Browser City

Chapter 12: Need

"You're pathetic, Pitt," Nekari's voice burnt the insides of Pitt's ears with its venom while her patronising smile carved her name on his pride.

She was seated on a half-burnt chaise longue in the partially-destroyed CEO's office of the Zoom building. The powerful scent of destruction filled their nostrils with the pungent smell of burnt furniture and depixelated bodies.

"I save you and that's how you pay me. With disrespect." He chuckled. "Predictable like the products that a User is gonna buy online."

She was paying no attention to him. Her slender legs were resting with grace on the chaise longue while she began to toy with a glass bottle of vintage energy which the CEO had saved for special occasions. Seeing no glass or cup had survived, she drank straight from the bottle.

"Maybe I should buy me a new partner – one that doesn't chicken out right when things are getting interesting," she replied after taking a long sip, enjoying her partner's intense glaring.

"You were shot multiple times! You were about to pass out due to the harshness of the regeneration process!" His anger flashed vividly not only in his voice but also in the way he punched the remains of the CEO's office desk. "Besides, we were outnumbered!"

"I shot the AAA rookie with a viral dart. Fuck, you're dumber than one of those old Users who are clueless about how a computer works." Her snarky remark was so lazy that she sounded as if she didn't seem to care.

"Your darts haven't got immediate effects. Don't you remember what happened to me?" His complaints fell on deaf ears. She set aside the vintage energy bottle for a nanosecond only to fake a yawn.

"Yes, yes, you could resist the poison. But you eventually gave in, didn't you?" Her mildly joyful and proud comment only made him grunt.

"This AAA rookie seems strong." His greatest fear came out in a stern whisper.

"Stronger than you, you mean."

"No, I don't. And he isn't!" he yelled.

"Pitt, you're an annoying piece of a pop-up. The Hacker made me invincible! I'm the Hacking Queen of the net!" she exclaimed with a fanciful gesture with the arm and hand which was holding the energy bottle. She took yet another long and satisfying sip.

"You're not invincible! Neither a queen!"

"Don't you dare talk to me like that!" she barked back at him after almost spitting the latest sip of energy. She hated it when he was defiant and insulted her like that.

"You haven't fulfilled your mission, Nekari! That makes you the Queen of Nothing!" he yelled back at her while he threw a broken office chair at her.

She didn't even blink. It fell and depixelated into smithereens right in front of her.

"We were meant to steal the sensitive data of that big corporation I used to work for," he went on, pissed off, "You messed up, that stupid tracking algorithm kept chasing us, and then you thought it wise to open a portal and benefit from a stupid teenage User's distraction to infiltrate this operative system which means nothing to the Hacker!"

"All in due time." Her voice came out sly, like the expression in her eyes.

"The Hacker won't tolerate this! You've screwed it all up – and I bet he's gonna make me pay for it!" His nervousness only made her eyebrows shoot up with incredulity.

"Oh, shut up!"

"No, I'm not shutting up! You're the lousiest spyware I've ever met!" He ended that last utterance in a pathetic squawk.