Crouching Hand, Hidden Leopard

The 29th of August
13:01 (GMT -5)

After a turbulent night filled with fits of jetlag-induced nausea, heated discussion and heavy silences – with precious little actual sleep filling the gaps – Ruka finally awoke in the now-empty W3C office (courtesy of a certain subordinate of hers known as Red Hat, apparently) that had temporarily been transformed into hers and Linux' sleeping space. Her hardworking companion had left in the morning for a conference of some sort; if she remembered the schedule right, she should just have left her meeting with this Armus person. And why did I forget to ask about that, anyway? She'd most definitely had the opportunity – and in the drunken stupor of her jetlag she'd been way too unfocused on her mission to remember it. That's how it'd felt to her – at least, she thought so, though she had no reference other than the developers' tales to rely on for the comparison – when the time zones had been flipped around eight steps in one swoop; and it certainly seemed that it'd put its intoxicating effect on her judgment as well. Linux hadn't seemed very affected by it – why was that? – but then again, the woman might just as well have been hiding it.

Upon their arrival, the cityscape had been mostly dark – the campus of MIT, however, where the W3C offices were housed, had been quite spectacularly lit up, well enough to reveal the structure's quite peculiar shape. This place must look awfully strange from above, she thought briefly before she scampered off the bedding and went to get dressed.

Once she was outside the office door, however, she felt the return of the same creeping sensation that had for no apparent reason stuck to her ever since she'd entered the main halls of the W3C section of the building it was housed in. After some explanation of Linux', however, the reason for it had been made a bit clearer; the W3C acronym was short for The World Wide Web Consortium, an authority of sorts on standards – applied to something called the Internet.
Networking had, naturally, been around to in her early days as well – and well before it – but the extent of this thing's usage was dangerously vast. Communication, bank transactions and business deals – sharing the same network with underworld trades, virus coding and transmission of data? This is madness! It's a cardinal breach of worldwide security! She'd actually thought the thing a joke at first, when Linux had explained it to her; the look she'd been given when proposing this had been little short of an accusation of idiocy, however, and she'd been forced to accept the thing as truth.

And so, as she walked through the corridors of the W3C section she meticulously avoided every terminal and screen there was. And there were quite a lot of them, so she ended up pressing herself against walls from time to time in order to put a few extra centimeters between herself and the great unknown. A few odd looks were shot from the few others who wandered the hallways, but it still felt like a cape of wrought iron was removed from her shoulders when the airlock-like doors between the W3C halls and the reception desk of the building hissed open and let her through. After a short nod to the receptionist, who they had informed of their needs last night, she went through the carousel doors – crazy westerners and their crazy ideas – and out into the midday sunlight of Boston; the oddly apparent thread-likeness of its rays disturbed her at first, but she decided to blame it on smog, and not think of it further.


The 10th of October, 2010
13:11

Dizziness came over the teal-clad figure as it manifested into something more tangible than the blur of bent spacetime it'd been just before. Immediately, a feeling of misplacement edged into her mind – this was a natural effect of time-traveling, which she was rather used to – but soon changed into something worse; namely, the feeling of being in the totally wrong place, or at least, at the entirely wrong point in time.

As it was, the person who was lounging in the chair in front of her wore the bored expression of a cat with nothing to do – and her sudden appearance didn't even make the woman flinch. The outfit had her off track for a while, but it didn't take very long for Leopard to realize who was in front of her. Unfortunately, this did very little to her understanding of the situation.
"Snow? Why- when- oh, hell, what's going on?"

The oddly-clad woman was Snow Leopard, who was supposed to be a version of herself from far beyond the timeframes she'd managed to visit – she wasn't very inclined to believe the fact (or at least accept that her personality would descend to such pitfall levels like that) but there wasn't much else to do than accept it. When she'd first met her, her elder version had made sure there were no doubts whatsoever of that. Very sure.
"Is it really that hard to figure it out, hun? Surely you should've had ample opportunities to get used to it, by now – whenever the now in particular would be."

Leopard gave her older self one of the few looks limited to time-travelers (the I-don't-need-to-answer-your-bloody-question-because-you-already-have-experienced-this-and-know-the-answer-I'm-gonna-give-you-and-are-just-asking-it-to-annoy-me-look) and let out a frustrated sigh. Then, in accordance with old tradition, she focused her thoughts and tried again.


