Crossed Wires (Wrench x fem!OC)

by KaliKo_HAckerr

Summary:

Rival factions, stupid literary cliches. You can't hack someone's feelings, but fuck it if he wasn't doing just that.

--

This picks up just before Swelter Skelter and follows the timeline of the game Watch_Dogs 2. I recently got into the fandom and fell for the dorky anarchist. I also don't know how to write personality types like Wrench, so this is quite the learning experience. Tips for writing them is welcome.

Notes:

This picks up just before Swelter Skelter and follows the timeline of the game Watch_Dogs 2. This is just an establishing to some recurring characters and their relationships that I'll be using to tell the story, but none of our favorites appear just yet. Please feel free to ask questions if you have any!

Chapter 1: The Heist

Man, this started out as an easy job.

I spat on the ground, after coughing up a wad of phlegm. I sneered at the taste, glancing quickly at where it landed, then back to the screen.

I stared forward as I typed as fast as I could, trying to make sure not to make any mistakes. I couldn’t risk mistyping right now.

I scuffed the dirt where the spit landed. I’d be pissed if that’s how they got my DNA.

Focus.

“Kali, how’s that hack going?”

I jumped, neglecting to mute my earbuds before starting this project. Stupid mistake I make too often. I paused and pulled out the earpieces and pocketed them.

I could deal with that in a moment. I just need to… Crack this wall…

I bit down on my lip, feeling my brow crease, trying to type in the right lines to get through. I tried breathing deeply, calming myself down. I can’t let that sinking feeling get to me now.

A window popped up, showing my laptop had gained access to the bank’s security system. I pulled an earbud out of my pocket, tapping it again as I fit it in my ear.

“I just gained access.” I swallowed, executing the command, “I’m opening the vault door now.”

A small diagram of the security system switched on, showing all of the locks slowly opening. I took a moment to pull out the second earbud, fitting it in my ear.

I checked the security footage, seeing the looping security footage, looping with random movements to give the illusion no one had broken in. The times were still showing present time, ticking the seconds forward. Perfectly blended in.

“KaliKo coming in with the timing again.” Kaiden laughed quietly into his mic.

I couldn’t see what he was actually doing, I had to abandon the real feed to avoid tripping an alarm.

“K, remember what we agreed on, only grab the boxes that are in the contract.”

“Yes, mom.”

I frowned. For a moment, I debated telling him I could see him. Wondering if I could get away with the lie and keep him from raising any alarms. But I couldn’t tell if that would cause him to call my bluff and tempt him more.

I decided to bite my tongue this time. My comments have gotten me in trouble before. Might as well keep the current smoothness of the situation going.

I patiently waited, keeping an eye on all of my tabs and windows. Watching as much of the code as possible. I tried to keep myself from holding my breath, but it was difficult.

After a few minutes, Kaiden’s voice came through the earpieces again.

“I fucking got ‘em all!”

I sighed in relief. “Good, now get the fuck out of there now.”

“You’re snippy. You’re not the one inside the air-tight, could-seal-me-in-any-second-vault under the bank.”

“And you’re not the one keeping the door open, now get out.”

“Can do, douche-canoe.”

I clicked the mute button again to allow myself an annoyed exhale. I waited for a moment until I watched him slip out of a window. He quickly shimmied down a pipe, and I started up the security system, restarting the camera feed and letting it resume real time.

Kaiden ran up to me as I was deploying a rootkit to wipe the system of evidence that we had been there.

“Fuuucking hell.” His voice came in as a textbook doppler effect. “Did you get it wrapped up? I think we need to go.”

“I’m stressed too. Give it a second.”

“Fine.” He kept breathing heavily. After a moment, he pulled out an inhaler and drew a breath.

“Told you we shouldn’t have taken this contract.”

“Shut.” He laughed. “Nah, after this we’ll be set for a hot minute. Believe me. Just like I promised.”

“Right.”

I unplugged my laptop from the CTOS hub. My heart was pounding as I stood up. I really couldn’t believe we pulled that off. No alarms tripped, not even silent alarms.

“Ready?”

“Let’s get going.”

He turned as I stood up and we walked off as casually as possible. The cameras were already disabled and wiped in the surrounding area. For the next mile, at least.

He hopped in the driver’s seat, and I hopped in the back, pulling my hood down and laying under the bench. Kaiden pulled off his black sweater, a brand t-shirt to blend in. I pulled a blanket over me and the bag as he thew it into the back seat.

“This is the last time you trick me into working a contract for the Bratvas.” I grumbled.

“Shush. No more from them, I promise. This is the last one I’ll get you involved in their business.”

“Thanks.”

That sinking feeling still followed me. I can’t help but feel like I made a mistake. I know I didn’t, I was as thorough as possible, and it went off without a hitch. Goddamn my anxiety.

I took a few calming breaths. That’s it, no more gang contracts ever. It’s not worth the stress of maybe getting on their bad sides.

My stomach turned as the car shook and moved sharply. I didn’t like the feeling of not having the damn buckle on. The ride across San Francisco felt way too long.

A thumping sound filled the car. I peeked up from under the blanket to catch a glimpse of Kaiden’s hand hitting the steering wheel.

“Holy shit, we actually did it! We fucking pulled it off, we stole from Proviblue’s main bank! The vault and fucking everything!!!”

I froze. I hated when anyone tempts fate like that.

“Say that when we get payment. I’m not in the mood to play with that.”

“You and your superstitions.”

I bit down on the tip of my tongue. I didn’t want to start a fight, we needed to keep a low profile.

After what felt like an hour, the car slowed to a complete stop and my partner unbuckled and got out of the car. He opened the passenger door next to me, pulling out the bag of things he took from the bank. I slowly sat up as I pulled my scarf over my nose. I pulled my seatbelt on, watching Kaiden approach a table in my peripherals.

Some important gang member stood in front of the table, flanked by a few bodyguards or henchmen. It didn’t really matter to me. I was facing away and staring at my phone in my hands.

In the reflection I made sure the majority of my face was covered, only leaving my forehead to my eyes were covered. I was in all black, except for my scarf, which was a deep navy blue.

“As in your contract, we will swap and inspect at the same time, yes?”

