Hacker Prime by @Thorvald (El Thorvaldo)

My 50th submission to DYOS XI. [link]

I'd originally planned to write an in-depth debriefing as a journal, but I ended up covering all the important bits in the Consulate, so I'll speak the rest here.

Back in July of 2010, we got into a discussion about revising the DYOS ruleset, primarily concerning the ban on magic. @GenMarshall mentioned he wanted to use the Xen borderworld from Half-Life at some point, but was constrained by the no-parallel-universes clause. lord_joakim attempted to rectify this in a private discussion with @Danimarion and I, in which he proposed that the Hacker could hide out there. I promised I would make it happen, one way or another, even if I had to retcon CG's comics.

In how I'd originally planned it, I would get CG and the Hacker to Xen and let everyone else sort it out. By the time we actually got to the climax, though, the Hacker's role in the story had been much maligned. I never had much direct input into how the arc had developed, but I was still considerably upset over how poorly it had played out, and what was originally done as a token favour became my attempt to redeem the Hacker as the primary villain.

Stylesrj's introduction of the Hacker clones was what inspired "Hacker Prime". If he could so easily duplicate himself, what would stop him from using a double the whole time? The heroes will be so distracted by your doppelgänger that they won't notice what you're really up to; it's an ingenious plan, that almost worked. It was also my way to reconcile his behaviour throughout the story with the cold and viciously competent character I introduce: CG and Co. encounter him just as he prepares for divine ascension, and he dispatches them all in a poetic inversion of what the heroes had just done to his stand-in.

Isolating CG on Xen was done with specific purpose. Ages ago, he painted himself as a lone wolf, but today you'll be hard-pressed to find him in a fight where the number of participants is not in his favour. A one-on-one confrontation, besides being more personal, tends to also yield greater suspense, as the hero has no backup and the villain's attention is undivided. For this same reason, a later comic separates him from Admiral He. At the start of the final showdown, CG is literally up against hopeless odds.

Ayane © Team Ninja;
SpongeBob SquarePants © Stephen Hillenburg;
Tama Shepard © ~milizeelashee;
excepting the Hacker, all other characters © @GenMarshall.

[Originally submitted to DeviantArt September 2012.]