The Proud Worm
| The Proud Worm | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 20 October 2021 |
| Location: | Gotham |
| Synopsis: | Harper's worm helps her find members of the gang that has been targeting her brother. |
| Cast of Characters: | Harper Row |
| Tinyplot: | Rainbow Revenge |
On September 24th, with Misfit's assistance, Harper successfully planted spyware on the phone owned by one of the homophobic gang members who, for months, had been tracking and assaulting her brother (see A Nocturnal Encounter). Its purpose was to listen for keywords and capture the IMEI of the speaker's phones and notify its creator of the captured information, it had little other functionality beyond that and giving Harper a back door into the device it is installed upon for her to access it.
On September 29th the first notification of new IMEIs arrives. Certain keywords were said while Device-Zero and IMEIs for three target devices were provided. Harper spends the next day coding an update to the spyware modifying it into a worm by modifying the original action on hearing any of the keywords to propagate via Bluetooth onto any IMEI detected upon the utterance of those keywords more than once. As midnight that night crosses into the next day, October 1st, Harper uses the program's back door to update that onto Device-Zero. The next morning, on her ride into work, she does a second update having thought to include kill commands allowing her to turn off this worm on any given infected device or, should she wish, to send a signal to all instances of the worm to turn it off in total. The second command is highly secured and involves the use of biometrics keyed to herself or Cullen.
Over the next few weeks the Proud Worm (as Harper has decided to call it in her own mind), propagates to dozens of phones and she starts spending time investigating the owners, eliminating some as non-gang members and sending deactivation signals to the instance of the malware on their phones.
On the evening of October 19th, deciding that she has a large enough pool of gang members identified, Harper ponders what actions to take and goes to bed without a clear plan of action...
... Upon waking the next morning she has an idea but realizing it might create problems of her own decides she needs to discuss it with someone: Oracle? No, that mystery has given her no way of contacting her and isn't really trusted to any degree yet. Batman? Also a no, he offered guidance and has remained incommunicado for a month now; unreliable and not trusted... as per his express instructions. There's the Outsiders though... Impulse, Red Robin, and Superboy; yeah, they're good for advice. Also, she knows how to contact them. That's the ticket.
Harper pulls out the phone (radio?) that Red Robin gave her and says, "Guys, never thanked you for abandoning me in the lab. Want to talk. You know how to contact me at work. Let me know if you can meet this evening. If not, suggest a time," into it. She almost ends there and then adds, "Bluebird out."