“Yessir. It’s all in there, I made sure of it. Cleaned out their accounts too.”

“Good. No alarms? No attentions raised?”

“No sir. It went perfectly. Our resident hacker was able to take care of anything, they won’t even notice anything’s missing. At least for a while.”

Kaiden’s charismatic laugh rang out.

There was some shuffling, then a case unclicking as a bag zipper was opened. After a long pause, the case shut closed. Soon after that the bag was zipped again.

“Everything is accounted for, as you can see.”

“Yes. I can see that. Is that payment amount satisfiable?”

“Yes sir. It’s exactly what we agreed on. Pleasure doing business with you.”

“And with you.”

After a moment, the passenger door opened and the briefcase landed on the seat next to me. I didn’t allow myself to react, despite how loud the thump was. I already knew how much was in there, just needed to get through these last few minutes and then I could go recharge for the night.

I shivered as we drove off. After a hot minute I pulled my scarf down.

“No goat bills?”

“None. All genuine, I checked all of the stacks.”

“Fuck. Five hundred?!”

“Yeah. Five hundred thousand dollars. Crisp, stacked, in piles. Like the mob movies.”

“Jesus. Never hacking again in my life. With my cut I don’t have to work again.”

Kaiden laughed loudly. In an unhinged way. “Never say that, not with this fucking economy.”

I leaned forward, laughing with him. “Yeah, but seriously. With a hundred-fifty each, we’re set for goddamn life.”

“Was it two hundred going to the group, or three?”

“I’m taking an extra cut. Two is plenty. I deserve emotional compensation for that shit. Broke a few expensive save keys with that job.”

He laughed again as I pulled myself into the front seat. “Alright, ready to go to the desert tomorrow?”

He punched me in the shoulder.

“Yeah, but I need a recharge. Just head back to my apartment. I’ll take my cut and hide out for the rest of the day.”

“Sounds like a damn plan. I need a nap after the parkour I did.”

“You climbed up one story then crawled down a drainage pipe.”

“Yeah. That’s parkour enough.”

Sure. Yeah. Discussion over. I closed my eyes. The fight over whether mental versus brawn strength is more tiring would have to wait. I wasn’t the one driving, and I needed a nap.

After some time the car stopped and shut off. I opened my eyes to watched Kaiden turn on the overhead light, turning and reaching into the back. He grabbed the case and opened his door.

I let myself out of the car. We headed up to my apartment. I disarmed my security system as I unlocked the door. He plopped the suitcase on my crowded dining room table. He popped it open, and quickly started counting out the cash. I looked over his shoulder and saw he wasn’t lying. Those are definitely all real bills.

“I know you get cranky whenever your battery gets too low, little miss introvert.” He mumbled, not breaking concentration. “So lemme just count all of this out and I’ll be out of your hair. You got a place to hide this shit?”

“Yeah, of course.” I rolled my eyes.

“… 48,000… 50,000… 2, 4, 6…”

Counting out his three stacks of $50,000 each. I smiled, always the one for perfection.

“So, last Bratva mission?”

“Yeah. I think I’m gonna stop all street gang missions. I don’t feel like dancing on shards of ‘am I about to be shot’ glass.”

“What about the team? What about V3rsus?”

“I’m not leaving them, jesus. I’m not about to abandon our friends. I’m apart of V3rsus just like you are dude. You’d think a few years would teach you that, lmao.”

“I can’t believe you still say things like ‘lol’ and ‘lmao’. You need to update your slang.”

“I-dee-kay.”

“Fuck you.”

I laughed, watching the piles fill up.

“What was in the boxes?”

“Heirlooms, expensive diamonds and necklaces. Some smaller keepsakes and antique shit. The ‘probably needs to be in a museum’ shit and some various cash troves. Like foreign currency.”

“Please tell me you didn’t steal from the angry Russian’s cash troves.”

“Nope. In and out. Exactly as planned. I don’t want gang members mad at me either.”

“Mmhm.”

He sighed, a giant smile crossing his face. “That should do it. A hundred-fifty kay just for you. Have fun with your non-gang related life.”

I clapped him on the back. “Thanks dude. I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m not cancelling this time.”

“I’ll hold you to that, and kidnap you if you try and change your mind.”

“Thanks bud. You sure know how to cure social anxiety.”

I rolled my eyes as he winked at me, then closed the briefcase. He walked out of my apartment, taking that absurd remaining amount of money with him.

Goddamn, that was a lot of safe boxes to try and empty out so fast.

But no need for anything else now. Going to go do some hobbies or nap or something. Tomorrow will be Swelter Skelter.

Ugh, public loud events. Absolutely fun.

Whatever, I think. Gotta start somewhere, right? Might as well have fun with the art ‘n shit.

Chapter 2: The Meet-Cute

Summary:

KaliKo goes to Swelter Skelter with friends, and things go a little south quickly. Her shy side quickly messes up a situation, but leads to a shocking meet.

Notes:

I desperately love the concept of going to Burning Man, but not the principle of being surrounded by inebriated people. Sadly, I am this shy in real life.

I gripped the door’s arm rest. Watching the cars speed past as we bobbed in and out of traffic.

“Jesus christ, K, slow down!” I yelled as he nearly clipped some sedan.

“Fuck no!” He laughed loudly. “If we get a speeding ticket, I can pay it. And besides, you were the one not ready.”

“He’s got a point you know.” Bella leaned forward. The only other V3rsus member to come with us into the middle of bum-fuck nowhere.

“You didn’t even pack. Who doesn’t pack?!” Bella reached forward and ruffled my hair.

“Thanks, I actually put effort into my hair today.”

She laughed at that. I raked my fingers through my hair, smiling as I turned around. She handed me a chocolate candy piece.

“Don’t get us arrested!” I shouted as Kaiden slid between two cars to get in front of them.

“I’m not gonna get us arrested. I’ll slow down, jeez.”

“He’s not gonna get us killed, either.” Bella wrapped her arms around the headrest, hugging my shoulders. I gave a slight smile, reaching up and patting one of her hands.

“And I ain’t seen two pretty best friends.” Kaiden teased. “At least one of them gotta be gay.”

“We’re all gay here.”

“Truth.” Kaiden punched the ceiling of the car.