The 14th of October, 2010
13:22

The feeling of misplacement didn't even have time to manifest this time – all it took was the smug one-liner from Snow's smiling mouth, and her head was banged into what felt mostly like a wall of shame. "I'm sorry, but the number you have dialed is-" She didn't have time to listen to her older self's antics, though, and tossing all caution to the side she made a third attempt, praying solemnly to whatever code would be of use that it would work as predicted this time.


The 2nd of September, 2010
01:32

Whoever thought up this entire "even multiples of 10,5" thing must have been a total asshat. Leopard's first thought as she was bent into existence echoed several times through the space of her mind before she finally could see what was in front of her – this time, what was supposed to be there. Snow was nowhere to be seen – in her place sat the ever towering figure of Unix-sama, liege of all the OSXen through their legacy of code. She had never been quite able to shake that feeling of immense awe that had faced her the first time they'd met – her knees weakened, as if something in the air was telling them to bend.
"Highness. I have a report." She gave a very slight bow – it took some effort not to evolve the gesture of respect into a fit of servile kneeling. The chair where she sat was the exact same as the one where previously – or as it were, afterward – Snow had been lounging around. Come to think of it, why was Snow there alone, then? Leopard soon realized the direction this was going in – these days, most of her internal monologues ended up somehow blaming Snow for pretty much all the misfortune in her world – and focused at the matter at hand.

Unix was lord and lady of the league of loosely related clans of her own kin that Leopard and all her OSXen siblings belonged to. The woman was a commander, born and bred, and the open architecture of her code had produced a veritable myriad of descendants, direct and indirect – relatively early in her life, however, the Unix wars had broken out as a direct proof of the impossibility of managing all of them by herself. While combat and the dust-grind of time had picked a good number of the less successful off, the "Unix Family" was still a ridiculously large entity – for this very reason, the Unix Core-Internal Affairs Office (UC/INT-AO, or more commonly just C/INT or The Office) had been formed to maintain some degree of control and insight across the board. Efforts had been somewhat strained at first, with her predecessors and less competent coworkers trying to keep an eye on everything at the same time, without the strengths of code necessary; this changed dramatically with the birth of her elder OSXen sisters, who with each later incarnation of  Darwin code and the XNU kernel increased the structure and capacity of the office; soon enough, the entire thing was taken out of the public eye and quickly forgotten, while the relatively tight-knit sisters shared the weight of their duties to their great ancestor.

This was all in the beginning of it, of course. And before Leopard had found the Device. Her family seemed content with her explanation of how she had created it – she was considered a genius, after all – and as time went on for them, her state as a time-hopper was accepted and made an unspoken policy not to dig into.
One who didn't hesitate to utilize her ability, however, was Unix-sama herself, and the result had been a viciously tattered map of her time threading; from early 2008 a jump to mid-09, then back, then back to 2002 where she spent an entire year, after that a few recon trips to the late eighties followed by a jump back to mid-09 which was by then the synchronization point (when she would've been had she followed the flow of the chronopulse properly) of her current self. The spiral of madness had just went on from that point, and though this point in time was some 2½ years past her release, she was about 9 years of age in her own measure of time. The Device made sure to remind her; it kept a count.

Unix-sama seemed to be in a slightly annoyed mood – then again, due to her normally over-tight schedules she usually responded that way to Leopard's surprise visits – but didn't spend any time arguing with her subordinate, as usual, merely nodding approval for her to continue.
"This is a report of dire weight to our organization; due to policies we've both agreed on however, I cannot mention any specific names or details, nor report on future happenings. With this in mind-" Unix cut her obligatory reminding speech short with a cold stare, and Leopard swallowed once before continuing. "Right. A certain sorcerer of great power has, apparently with full knowledge of her actions, escorted a foreign agent of our kind into our territory. While the sorcerer doesn't seem to be particularly threatening in this particular case, the agent has shown mysterious abilities and powers beyond that of our control. I will need to monitor her closer to verify my suspicions, but I think..."

She paused herself mid-sentence, and distant memory of something she thought Snow had said once echoed through her mind. There are only three kinds of ideas worth listening to, and only three that people will pay any attention to; unfortunately, they are not all the same. Suspicion without proof is just theory, and no matter how important or groundbreaking it may be, very few will listen to unverified information. And those who do are guilty of any of the three F's – faith, fanaticism and folly – and those who tell it as well, if they actually believe they will be listened to. Best is to stay to solid ground – and if you don't have any, at least build a steady ship before you heave yourself out into the ocean.

