RISING PHOENIX ACT SELECT

CHAPTER 25: PRELIMINARY RESULTS

It was 3AM; Marco stared at the ceiling of his bedroom, unable to sleep. After prom ended, he was promptly picked up and brought back home by his mom. He had laid in bed three hours earlier, but he was still twisting and turning on his mattress, unable to shoo away the thought of what would happen the next day. He turned to the side once more, clutching his pillow and shutting his eyes as tightly as possible to gain even the tiniest hope of falling asleep right then. Thankfully, a few minutes later he was successful - prom night was officially over.

Ring, ring!
Ring, ring!
Ring, ring!
Ring, ring!
Ring -

Marco slowly reached for his nightstand and turned off his phone alarm. The next day had come about. He sat upright and looked at his phone, noticing that he had received an email just a few minutes before. He opened it and was surprised by what he saw. It was an angry email by Sir Ernest that was addressed to every student that attended the prom, which consisted of a vitriolic rant calling them irresponsible and a disgrace to the country. Attached were several pictures of the 2nd floor of the Tiago Rodriguez Ballroom, showing flipped tables, shattered plates and glasses, and the crack Overclock left on the balcony railing. Marco knew he was going to get chewed out by Sir Ernest for this.

As Marco went through his daily routine, he felt a strange sense of inner peace. Things he would normally go through without a second thought like taking a bath, eating breakfast, and changing his clothes, all felt refreshing to him. After dressing up, Marco checked his phone one last time, seeing a new message from Glenn. In it, he told Marco that he did leave the drive decrypting overnight and that it had finally finished. He was on his way with the laptop and the drive to come in range of the Pisay servers and finally terminate S.P.E.C.T.R.E. This was the day they would access the drive, Marco realized. This is the day they would win.

As he left his house and got on the school bus, he couldn’t help but feel anxious about the whole thing. What if the drive was another fake? What if they were unable to get inside S.P.E.C.T.R.E.? What if S.P.E.C.T.R.E. already activated? These questions grew louder and louder in his mind the closer the bus got to Pisay. He could feel his heartbeat racing as he saw the bus enter Miriam Defensor-Santiago Road. He put his hand on his chest and took some deep breaths, which helped calm him down a bit. He got off the bus as soon as it reached the drop-off, ready to make the short walk to their agreed meeting place - the back of the gym.

As he traversed the sidewalks leading to it, his heart rate began to climb once more. He walked up the stairs and to the right side of the pool, aiming to take the back entrance to the gym. Internally, he was praying no one would be there to ask questions. He was subsequently relieved when his wishes were proven true. He climbed up the stairs, up to the stage, and to the back of the gym. There he found Glenn and Brianna sitting down around Glenn’s laptop, with Prairie entering right at the same time. This was it, he thought. He made it.
“Right on time,” Glenn said excitedly, “Get over here.”

Marco hurriedly ran over and sat in front of the laptop. Glenn pulled out the drive and held it up in front of everyone.
“Do it,” Marco told him as he nodded. Glenn plugged the drive in, bringing up a bunch of terminals with intimidating looking text.
“Give me a moment…” Glenn said as he got straight to work hacking back into the Pisay servers. Marco, Prairie, and Brianna watched in amazement as Glenn coded up a storm, his hands almost gliding above the keyboard as he typed things they couldn’t possibly understand. However, he suddenly stopped typing.
“Hold on…” he told them all. Marco feared the worst.

Glenn then pulled out his phone and began Googling a snippet of code he forgot parts of.
“Seriously?” Marco asked, gobsmacked.
“What? I don’t know everything. What do you think I am?” Glenn fired back.
After that slight detour, Glenn got into Pisay’s servers just a few moments later.
“So what are you going to do now…?” Brianna asked anxiously.
“I need to trace S.P.E.C.T.R.E., find out where it’s gone…” Glenn explained as he continued to code up a storm. A series of points began to appear on screen as more and more infected devices were identified. The server addresses were being spit out on a terminal off to the side - Glenn took a look at it and realized something grave.
“These aren’t just Pisay servers…” Glenn remarked,

“These are from the entire government.”

“...what…?” Marco said calmly in pure disbelief.
“I had my SIP at DOST, they showed us around their servers. Their servers are connected to the other government databases and…S.P.E.C.T.R.E. must’ve infected them too,” Glenn slowly explained.
“That’s DepEd…DTI…DOH…” Glenn said as he pointed at the server addresses on screen. Marco stood up and took a few steps back, attempting to process the heightened stakes.
“DPWH…DTI…DOJ…” Glenn continued, his voice beginning to crack.
If S.P.E.C.T.R.E. activates, the entire Philippines would grind to a halt, Marco realized. Hundreds of thousands of records of millions of Filipinos - all erased. The reality of the situation began to dawn on Prairie and Brianna as well.