I sputtered quietly. A pansexual, a homosexual, and a demisexual walk into Swelter Skelter sounds like the beginning of a stand-up routine. That ends in people laughing over relatable trauma. Hell, that pretty much explains our whole dynamic.

“Did you at least pack some sunscreen?” Bella handed me a Twizzler.

“Where are you getting all that candy?”

“I fuckin’ packed.”

“M’kay. Sunscreen’s in the backpack.”

“Thanks.”

“Do not put sunscreen on in my car!”

“Not gonna, don’t blow a fuse. I wanted to make sure she brought her own. And to remind her when she forgets.”

“Thanks, Bells.” I held out my fist, and she bumped it.

The half-flirting banter went on for a while, and I’m fairly certain we all promised to marry each other if we’re all still alone by 45. That quickly devolved into a debate of whose 45^th birthday we would get married. And then that spiraled into whether or not the wedding would be on one of our birthdays.

Just as we’ve signed the hypothetical prenup or signed a mortgage together, we pulled up to a ramshackle parking lot. Cars strewn about in the flattened sand, overshadowed by giant metal and wooden sculptures. The whole place was decorated in live wires, lights that will come on when the sun goes down. No doubt these would play a part in the “hacker extraordinaire challenge” that was thrown every year.

That’s later I guess. Probably part of a big lightshow.

“Anything like what you expected?” Bella swung her arm around my shoulder.

“Certainly a lot sharper than the livestreams.”

A round of guffaws came from my partners. I laughed at their reactions.

“This is why we’re going to have a few safewords. If anything goes wrong, we send each other a series of messages to keep each other accountable and entertained.”

Kaiden whipped out his phone, and typed rapidly. Bella and my phone pinged as soon as he did that.

“We’re getting service out here?” I mumbled as I pulled out my phone, seeing the now pinned comment in our group chat.

“You’ll be surprised how much service is available anywhere these days.” Bella looked at her phone too, “And besides. Didn’t you just say you watched the livestream multiple times.”

“And tracked the countdowns for the challenges. It was my biggest fixation for years.”

“Well, now you’re finally here. Review the list, commit it to memory.” Kaiden clapped his hands and held them over his head. “This place is for good vibes and good vibes alone, until the hangovers kick in. That being said, watch your back, don’t take candy – or drugs, or drinks – from strangers, keep an eye out for your fellow man, and woman, and nonbinary, and all others unmentioned, peace out!”

Kaiden turned around and walked off, hands still in the air after that speech, flipping the bird.

I looked over the list again. It was all emojis.

Green right arrow: I’m holding up okay, how y’all doing? [Parroting allowed.]

Yellow warning: I’m feeling dodgy, mom/dad come pick me up. [Mom and Dad are Code Names, KaliKo.]

Red stop sign: I’m in danger, someone come get me now.

Red do not enter: I am lost, or being led somewhere I don’t know were we’re going. Someone help.

Yellow radiation sign: Things are going south fast. I’m heading away from the danger.

“After a high-school level of safety coaching, and he wanders off by himself.”

Bella laughed, wrapping her arm around my shoulder. “Well, he is a lot more used to this culture than you. C’mon, I’ll be your body double and you can be my wingwoman.”

I giggled quietly, her half a foot gain on me making it slightly awkward. I nodded as we moved further into the event area.

Bella and I took all of our time looking at all of the art installations. She definitely took photos of me whenever I was awe-struck at something that was particularly compelling. I couldn’t help it – an arts degree will make you appreciate people’s work more. Some of the more scandalous installations had us giggling like schoolchildren.

To be fair we were, frankly, hilarious.

The sun was going down slowly, and we paused to watch it dip below the mountain range. All felt at peace with the world.

Bella winked at me as she patted me on the back and turned to her new date. She had proclaimed she was, quote, “here to get some puss-ay!” and another lesbian called out to her.

“Use protection, and be sure to be home by seven.”

“Yes mom.” She giggled and looped her hand in her new fling’s arm. Her date laughed with her.

They flipped around and started walking away. Hopefully she’d be back in a few hours, I was still hoping to at least join into the hacktivist challenge. None of our usual friends or squadmates had the chance to come with us to Swelter Skelter this year, so we didn’t have our numbers. But at least it’d be a fun challenge and experience.

I wandered back near the sculpture that was the center of the Jabberwocky challenge. Bells and I had already followed the wires to see what we could study of it; it wrapped all around the event grounds. We wouldn’t know what the challenge was like until the beast activated. That was the exciting part.

I kinda hope you blow up, O Jabberwocky with eyes of flame. I smiled to myself. I liked it when the sculptures were lit on fire. Feels cathartic.

I turned and wandered towards a band that was playing, and tried to blend into the crowd. It was the first time I had been left alone in the day. My battery was already beyond drained, but I couldn’t do much about that. I’ll be anti-socializing for several weeks, and I’m sure my friends will be worried. Hope it will be worth it.

I’ll have to make a list to line up the most amount serotonin-inducing video games I’ll need to indulge in.

I laughed a little at myself. I swayed to the music for a little bit, watching the crowd dancing from the distance. Most of it was white techno junk. Not bad, but nothing too special.

Garbage. I love it.

I giggled that time.

I watched a young black man set up his laptop near the edge of the crowd, probably practicing for the challenge. Somewhat hidden by some tents and tables. After a few minutes, another black man walked up to him and struck up a conversation. I shrugged and tuned back into the music. After a minute, the music paused and switched to something else.

I looked up at the DJ who looked confused, and frustrated at the change. I pulled out my phone, curious. Quickly looking at the DJ tools, it wasn’t hard to tell someone had locked him out and taken control of his sets.

I laughed, dancing slightly to the new music. This more bassy music had some notable beat drops, and honestly slapped harder than what was playing before.

People started gathering and dance-hopping to the music. This was probably the closest to a full rave I’ve gotten. Some sort of a mosh pit started forming near the stage as the DJ tried to mime the movements of the music.

Unfortunately, like what usually happens when I drop my walls, something bad happened.

Someone wandered next to me, and I didn’t notice for a minute until they were waving in my face.

“Damn, you’re really feeling it!”

