text: Niko woke up to the sound of a gunshot. Luckily for Niko his life did not end with that sound, as would be expected. “Sugar snaps!” That was another thing you would probably need to know about Niko (the first being he was not already dead), he had an obsession with food that blended into his language, that and he was, to put it plainly, pretty weird. Niko tore through his living room where he had fallen asleep doing history homework, his books and papers flying everywhere, and raced to his bedroom. The gunshot sound had been loud (as gunshots generally are). Too loud. Hopefully it had not woken mother. Once Niko reached his room he stopped at the door, only momentarily, so that he could pull on the small yellow string barely visible at the top of the door. It was his secret method of security-a precautionary measure to stop his little sister, Bessy, from wandering in his room. And for his mother so that she didn’t come in and find that his school projects were... Not for school Not entirely healthy for a 14-year-old boy Once the yellow string was pulled and Niko entered the room, he saw immediately that something was wrong. To the average person it might have appeared that everything was well and good, but Niko knew his room very well and specifically, his computer. “We appear to be in a bit of a pickle, Pixel,” Niko murmured to his computer. Though at the moment she could not hear him. Niko walked forward quickly, and the wrong-ness was suddenly more obvious. On his screen a flashing yellow sign (that he had coded himself to warn him when someone had gotten past his first firewall) that was beeping more and more insistently. “Finally, you’re here. Slugs move faster than you,” Pixel snipped. She wasn’t generally snappish but the thoughts of people hacking into her inner workings always made her anxious. The reason behind the gunshot was that Niko had meticulously programmed (a habit of his) a preemptive warning system. In the event he dozed off or found himself away from his computer during the initial firewall breach, Niko had embedded a distinctive sound--a sound that would unmistakably signal him to rush to his cherished Pixel. He figured nothing would do better than a gunshot. After all, who could possibly ignore such an urgent and attention-grabbing signal? Now Niko was having second thoughts on the volume of his selected sound byte. “NIKOLAS SMITH! WHAT IN GLORIES NAME ARE YOU DOING AT THIS HOUR!” Niko winced. Mother was awake. He’d have to deal with mother and then he could get to his major issue. Fortunately for Niko he could hide evidence of his hacking quickly. If the need came, Niko could shove his computer into the closet. Which probably didn’t seem like all that great of a system but there was a reason it worked. Niko’s closet had been transformed into a clandestine hacking lab, complete with posters, graphs, paper, wires, and a cleverly designed table that swung back when shoved. Pixel, his prized possession, would find herself unceremoniously tucked away in the closet. Next, Niko would secure the closet door, locking it tightly, and obscure it further by covering it with a large blackboard adorned with intricate white chalk equations. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. “Uh, what mom!” Mother called back. “Niko! What in the glorious heavens above have you been doing?” Pixel pinged. She’d probably sorted through his Excuses-For-Mother file and found the most plausible one. Niko quickly looked at the excuse Pixel had picked and acted on it. “Oh, sorry Mom! It's this new video game, I guess I forgot to turn it off before I went to bed. I’ll turn it off right away!” He silently prayed mother would fall for it. “Alright and turn your volume down! You’ll wreck your hearing!” “Okay!” Niko could hear footsteps and knew mother was getting back in bed. “You’re welcome,” Pixel muttered. Niko ignored her. Now that that little errand was done, he could get to the real problem. Pixel, or more accurately, what Pixel was warning him of. Niko quickly hit the yellow sign on Pixel’s screen and followed the link to a program (of his creation) that monitored his many firewalls and such. To fit his preference, he had made it video game themed. He called it DragonWall, because firewall (get it?) and from DragonWall Niko could hurl his defense protocols at hackers. DragonWall showed a black race car (symbolizing the hacker) driving away from a dragon (his firewalls). Niko watched as the black car simply labeled “N/A” raced through his blocks as if they were mere vapor. In fact, the little game was having problems computing and kept glitching the character ahead, as if they were teleporting. “Alright, Glitch,” Niko said. Naming the hacker on a whim. “What are you up to?” Niko followed Glitch through its progress. It was as if Glitch already had access to his firewalls and could just breeze right through them. Niko was having a security update after this. After a little more watching he sent one of his many tricks to deceive Glitch. On Glitch’s screen a small ad would open up advertising a video game. If Glitch clicked “yes”, which probably wouldn’t happen, but if they did then Glitch would be thrown into a game of Niko’s making. The longer Glitch stayed in the more info the game gained. The game was really quite fun too. It was Mario Kart and Packman mixed together, so maybe Glitch would want to stay. Oh, and it was impossible to uninstall. Pixel made sure of that. If Glitch clicked “no” the game would just be stealthily installed and would activate on Niko’s command. If Glitch clicked the “X” at the top-just kidding. Niko hadn’t added that