last few hours. And no other copy of that game existed.
Well, except for that version that was running amok on COMPUTRON's mainframe.
"You aren't Miss Lina!" Amelia said. "How... how did you appear in the magical sphere?"
"I... I'm not Lina Inverse," Minako replied.
"I've tried to contact her for weeks! Who are you?"
But before Minako could say anything else, the image wavered and suddenly, her monitor turned itself off.
Minako turned around to stare at Artemis in disbelief.
"What... the heck just happened?"
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(Posted Thu, 21 Jun 2007 18:54)
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