I felt some heat rush to my face, staring at the guy who had a quirked smile. I fumbled with my words, tumbling out too much.

“I, I uhm. No, I’m not on anything, I uhm. I never have, I don’t have experience with-- I was just, I’m dancing to the music, I’m not on anything.”

He snapped and pointed finger guns at me, giving a wink. “That’s cool, you’re just vibing to the music, yeah?”

My stomach pitted for the first time and it dawned that he was actually trying to come on to me. My brain short-circuited and I froze.

“Hello, you sure you’re not on something, hun?”

I sputtered. “I’m not. I’m not a ‘hun’, and I’m uh… I’m not on any d-drug or anything like that.”

“That’s okay, girlie. I’m just looking for a talk.”

“N-no. I’m not.”

“You don’t even want to talk? We’re talking right now.”

I felt a chill speed down my spine. This was a predator scoping out his prey. And dammit they chose just right. The rising tempo of the music perfectly mimicked my heartbeat rising.

“No, no thank you. Nope, not looking for new friends.”

His smile slipped, and my stomach sank more.

“Not even acquaintances? Not even a small chat?”

“Uh, no…? S-sorry…”

“The Jabberwocky Challenge will begin shortly! Sign up to participate before it’s too late!”

There was a boom of music just after the announcement that made me jump. The beat dropped, feeling like a power surge through my body.

Right as the beat hit, I heard shouting right behind me. I turned to look, which was a bad idea. Almost in slow motion, I turned, then felt something grabbed onto my clothing, pulled, then pushed me hard towards the screaming.

Next thing I knew, I was hurtling towards a mosh pit wall of death. It didn’t go how I expected. I slipped through the pressed together bodies as more were piled on.

As I was tossed around for a minute, my knees were kicked out and I slid to the ground. People were moving over and tripping over me. The sand was kicking up in my face, making me hold my breath and have a hard time breathing.

“Outta the way! Fucking move! Exposed girl! At the floor! Non-consenual touching, move, move, move!”

A voice faded in over the music, and initially I thought someone had grabbed a microphone. It sounded casted to the speakers, the DJ managed to get his tools back.

Some colored lights moved into my vision, and I uncurled myself slightly. A hand grabbed my arm up and pulled me back. I felt whatever wind was left in my chest exit rapidly as I was pulled to my feet harshly.

I looked up to my strange savior, seeing two glowing X’s staring down at me. I sharply inhaled as I realized I was staring at a studded lit-up mask.

“Fuck, you okay?”

“Uhm, yeah, mm thanks.” I managed to get out.

“I’ve been in that position before, you never want to be under everyone’s feet.”

His eyes flashed to double @ signs, which caught me off-guard. I realized his voice was running through a voice modulator, though I could hear the original voice slightly as we were standing close.

“Though, I’ve never been shoved into the crowd.”

Someone else came into my vision, a large biker looking guy. “Which man did this to you.”

His stark voice startled me. I looked over towards the crowd, seeing that weird dude scurrying off. I pointed at the guy, seeing a tattooed hand point towards him as mine went up.

“That guy, running away like the microdick he is.” Said the masked guy, whom the arm was attached to.

Now that I had my wits about me, I realized the guy pulling me up was in half of a centurion’s suit. He had bare legs and padded, armored shoulders. The loud feathered helmet was impressive, but took me aback.

The biker man turned, putting his pointer and thumb in his mouth. A sharp whistle, and he was quickly flanked by equally buff biker guys.

“Are you hurt?” The bondage centurion with a voice modulator said.

“I’m… Processing that, but yes I think I’m okay. Nothing hurting, nothing sore. Uh, thank you f-for saving me.”

“No sweat.” The display flashed to a ^ ^ face.

“I like your mask.”

“Thanks. It’s custom.”

He swung around and walked off to the large dome cage. He had a spring in his step, I guess because he got to play hero today.

I shook a little, standing alone and not sure what to do. After a while there was a push on my shoulder. I turned around to see Kaiden looking at me.

“Y’alright lil sheep? You look shaken.”

I swallowed. “Yeah, just got spooked is all. Got bumped into a forming death wall.”

“Kali, that’s not good. Those kill people.”

“I know. But luckily some BDSM dude ‘n some bikers saved me. Happened faster than you and I have been talking.”

“Those alternative types are always on the lookout to help.”

“Last call to enter the Jabberwocky Hacking challenge!” a voice announced through the speakers.

There wasn’t a boom this time, though I primed myself for one anyway. I frowned, feeling Kaiden’s arm slip into mine.

“I think you’ve had enough people and noises and crowds, maybe we should get you back into the zone and do something you’re good at.”

“Right, the challenge.” I managed to laugh. “That’s what I’m here for. Let’s go, I’m excited.”

“Hell yeah, let’s go girl.”

I picked up my lead-filled feet and walked with him. Hacking and puzzles. I can do that. I got this.

Chapter 3: Swelter Skelter Hacktivist Challenge

Kaiden led me to the center of the Swelter Skelter, where other hackers and groups of people gathered to watch the event.

I sat down on a blanket in the sand, overlooking the back of the big snake, er dragon, statue. Bella looked up at me from her computer, smiling wide at me. She didn’t look winded or ruffled in any way. She even had a canned martini drink sitting next to her.

That girl had the stamina of an Ox or something.

I pulled out my computer, pulling up all my usual tools, seeing Kaiden pull out his little computer notebook. The countdown to the challenge started as we got settled. Kaiden sat next to me, handing me a canned mocha.

I cracked my knuckles and warmed up my fingers to make sure I was ready to type fast. I shook the coffee slightly, then popped open the can.

There was a popup on my computer as I took a large swig of coffee.

“Go!”

I started typing out code and various save-gets I stored. I was tasked with the main challenge, Kaiden running interference, Bella making sure we were keeping up with the timer.

A smile crept to my lips as the first few keys unlocked for me. A few more firewalls to go, but a good start.

The lines kept going as I tried to keep patching where the code was needed. Pruning and shit, trying to be thorough enough in one try.

The timer was counting down quickly. I didn’t have much time.

This would be a significantly better experience if there were more than three of us.

I pushed a program that would delay to the timer to keep our group in the race. I couldn’t catch the code to disable it, only pause the timer.