option. He called this game a “CyberGame”. Except...none of those things happened. Which was strange. Niko had worked on that for months and it always worked. Pixel’s chipper voice emitted from the speaker. “My apologies,” she giggled. “It appears ‘Game o’ Everlasting Hacker Pain’ is not available at the moment. Would you like me to try an alternative game such as ‘Quantum Locks’, ‘Eternal Gamenation’, or my personal fave, ‘Gotcha Keyboard’?” “No, Pixel. If Glitch blocked one game, they probably blocked them all...we need to think outside the box...” “Would you like me to make your tabs appear circular instead?” Niko sighed. “No, Pixel.” But he was not dismayed for long. Niko started typing his plan into the DragonWall. Soon, Niko injected a little idea he’d had while at the corn maze last october. He called it “Data Maze”. The basic idea was that it created a loop so that every time Glitch tried to exit, they would be sent to some random site on the internet. And since there are almost an infinite number of sites on the internet Glitch would be stuck for quite some time until they hacked their way out. Creating a practically endless maze that should give Niko some time to boot Glitch from his server. ...Or maybe Glitch would immediately (and rather implausibly) come through the maze’s exit and continue on their way. Which is what happened. Niko’s eyebrows raised. This was getting interesting. “Well, that was unexpected,” Pixel said. She sounded a little more annoyed now. She didn’t like it when her things didn’t work. “Decoy Network,” she asked. “You read my mind.” The Decoy Network would look like it was the entrance to Niko’s main system and if Glitch fell for it (which they probably would as it was incredibly realistic and Niko himself had fallen for it once by accident) then he would have them stuck in a waiting room, unable to do anything but wait while he hacked into their inner workings. “YES,” Pixel shrieked. Quietly, as to not wake mother. “Glitch is in the network, I assume?” “We got’er! That’ll teach Glitch not to mess with this circuit board all right! Boo-yeah!” Niko smiled. Pixel was intense when she won. And then he frowned. “Uh...Pixel?” “Yes, Niko,” Pixel said a little impatiently at being interrupted mid-celebration. “Why is there no one in the waiting room? Glitch is in the Decoy Network, right?” “Huh,” was all Pixel said. A tab from Glitch opened on Niko’s screen read: nice try stoopid-hed. “Ugh. Glitch spelled ‘Stupid-Head’ wrong,” Pixel said petulantly. And the next thing Niko knew he was booted out of the Decoy Network and Glitch was back in DragonWall racing along. “Niko,” Pixel cried. “Glitch is nearing the final Firewall!” “That son of a biscuit!” He took a deep breath. He had several other protocols, HoneyTrap, MirrorProgram, OhNOYouDidnt, and more but he knew which one he needed to do. “Initiate GhostScare.” “Are you sure, Niko? It's not quite done yet and it could go badly wrong. The backups aren’t downloaded and-,” “Pixel.” GhostScare was a code that would make it appear as if his network had shut down. Then the Glitch would either be kicked out or eventually just leave when he did not turn back on. The downside was that without the proper failsafe's he might actually go down and that could delete tons of data and projects. Niko held his breath. He could hear Pixel muttering. “Please, please, please, oh please work...” The room went dark. All the machines had turned off and since Pixel was connected to pretty much everything in his room (Heater included) it went silent as the grave. Then beeping started again. Pixel lit up. The fan (it was connected to Pixel like everything else in his room) started whirring. The heater turned back on. The small speaker used for white noise when he slept remained off, the batteries had died years ago. “Pixel,” Niko asked, tentatively. “WOO HOO, BABY!” “Pixel! My mom! You’ll wake her up!” “Oh right. Sorry, Niky,” she said sheepishly. “But it worked! Glitch has no idea we’re still live! Look.” Niko saw a new message from Glitch: r u skared??? like a baby or somthing??? where did u goooooo!!!! “Glitch’s spelling really is terrible,” Pixel commented. “Someone should give her spelling lessons. I’d do it if I wasn’t plugged into a wall.” “Holy guacamole, it worked,” Niko beamed. Niko watched as his server sent Glitch a message reading: Server connectivity terminated. Commencing countdown: 3... 2... 1... And with one last badly spelled message Glitch was gone: wait!!! how u do dat! dat is so mean!!! I thot u was dead but you actually not and kicked me out!?! HUH! MEANIE POO FACE “Maybe I should have my censor code block out ‘meanie’ as well as swear words.” “I’ll get started on it, Niko. There's just one thing.” “Yeah,” Niko questioned, turning to face Pixel. “How was Glitch getting past all our programs?” “I’m not sure. It should be impossible unless they were actually connected to our computer which is impos-hold on! What's this cable!?!” “That one,” Pixel asked. It was pink and sparkly. “Someone put it in while I was offline. I thought you were installing-,” “Good Gravy! It wasn’t me!” “I see that,” Pixel said lackadaisically. Niko picked up the cord and followed its trail with his fingertips. It fed through a small hole in the wall that hadn’t been there last night. Had someone broken in? Pixel pinged urgently and the flashing yellow dot reappeared. “Niko! Glitch is back in DragonWall!” Niko looked at the cable in his finger and something just felt...off. “Hold on,” he said. “Glitch is flying past the barriers! You have to do something! I’m trying to hold them off, but I can’t do much without you!” It