“Anong gagawin natin?” Prairie asked, “Kailangan natin i-report 'to, di 'ba? Gobyerno yan!”
“NO!” Marco yelled out, “There’s no time! It could be activating in a few minutes for all we know! If we report this now, we’ll be wasting valuable time!”
“Bakit? Paano kung lumala pa 'to dahil sa 'tin? Bakit hindi ipasa na lang natin 'to sa mga eksperto?”
“We are qualified! We’re the only ones who can stop this right now…and even if we aren’t…we have to do it or die trying.”
“He’s right,” Glenn interjected, “We have to do something now. We can do something…I can do something.”
Glenn then began to map out the routes to the other Pisay servers contained on the drive to see if the Rising Phoenix infected them too. The routes consisted of the server addresses and the computers along the shortest path, which S.P.E.C.T.R.E. had to infect to reach the servers themselves.
“Don’t worry guys,” Glenn reassured them, “I’m going to make a stop signal that should propagate through S.P.E.C.T.R.E. very quickly. It should be fairly straightforward…just watch my back for me.”

“Alright,” Marco agreed, recognizing how important this was going to be.
“Brianna, watch the left corridor…Prairie, watch the right one…I’ll watch the door. Tell us if you see anything suspicious!” he ordered with utter conviction as he moved into position. Both of them quickly moved into position as well.
“Pasensya na, pero pwede ba ako tumae muna? Ganito talaga ako kapag nababalisa ako,” Prairie explained nervously as she got up. This request quickly triggered Marco’s ire, especially since she said it in a way that made Marco suspicious.
“The Rising Phoenix could be looking for us right now, it’s too dangerous! Can’t you stay?!” Marco asked, clearly annoyed and distrusting of her.
“Pwede ba? Hindi ko na kayang pigilin 'to...”
“I’ll accompany her,” Brianna offered, noticing that Marco was afraid Prairie would be up to no good.
“Fine,” Marco agreed reluctantly, “But be quick!”

Prairie got up and went to the bathroom with Brianna following behind, all while Marco stared daggers at her. After they were both out of sight, he redirected his attention back towards Glenn, who was working on the stop signal.
“I’m surprised you let them go…” Glenn remarked as he continued typing.
“Just keep working, no time for small talk…” Marco ordered, which ended their conversation on the spot. Suddenly, Marco heard a faint sound coming from somewhere behind the door.
“”What was that…?” Marco asked as he immediately stood up. His heart was beating out of his chest. His instincts were telling him that someone was coming.
“It won’t break anything if you take the drive out now, right…?” Marco asked as he looked around frantically.
“Technically, no. Why…?” Glenn confusedly asked. Marco suddenly bent down and took out the drive.

“What are you doing?!” Glenn blurted out as Marco began stuffing it inside his shoe.
“Someone’s coming…” Marco told him worryingly.
“I need that to access S.P.E.C.T.R.E.! Give that back right now - ”
They both fell silent as they clearly heard another sound - the sound of a few footsteps approaching from behind the door. Seconds passed by as the pair realized what was happening. Glenn quickly began packing up his laptop as Marco thought of what he should do. Suddenly, the door opened a notch - and a single green smoke grenade flew through the air and landed beside them before the door was quickly shut.
“RUN!” Marco shouted out as he shoved Glenn out of the way and put his body on top of the smoke grenade. After a few seconds, it exploded, enveloping Marco in a thick green fog. He coughed and wheezed as he breathed in the gas. Soon, he began to feel sleepy - very, very sleepy. In his last waking moments, he looked up and saw Glenn running out as fast as he could.


He then fell to the ground, unconscious. The Rising Phoenix got him.


Marco woke up. He looked down and found himself bound tightly to a chair, with rope on his arms and legs and duct tape on his mouth. He looked around and realized he was surrounded by other Rising Phoenix members he hadn't seen before, all standing ominously around him in a circular formation. The place he was in was incredibly dark, only being lit up by a flickering incandescent bulb and the sunlight peeking out from under the walls, which were made of corrugated metal. It was then that he realized he was in the temporary shed built beside the gym for construction purposes.

He suddenly felt movement behind him - someone else was tied up in a chair as well back-to-back with Marco. The voice Marco heard through the duct tape made him realize that it was Prairie, who was hopelessly struggling to get out of her restraints. It was at this moment when Marco truly began to fear for his life. He began to tear up, wondering if this was where he would die. Before he could do so, the door to the shed opened. Marco was unable to see who entered since it was on his left, much to his frustration.

“Hello, Marco…” a person called out. Marco froze - he realized that this was a familiar voice.
“You want to know who’s really in control? Who’s really pulling the strings? Well…here I am.”
They slowly walked in front of Marco and looked down at him. He looked right back and was devastated to see who was staring at him, wearing the signature red bird mask and the black coat Obsidian once donned.


It was Brianna.

She was the true leader.