I frowned, scrunching my eyebrows together as I tried to concentrate.

Another popup, but not from the challenge.

“o wow. ur fast.”

An intruder this early?

“Kaiden...”

I switched on an antivirus application and popped an emergency firewall up. I kept jumping in to typing out the correct codes, I can’t afford to.

The antivirus greyed out and exited.

The firewall loaded halfway, then stopped. It’s progress bar changed colors and started regressing. Several popups crowded my screen.

I paused, watching my display freak out, fingers halting over the keys.

This has to be a pre-rendered video, right??? The sentence flashed through my mind as it all cropped up, laughing skulls being formed from the windows on the screen.

“o dont worry. not gonna cramp ur style 2 much. ;)” Another message flashed up on my screen.

I started typing again. Stress creeped up in my chest, and I tried to shut down my anxiety to focus.

I felt eyes on me, but I couldn’t tell if it was the stress tripping my sensors

“speeds ur name. hackings my game.”

“Kaiden!” I barked out.

“I see him.” Kaiden responded. “Wiping him soon.”

“Fucking two minutes ago.”

“I know! I’ve been trying!”

“o m g ur the mosh girl.” Yet another taunting screen flashed up.

My face burned, realizing I had just given away my identity to whoever this intruder is.

I ignored it, focusing on the code, deploying some counter programs to try and sweep out the bugs.

I hoped this was just something meant to distract the other challengers. Maybe something from the organizer? No, this is too professional, too organized.

“aw ur friend found me. :(“

So close. Toggling a few of these fail safes. I plugged in a flash drive to deploy another firewall and hopefully would push out any intruders.

“thats ok tho. got what i needed.”

Got what they... Wait, no.

“c ya mosh girl. -W”

My computer flashed violent neon colors, went red, then beeped loudly. Lines of code repeated and bounced around. Multiple windows filled up my screens, generating piles of nonsense code. My computer slowed.

“Fuck, what?!” I yelled out. “No, no no no no no.”

Kaiden leaned over and shouted. “Fuck. No! Fuck that shit!”

“What happened?”

“Some jerk got through our firewalls and managed to crash Kali’s computer.”

I huffed angrily. “Not just any fan.”

The hacked matrix-like lines spun into a portrait of a laughing grim reaper, a haunting chuckle looping through the speakers.

OMG it’s DedSec! Flashed on the screen before the computer shut off for good.

“Fuck that!” Bella shouted, throwing her empty drink into the sand.

“Who in DedSec is it?” Kaiden leaned over, trying to make sense of the crashing computer. “Did they leave a calling card?”

“I think that’s their calling card.” I grumbled, already feeling salty, “But no, I don’t think so. They signed the last message as ‘W’. Whatever that means.”

“Another hacktivist group, I should have guessed. I thought the hacking challenge was mostly for amateurs. I didn’t account that some advanced fuckers would be nearby.”

“Even after that scandal, they’d even show up out here?” Bella huffed, now worked up and frustrated too.

I grumbled angrily. “Whoever they were, they recognized me from my tumble in the crowd. Probably because of my outburst.”

There was a roar and the speaker announced that the challenge had been completed.

“Sorry. I know you were looking forward to that, Kali… I should have accounted for more groups in the desert.”

“I thought I saw Lenni out there, didn’t you see her?”

“I did, but my basic barricades are for the most part enough to keep those Pee-8 dumbasses at bay. At least to slow them down to a low simmer.”

I saw a familiar-looking centurion pushing a small group out from under the sculpture. I sighed as the Jabberwocky sculpture belched flames from its mouth at the people sitting in front of it. I wondered if Centurion Dude was on some hero complex or was genuinely that vigilant of heroisms.

I frowned. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. Not that it doesn’t sting, losing out to DedSec, wherever they are. Around here I’m sure, hell probably even in front of me.

I’ll have to do some damage control later. Luckily this was a throw-away laptop just meant for hacking. Though, I guess I won’t be getting that new gear, if I can’t salvage it…

I laughed quietly. I couldn’t imagine the group that takes itself so seriously would employ such vibrant characters like that crowd.

“Well. Wanna grab a sympathy drink and bunk down for the night?”

Bella stood up, grabbing her sandy martini can and holding it at a distance. She closed her laptop and stood up.

“Go ahead and turn in without me. I may have made a few promises to my new girlfriend about ‘after the challenge’.”

“Please tell me she’s not your actual girlfriend.”

“Sweety, you don’t get queer romance.” Bella winked at me. “But don’t worry, she’s not my girlfriend… Yet. I’ll decide after we’ve swapped numbers and a few trauma stories.”

“Just make sure you don’t make promises of moving in together within a few hours.”

“And clock set for…”

“Bells!”

“Sweety, you know I’m teasing~” she laughed. “I won’t make any commitments tonight. Sleep well, babes!”

She turned while waving to us as she sashayed away, heading back to where the majority of the tents were.

“Wanna go turn in for the night?”

“Probably best. ‘Specially for you, you’re the one driving tomorrow.”

“Shit, you’re right. Let’s go then, hahahaha.”

Kaiden made a chortling sound, and for a second I wasn’t sure if he was choking or not. He guided me back towards the camp area too, arm hovering behind my back. My social battery officially crapped out on me and I felt woozy.

I wasn’t sure how I made it into our three-person tent. It’s only two people in it for tonight though, and that’s alright by the both of us.

I hit the pillow, and curled up ready to snooze. Shortly after closing my eyes, the stress and exhaustion hit, and I dipped deep into sleep.

--

I flipped over, uncomfortably hot. I sat up, head spinning slightly, taking in my surroundings. I realized I was laying in a burning up tent in the desert. The sun was heating the entire thing.

Ugh, stupid. I thought. I sat up and grabbed for the zipper where I thought I could find it. Eventually, I managed to grab the door and tear it open, jerking it harshly to escape. That let a lot of heat out, and it actually started to cool down.

I noticed I was alone. Kaiden was already out and about somewhere. Probably trying to pick up morning afters or find Bella.

I sat there, rubbing my eyes barely, not sure if I want to move from my sleeping bag yet.

I looked over to my bag, then reached over and grabbed my laptop. I flipped it open and clicked through some screens.