was true. Without Niko all Pixel could do was inject viruses and programs Niko already had. “Keep trying,” Niko said. Grabbing his ear set and connected it to Pixel in one swift movement. “I’m going to go check something.” Niko crept past Mother’s room as Pixel fed updates into his ear. Glitch was past the beginning stages. Not good. How was Glitch getting past his defenses so easily? Of course, Niko got past his firewalls because he was already connected to the computer...was glitch doing the same thing? Was this cable... Pixel interrupted his thoughts and read a message Glitch sent him aloud: “u is never gonna beet me poo-poo-hed.” Niko ignored Pixel’s frantic warnings and headed to the Gameroom. Which held their family TV, Nintendo, and other devices Niko occasionally stole materials from. He pressed his ear to the door and thought he could hear...video games? Who would be playing at this time of night? Niko thought he knew. With a dramatic flourish Niko flung open the door and called, “Drop the controller Bessy! I’m onto you!” Pixel gasped in his ear. “Glitch’s not moving in DragonWall anymore...” “Because she’s right here.” Bessy dropped the Nintendo controller on the ground and sulked over to him. The sounds of his animated dragon eating her little black car filled the room. “You’re so mean! I almost getted you!” Niko gave her a stern look. The feelings of betrayal stung. He’d never expected his little sister to turn on him. To be honest he wasn't really sure how Bessy had turned on him. Did she even know how to hack? And he was pretty embarrassed that his 7-year-old sister had almost hacked into his database. “Bessy...How did you do that! How did you know I hack! How-when-who!” Bessy sighed. “Well, I sneaked into your room ‘cuz I wanted to see what's in it, and I found your secret closet. So, I hooked up my gaming Nintendo to your computer and started hacking into your data-whatever. But then you woke up. ‘Cept you couldn’t catch me ‘cuz I was already hooked up and I knew all your tricks.” “Except for the GhostScare,” Niko finished. “Since that one was new.” It was so simple. She had gotten past his firewalls because she was hooked up straight to his computer. He had to give Bessy credit; it was a good plan. “Yeah. I was so close, you Poopy head!” “Why were you even trying to hack me?” Bessy stuck her tongue out at him. “Because you never play video games with me anymore and I wanted to play with you. Even though you're still a poo-poo-pee-pee-stupid-face.” Niko considered yelling at her for a while but then he had an idea. “You know, Bess. That was pretty cool.” She smiled, proudly. “Wanna help me? Instead of trying to hack me?” Bessy thought about it for a moment. Then she gave him a thumbs up and a smile. “Are you sure this is a good idea, Niko,” Pixel asked. “No.” But if it stopped her from hacking him... Three weeks later... The flashy red car raced along the track. Dodging the dragon’s every advance. The dragon roared in fury. The red car zoomed by heading for the final wall. Niko leaned forward in his chair. His face was so close to Pixel’s screen it was almost touching. The clock showed that it was 10:37 pm. The perfect time for hacking. “Pixel! Initiate CyberGames!” “They’re all blocked!” “MazeData! MirrorProgram! GhostScare! Anything,” Niko called desperately. “Nothing,” Pixel said. Equally devastated." There’s nothing we can do, Niko!” Niko sighed. He hated when this happened. The sad thing was it was happening more and more after Bessy’s first attempt. “Man, I hate losing. Bessy,” he called. “It’s go time!” Bessy, who was seated on the pink bean bag in the living room giggled. They were both wearing headsets. At Niko’s signal she grabbed her Nintendo controller and entered DragonWall. Her small (now pink) car zoomed onto the track. She bounced against the large, red car until it was driven off the track and into the dark nothingness of 0s and 1s that made up coding. Niko hated when Bessy outcoded the hacker. It was barely even coding. It was just gaming! But no, every time she took the credit even though it was, he that had engineered a way to give her access to the DragonWall and given her a way to defeat the hacker. Niko watched with a mixture of pride and annoyance as the red car fell into oblivion. The red car did have a last message, but Niko didn’t let it pop up on Bessy’s screen. That kind of language was not appropriate for 7-year-olds. Even if it was censored. “See, pee-pee-face! I can hack better than you,” Bessy’s voice said from Niko’s earpiece. “Girl has a point,” Pixel added from the speaker. “That wasn’t really hacking! It was gaming! Which is totally different. Plus, I was the one that added her to DragonWall so she could boot the red car!” Bessy stuck her tongue out at the ceiling above her head where Niko’s room was located. “I still winned. You owe me ice cream!” “Oh! Me too,” Pixel chimed in. “You don’t even have taste buds.” “You don’t even have micro-processors, but I don’t point that out.” Niko sighed and got up from his chair. He quietly crept into the kitchen where Bessy was eagerly waiting and got bowls of ice cream out for him and Bessy. He downloaded an ice cream gif for Pixel and kept his earpiece on. Pixel liked to be part of conversations. And they sat together whispering about hacking and eating ice cream. Quietly laughing over a betrayal that had gone rather wrong. And it wasn’t just Niko, his computer, and Bessy eating ice cream as quiet as ninjas in a dark kitchen at night. It was The Hacker, Pixel and Glitch. Oh, and his mother. “NIKOLAS AND BESSY SMITH! WHAT IN TARNATION ARE YOU DOING OUT OF BED!” The end.