“Anticheat?” Argall raised a brow. “Been a while since I saw anyone trip that.”
Lisa slid a printout of the log across her desk. “Eh, it happens. Samantha said it probably isn’t anything to worry about, either. Mind taking a look, by the way? I wanna be sure just in case.”
The professor nodded, picking up the sheet and skimming through it. “Oh?” he cleared his throat, bringing the paper closer to his face. “User… user… apparently, the account that was hit by the ban belongs to Rosanne. Huh.”
He handed the paper back to Lisa. “Well, I suppose there’s a possibility that her account might’ve been stolen. Those things aren’t exactly the cheapest things around, but we do have to make our money somehow. Anyway, I think I shou—”
“Professor Argall?”
“Hm?”
Lisa looked up from the printout. “You keep bringing up this ‘Rosanne’ lately. Why do you keep mentioning her?”
Argall stuck his hands in his pockets. “Well… after Samantha got… let’s just say trapped in the simulations, we really didn’t have much of a project manager anymore. We were going to try hiring someone in from the outside to run things while you and her were gone, but it turned out that one of our more recent hires at the time seemed to fit the bill quite nicely.”
“Well that’s a lot to say in one go.”
“Yeah.”
Lisa glanced down at the printout again, then to Argall. He seemed to be thinking about something, if the concentration on his face was any indication. She turned to the window. “Do you think we should go check anyway? We have the IP address, and with some other details from the log, we could probably pinpoint the location.”
“Yeah,” Argall stormed from the room. “Go get Samantha. I’m calling the cops.”
“Wait wha—”
“Hacking a pretty pony place is still illegal when there are real people living in it.”
~~~
Rosanne hummed to the tune of her music, strolling down the sidewalk with a plastic bag dangling from a hand. It was a nice day today, and it was high time she got a decent amount of sunlight, anyway. She could save biking to the grocery store for another time. Though, walking did mean that she’d probably face a bit of Night’s wrath later for not being quick with the ice cream. That woman liked hers rock-solid frozen, for whatever reason. Like, did she just chip away at it with her spoon when she was eating it, or—
She paused in front of Night’s house. Night and Wildcat seemed to be busy doing something, from what she could see through the windows. Maybe they were setting up for some sort of celebratory banquet or—she shook her head. Setting up a banquet was probably the last thing those two would do. They weren’t like the people her parents used to introduce her to. She walked up to the front door, taking a deep breath. Something thumped behind the door, followed by frantic yelling on Wildcat’s behalf. Whatever it was that those two were up to, it was probably something she’d best stay out of the way of.
“Ahem.”
Rosanne turned, finding herself face to face with… the police? Her eyes shrunk to pinpricks as she backed away.
“Miss, are you the owner of this house?”
She shook her head frantically. “N-no sir, I only rent it. I moved in only a couple days ago and the owners still live here as well.”
“Do you know if the owner is home, then?”
Rosanne looked away, nodding slowly. She was already on thin ice as it was, what with the whole ordeal she’d gone through the night before with infiltrating and later getting banned from the simulations. Having the police on her case was probably not a good idea. Maybe Night could explain things away or something.
She watched the officer knock on the door. A second car pulled up behind the police car parked at the curb. She could just barely see Night fleeing on foot around the back.
Wildcat opened the door not long after the first knocks, faking a yawn. “Guys, guys,” he paused, watching the officers readying themselves to draw their guns. “Don’t worry, boys, I got this. I’ve been…” he glanced over his shoulder before continuing, quieter this time. “I’ve been undercover in this household. Owner doesn’t even know yet!”
He reached for his pocket, immediately resulting in the police drawing their weapons. He cocked his head, raising both hands in the air. “Hey, just getting my badge, alright? I already said I’m with you, didn’t I?”
One of the officers hesitated, looking over Wildcat’s body. “Fine. Pull it out slowly. Do not make any sudden movements.”
Wildcat nodded, lowering a hand again to his pocket and extracting his badge. “Officer Leighton. I’m from the local police department. We’re just outside of city boundaries, so you likely don’t know me.”
“Aight. Lower your weapons, he’s with us,” the officer sighed. “Well, sir, what are your findings?”
“Oh, we’ve got an entire trove of evidence. PCs, notebooks, journals—you name it. Want me to collect ‘em for ya while the owner’s out?”
“Out? I thought the owner was in the building. You certainly acted as if they were.”
“Er… I mean…” Wildcat spun around, leaning into the house and looking around. “Hm. It appears I may have become distracted with you guys. I… we should probably search and detain her.”
“Riiiiiiight.”
If things looked uncomfortable when Wildcat first opened the door, then Rosanne definitely wasn’t gonna stick around to see what happened next.
“Rosanne?”
…And it just so happened that a certain professor happened next.
One of the passengers in Argall’s car emerged, stepping after him. “Professor, were you expecting her to be here? Since… y’know, we saw that it was her account and all…” The second passenger opened her door as well, but didn’t say anything herself.
“…Yes, Lisa. I was fully expec—"
“No!” Rosanne shook her head. She turned away from the Professor and darted. This was the absolute wrong time to come across the old professor. She needed to get away before she got caught up in this mess!
“Rosanne, wait—” Argall gave chase, but quickly fell behind, panting with every step. “Lisa, Samantha, follow after… her…”
Rosanne ran around the corner of the house. With all of the commotion going on, her bike would be her best bet. None of the officers seemed to be suspecting her anymore now that Wildcat was distracting them, so maybe, just maybe she could get away. At the very least, it was better than just going on foot like Night did.
“Rosanne!” she heard one of the girls’ voices shout out. “Rosanne, where are you goi—”
She sped past the two on her bike in the opposite direction. The more distance she could put between herself and anyone from the company, the better.
Now, to find somewhere to hide.
~~~
“So, the arcade then?”
“Yup.”
“Damian, you sure you wanna stay in their food court the entire time? I have enough money for all three of us to get a hundred bucks worth of credits.”
“Go waste your money with Ellie. You don’t know the value of it anyway.”
“Eh, whatever. Hey Ellie,” Robert grinned at the girl. “How ‘bout some spelunking in VR?”
Elise shrugged. “I don’t know… I mean, I already spend a lot of time in virtual reality already, and—”
“And the rest of us are stuck out here in crummy ol’ real life!” Robert playfully punched her in the arm. “C’mon, this isn’t like the assignments you get from your classes. We’re just gonna put on some headsets and have some fun, okay?”
“I… okay.”
“Good.”
Robert’s car pulled away from the curb.
“Oh, and Damian?”
“What is it now?” Damian rolled his eyes, placing a bookmark between the pages of his textbook. “Honestly though, can’t we go somewhere a little quieter for once?”
“Nah, too boring. Anyway, I was gonna say that you could use your hundo on the food court if you want. I think I remember that they allow takeout or something like that.”
“Fine.”
They rolled to a stop at an intersection. A young woman on her bike sped past them on the crosswalk, just barely making it to the other side before the lights turned red.
“Somebody’s in a rush,” Ellie commented, “You think she’s heading to the arcade as well?”
Damian shook his head. “Likely not. If she wanted to get to the arcade fast, then she probably would’ve hitched a ride there instead of biking. Especially so when there’s people that she has to avoid on the sidewalk.”
Their view of the woman was soon blocked by a rush of cars through the intersection. For a brief second, she swore she could see Lisa and Samantha giving chase, though she couldn’t quite tell for sure. It took a couple minutes before the lights turned green again for them.