A black screen met me, mostly. After some commands, a popup appeared.

“your shit was rooocked, rly cockblocked u back there!”

A few seconds later another appeared. “hope u dont mind, but i used some of ur progress to get us thru that last firewall hah.”

“but that speed was somethn cool. gotta give mad props were fucking due!”

“left everything were it was. this was a message rootkit, just dont click on the application again. – DedSec”

“P.S. JOIN OR DIE”

The screen flickered off, then the computer startup screen began. The login showed up, but I bypassed that screen on my phone. I won’t be taking any chances for any passwords.

I sat there, seeing the home screen open, noticing a black and white shortcut that read “CLIKC ME DUMBASS”. I sneered at the typo.

Instead of entertaining any of that further, I wiped the entire system. I purged all files and existing information available on the laptop. I had to start with zero on the laptop, but I had backed up copies of all the important files in my home.

Sadly, that meant a lot of my cloud photos from today had to go. All of those “first moments” of me actually leaving my apartment and going out with friends would have to be deleted. Especially my first moments at a place I’ve been wanting to go for years.

Damn. I thought. Fuck you, wise guy.

I didn’t want to leave anything to chance that it might have been encrypted. I tried not to be too mad at Kaiden, since that was a pretty obvious mistake. But sadly, we make mistakes, and that is what happens. So I swallowed that burn and tried to put it past me.

I sent out a few bug and virus crushing systems through my phone and the rest of my equipment with me. None of my equipment at home was on or connected to the internet, thank god, so I didn’t have to flush anything except my security system.

After flushing the system, I plugged in a friend’s USB to send a rootkit to get into my accounts and reset all of my passwords. I could fix and update the rest of them later. That should be completed within a few hours, which just means no Netflix on the road.

“Hey, you almost done cooking?”

I heard Kaiden’s voice come from the doorway to our tent.

“Gimme a few minutes. I’m squashing some roaches.”

He laughed as he ducked in. He placed an unopened can of coffee in front of me as I finished up the last of my protection implementations.

“How bad was it?”

“Honestly not bad.” I cracked open the coffee and chugged it.

“I couldn’t find any long-term damage to the system, though I purged anything. When I compare the backups, I’ll have a list of everything they could have stolen. Luckily not much was on me because I had cleared the system beforehand.”

“Good to know.”

“Now, do we go after DedSec once we get home?”

“Maybe. I’d bring it up to Mega when he next gets around to us. See if he wants us to retaliate.”

“Meg. Right.”

I looked over at him. Kaiden was frowning.

“I don’t like Mega, they’re too sympathetic to the corporations.”

“I know, but we aren’t exactly able to pick and choose our battles here.”

“Some of the things we’re hacking just don’t feel… Right.”

“Doesn’t feel right is an understatement. But.” I sighed. “We all have to answer to someone, right?”

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”

“I’m not fluent in the lorem ipsom.”

“Nah, I’ll tell you when you get home so you can sufficiently research it yourself.”

“Thanks dude.”

“Welcome, dude.”

I stood up after a few snarky jokes, then coaxed Kaiden to disassemble the big tent with me. Bella showed up chipper and bouncing near the end, managing to magically miss putting away most of the supplies.

Chapter 4: Journey Home

Summary:

Kali and friends travel home, and Kali receives a phone call from her secretive boss.

--

[A/N] Apologies for the delay. This was going to be a silly little fanfic, but then my mind generated a rough plot to go along with it. Then shit kinda hit the fan on the world stage, which rather drained me hah. Hope you enjoy. I'm gonna be hitting some cliches lmao.

I’m glad I’m not hung over, at least. I thought.

My head donked against the window. I sat up and looked over at Kaiden as he turned into another lane, rubbing where my head hit.

Now I’m definitely glad.

We were almost in San Francisco’s city lines. All our gear piled up in K’s car, sand swept out as best we could. Not that it mattered, that was probably the most recent time it was actually cleaned out.

“You awake back there?”

I looked up to see Kaiden looked back at me, flashing a smile.

“Barely.” I laughed quietly. “I’ll be glad to be home so I can sleep for a week.”

“I’ll expect you’ll only want to hide out in your apartment.”

“Absolutely. The next few meetings I’ll have to call in to. This might be the one to push me straight into complete isolation.”

He laughed loudly at that one. I looked over at Bella, still fully tapped out. She had her earbuds in and was fully asleep.

“Anyway, are you holding up okay?”

I sat lower in my seat. “Yeah, I guess. Happy to have had the experience, already regretting the exhaustion it hit me with.”

“Go ahead and nap, we’re almost home.”

“I’ll help waking her up; you can go ahead and drop her off first.”

“Sounds good.”

I tried to get comfortable, watching out the window. I let my thoughts wander for a while until the car stopped and shut off.

I hopped out and opened Bella’s door, Kaiden popped the trunk. I gently shook her awake until her head lolled over and snapped up. She blinked her eyes drearily, then she smiled up at me.

I stepped back and sat back down in the car. Bella stepped out as I did so, gathering her Dutch Bros from a neighboring town to the Swelter Skelter desert. I slipped my bag onto my lap as she reached back for some of her things.

“See ya next time, space cowgirl.” Bella said as she stood up out of the car.

I gave a small wave as Kaiden hopped back into the car, after taking Bella’s camping things to her doorstep.

“You next space cowgirl, or whatever it was she said.”

“Mmhm.” I didn’t have the energy for conversation.

I didn’t move until we were in front of my apartment complex. When the car pulled into a parking spot, my eyes opened and I reached for my seatbelt.

As much as I love my friends, I need my alone time. Even they’re a bit too much for me right now.

I sighed to myself as I pulled out my laptop bag and overnight bag from the seat. I must have looked tired since Kaiden offered a hand to pull me out of the car. I took it, being launched out of my seat as he yanked me harshly.

“Whoops. Forgot you’re a twig.”

“What do you think happens when I spend all of my time inside?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Go get some sleep, twiggy.”

He ruffled my hair again, laughing quietly as he walked me up to my door. Always the chivalrous type, I almost laughed to myself.

I opened my apartment door and locked it behind me once I waved Kaiden off. I laid all of my things down and instantly undressed for bed.