She met Unix' eyes, trying to decipher the emotion behind those vaguely thoughtful irises. Is she annoyed? Confused? Or amused, even? It was as futile as ever an effort, though, and she did a quick gesture toward the exit of the room. "I will continue my surveillance until I have definite data regarding her activities and purpose. Expect reports once every th...twice every week, or so. I advise you to take no action without the data necessary. Is that acceptable?"

Unix sighed, but then gave a quick nod and yawned slightly – before she finally spoke up. "For now, at least. I don't know more details than what you can give me though, so if you want me to worry, you'll have to make a better effort than that. You are dismissed." Leopard flushed, but since she was facing away from her lady it didn't shame her as much. Quickly she pressed the "return" trigger of the Device, and everything blurred into threads of nothingness.


The 29th of August
13:39

Only three people were present in the conference room; the target hadn't made her arrival yet, and the meeting seemed to be adjourned. Did she get lost, or something? Leopard asked herself – but there was something in the scene before her that made her disregard those thoughts and direct her focus to the matter at hand.
Linux was there – the enigmatic sorcerer that had provided all sorts of trouble for her and her sisters for almost as many years as she'd been alive – and so was rms, the head and founder of the GNU project that was largely responsible for Linux' success. That was just as had been expected, but the last person was someone she'd never even seen before; and her visual memory was nothing short of perfect. This called for some backup.

"Finder." The word was silent, but said with force enough to shatter glass. She had been taught how to cancel the sound of all her incantations, however, so nobody in the room noticed her presence – or the spell itself, for that matter.
Before her eyes appeared a circular and transparent curtain of shimmering light; numbers and waveforms streaked across undefinable berth, settling as she focused her gaze on the unknown man. The magic scanned every known source of information, classified or open, that the C/INT had access too – as well as her own private files – a potent tool in her work, and most other situations as well.
But it turned out not to be quite powerful enough. Only one string of information was shown, and it was as nondescript as it could get.
Bee, A. ::: Male, Age unknown ::: Human, Nationality unknown ::: 49 44 2D 42 41 53 45 ~

Leopard sighed inside. It had been the same – worse, even – with the one called Ruka. At least this one gave her a proper result – Ruka's scan had canceled the spell out and given her a massive headache for three hours. She shook her head – clearly, something was off with that one.
Linux and rms stood up and started walking toward the exit, leaving the one called Bee behind in the conference room; a temptation rose within Leopard's heart, and she found it hard to resist. This one needs some investigating too, surely, she argued to her own instincts and priorities, and time isn't an issue, ever. We can spare some of it. She didn't find any obvious drawbacks to it; and thus, as the doors shut behind the GNU duo, she approached the man from behind, in absolute silence.
"Mister Bee," she said, and immediately realized how cliche that name sounded. He didn't turn around to face her, but something told her the man had taken notice of her presence. "Miss Cupertino, I assume. I had certainly not expected to see you here, in the bastions of enemies old and new." Leopard was slightly annoyed at the use of her "surname" – but the revelations in the words he spoke made her forget that emotion quite quickly. "I didn't know my reputation had spread this far," she said, trying to dampen the tone of caution in her voice, "But surely you must know that Linux' faction and mine have quite peaceful relations." That was an overstatement, sure, but it would be uncalled for to drop any more ground that easily; and foolish, to boot. "Who do you refer to as a "new" enemy in here, mister Bee?"

The man turned around, and the moment he looked her in the eyes, everything froze. At least, all of her did. And despite that, she didn't even manage to catch the sinister atmosphere before he opened his mouth again. "I mean that you shouldn't have come here, Pardus Cupertino. You see, some of us see you as a threat; I see you as absolutely... Irresistible."
The gaze went through her eyes like a battering ram through a window, and she felt the approaching kernel panic like a turtle senses an earthquake – inevitable and clear, and unable to run from or even scream at. As the world before her started flickering into monochrome, she felt a tingling sensation around her waist; this became a tugging, and finally – accompanied by the last sound she could hear – a loud crack as the only chain she had on her person broke.

And in that short last millisecond of her consciousness, agonizing fear rampaged through her mind with the scream of a thousand voices. By Code, she thought numbly. He took it.

I've lost the Device.