My pillow was cool, and my cats were snuggly, super happy to see me.

I smiled as I patted my kitties, rolling over under my covers.

My eyes quickly shut, heavy from the cramped atmosphere of Kaiden’s freakin’ car.

Dude’s had it for years, yet still treats it like it’s a newly purchased baby. I giggled to myself. Good for him.

My thoughts faded and I succumbed to a heavy sleep.

--

A chirping ringing pulled me from the darkness. I looked out in the darkness, blearily blinking, not sure where I was just yet. I recognized my ringtone, so reached over to find my phone. After frantically patting the mattress for a few seconds I lifted my head to seek out the glowing screen.

I snapped it up once I spotted it, looking at the screen.

MiNor_Dik was what read across the screen. My stomach lurched, and I slid the green circle. While I was dreading a chat with MeGa, I was hoping he’d leave me alone.

“Could you have picked a better time.”

A jarbled mess of a voice modulator came through. “What time do you think it is?”

“I don’t know. I don’t care. I was asleep, what do you want?”

“You are always sleeping.”

“Mmhm.”

I rolled over on my back, leg flopping over the mess of cables I left on my bed. I rubbed my face to try and wake up more, then laid my arm over my eyes. I glanced at the time, it was eleven at night.

“Your partners filled me in, mentioning your little slip-up against Dedsec.”

“I wouldn’t call it a slip-up. Nothing big was on me, just the standard burner stuff. The point of the hacktivist challenge’s to have fun and challenge yourself.”

“Even so, they crossed the line by knocking you out of the race deliberately. I have received intel that there could have been important information found in that desert had you won the challenge.”

“I wasn’t there to win. It’s not that serious.”

“No, you weren’t. But you being there arose an opportunity we can’t pass up. We will be targeting the winners of the hacking challenge. Finding what they know.”

“What’s the information you’re looking for? And how far are we looking at going?”

A new op like this was unusual, even for Mega.

“We will go as far as we need to.” They responded. “We have a client willing to pay top dollar if we can deliver. The information we are looking for is a person. We have reason to believe that the winners were able to come into contact with Raymond Kenney.”

I sat up. That got my attention.

“The Raymond Kenney, one of the original CTOS programmers? If not the champion programmer???”

“The one and the same. I have reason to believe this ‘supposedly’ is the truth. We will need to track down and investigate the Swelter Skelter winners.”

There was a pause as I waited for the name.

“Do you... need me to track them down or something?”

“No. It is simply a conflict of interest.”

“Conflict of interest. Right, just get it out of the way, I’m not too much in the mood for theatrics.”

“Naturally. The winner of the challenge was Dedsec.”

I paused. While they had done some damage to the underdogs during the challenge, I thought they were just trolling.

I laughed into the transceiver. “Fucking figures. They’re all try-hards anyway.”

“If I was interested in slander, I’d call you a try-hard as well.”

I lay back on my bed again. “So, what is it you need me to do? I’m sure by now you’d have called and talked to everyone else about this.”

“That’s correct. The rest of V3rsus has been updated. I’ve chosen you for the first part; I need you to retrieve some tech left behind by some Dedsec operatives. They leave attachments in CTOS boxes sometimes, so it would be best to scope out a place they’ve been hanging around.”

“Cool. I’ll look around and see if I can find some of their USB sticks.”

“I’ll need you to scan and collect the data, then leave them where they are and as you found them. This will allow us to triangulate their most common areas. Track their ops. Learn, and steal, the information they have if needed. If an appliance is particularly intricate, bug it, and put it in a place nearly impossible to notice. We need to dig deep and play dirty this time.”

This time. Ugh.

“Right. I’ll see what I can find.”

The line disconnected. I set my phone down and closed my eyes.

Dedsec, Dedsec, Dedsec. They’re everywhere I go. The fucking desert, San Francisco, hell they’re nearly the new Illuminati.

That is, if the Illuminati had a heroic Napoleon complex.

Protecting and serving by spreading peace and breaking into military centers or whatever it is they’re up to.

On the other hand, “MeGa”... Kaiden is the one who talked them up to the group, but I’ve had my doubts about them. They only speak through some voice modulator, and only ever over the phone or some secure chat. Yet from day one they’ve been throwing around orders like they’re our boss.

Both Kaiden and Bella have said that they don’t mind, since Mega’s given us a steady supply of things to do for our group of hackers. I don’t like them, they’re too controlling and often... push what the rest of the group is willing to do. Pushing us to go further down the rabbit holes and pushing everyone’s boundaries.

I’m grateful for what we’ve been able to do, but a shiny new boss hiding behind multiple layers of secrecy... It just keeps rubbing me the wrong way.

They were the one who offered Kaiden the contract to target Proviblue’s bank. While I guess all of us could be considered “fixers”, the majority of V3rsus have slightly higher standards in terms of hacking operations.

I’m not sure how much I can complain, with how lucrative it’s been and just how far I’ve gone for the cause of our group.

I sat up, searching for my main computer. If anything, he’s definitely right. I am a try-hard too. Maybe I just don’t know when to stop going.

If you’re not careful, MeGa, I’ll turn to DedSec. Give em all your secrets. Not that I have many of them.

I stifled a chuckle in my throat. I unlocked my computer and started working on keeping tabs on what I might’ve lost. As much as I wanted to trust whoever installed that virus on my computer, it’s a dog-eat-dog world.

I’m just lucky I’m paranoid enough to carry my secondary blank computer when going anywhere.

Chapter 5: Café Au Lait

Summary:

Kali takes down the digital side of a data pool. The stranger in the mask appears again briefly, but makes a big fumble.

-

I like multiple and confusing meet-cutes, sue me.

It took me a nearly a week to thoroughly wipe everything. MeGa had given me the remote task of chipping away at the information of a rival hacking group. They had been doxxing people and selling their information to whoever was willing to pay out.

They weren’t data brokers, these assholes were developing viruses that could spread through CTOS hubs. The code was rather intricate; it was tracking when they were at their homes and connecting to their home wifi, when they were at work. And of course the virus would then make itself at home in the smart systems, watching them through cameras or anything that would connect wirelessly.

Slowly, I cleaned out some of the older files, ones that were definitely already sold. Then, I targeted some of the newest profiles. I had access to everything in their homes. A harrowing reminder of just how far tech reaches into our private lives.

A week of watching people do nasty things to each other, watching people sob as their lives crumble around them and unknowingly providing entertainment to some strangers.

Disgusting. I have a hard time understanding why this appeals to people.

I cleaned the virus, doing my best to purge whatever information I could find online and on the dark web. Some were lost causes, and they might have to go into witness protection if they ever notice their information was stolen.

Once the profiles, the viruses, and any information they have was completely cleaned, it’d be someone else’s job in V3rsus to either steal or destroy the hardware that hosted these viruses.

I sent out the message that the systems were clean. Almost a hundred-fifty thousand people had their data stolen by these thugs.

I lay back on my bed as three dings came through almost immediately. My back cracked as I lay back, clearly showing I should not have been sitting like that for hours.

I sat my computer up on my knees so I could angle the screen towards me. K, MeGa, and Bella had messaged me in that order. I frowned, clicking into K’s first.

‘Nice fucking job. That was waaaaaaayyy too many MegaJules for me. What was the total score?’

I blinked and typed back, ‘I haven’t even tried to keep score. That shit’d take me another week. I went the extra mile because the majority were linked to the deep and dark underbelly.’

‘Ah fuck. Dark web shit?’

‘Yeah. Spooky shit on there too. It’s over now, but i just know more stuff like this is goin to pop ip.

‘*I *up.’

Kaiden sent a laughing emoji in response to my corrections.

I opened Bella’s chat next. She had sent a shit ton of sparkling-hearts. It took me a while to scroll up to the top of the chat. It was a chainmail copypasta, one of those “spot the odd one out”.

I’m guessing she just saved it to send an egregious amount of hearts in a split second.

In response, I copied her message and sent it back, then a ‘Thx.’ I smiled, seeing another flurry of hearts were sent in response.

And of course, I had to read MeGa’s text. I opened it.

‘Well done. Payment will be wired soon.’

Not that I really need it right now. I was just done with that heist a little bit ago. I’m not exactly starving.

‘Thanks. Let me know how the physical work goes. These assholes should be terrified to touch anything electric. No, be scared when they think about technology.’

His icon showed my message had been seen, but no typing bubbles or other messages came through. That was normal for them, ever the silent and vague figure. I rolled my eyes, backing out into the other chats.

‘Are you up to celebrating? I know it’s like 12:43 in the afternoon, ur midnite, but we could go out for a coffee or something.’ Bella had sent.

‘K-K’s down for it too.’ Popped up after I finished reading the message. I smiled.

‘Actually, yeah. Can’t say I won’t be weird af. After scrubbing through humans beoing humans when they’re alone

‘*being’

Bella sent a cry-laughing emoji. ‘BEOING’

That was almost certainly already in Kaiden’s inbox.

‘After scrubbing through nasty ppl being nasty, it’ll be weird to look at anyone seriously.’

‘I believe you. K mentioned you had to scrub data from the dark web. Good on you, ya saint, but watch your damn back.’

‘You know me better than that. I’m a paranoid mf.’

‘So is that a yes? A no?’

‘yea. I need a break, and probably need to get out of this apt.’

‘Take a shower. We’ll be by to grab you for a coffee. Rock-paper-scissors for who’s paying’

‘I’m the one who got paid, I’ll be paying for it.’

She sent the rock-paper-scissors again, this time in emojis. ‘You misunderstand. K and I are playing. You do not get to touch your wallet.’

‘Fine. You win.’

I received a devil’s face as I backed out to read K’s messages. It was just reacting to whatever Bella was sending to him in real time. I don’t even know why they didn’t move it to the group chat.

I jumped up to go for a shower. I feel so fucking grimy anyway.

 

--

The shop’s bell dinged as we walked in. The donut shop, while cheap, was definitely homey. It almost makes up for the burnt coffee, almost.

I fought hard to curl in on myself; walking in as the front person with Kaiden and Bella flanking me made me feel like people would stare. Nothing like a posse of henchmen to make you feel eyes on you.

Kaiden helped march me up to the register. I tried to slow down and hide behind them, but he wouldn’t move to the side as I slowed.

“I’m going to flat-tire you Kali. Keep going.” Kaiden laughed as I paused at a distance to look at the menu.

I felt my face heat up as Bella stepped forward to order for herself. I looked over the short menu as a server approached the register. A really pretty Latina-looking woman was the one who manned the register, and I could almost hear the lesbian in Bella immediately activating.

It made me smile slightly as she did what she always does when she meets a pretty lady – squaring her shoulders back and standing up straight, softening her voice to a coo, and putting on her most charming persona. Kaiden shook his head in my peripheral, but I could tell he was smiling too.

She finished her order, then gestured to me. I stumbled with my words, but got out my ask for a mocha with an extra shot. Kaiden patted me on the back and asked for a drip coffee with cream and a bit of sugar plus whipped cream.

We took a booth and started chatting about some things. Bounced some hacking anecdotes off each other while waiting. I was sure we had probably told some of these stories already, but hell if we could remember if we had shared them before.

After a little while the waitress set down our coffees. After catching a breather from laughing at Kaiden’s punchline, I picked up the cup and sipped it, and frowned.

I looked at the cup, popping the lid off. A tan coffee stared back at me.

“Something wrong, Kali?” Bella set her coffee down before taking a drink.

“I think they forgot the chocolate.” I fit the lid back onto the cup. “It tastes like a café au lait or something. Definitely espresso-y.”

“Damn. Want me to go complain for you?”

I gulped to myself. “No, I can do it. Just keep an eye on me in case I start repeating myself, hah.”

I stood myself up. I already felt nervous being out of my safe zone, why’d they have to get my coffee wrong? I sighed in my head, then picked up the cup and spun around.

I looked down as I headed towards the register again. I put my hand on the lid to make sure it didn’t pop off and spill, watching my feet and avoiding eye contact. I heard someone start speaking.

“Hey, ‘scuse me. I think you switched--”

Crash. Sploosh.

Burning.

I gasped and yelped as I tripped over my feet and hot coffee splashed across my skin. Someone had run into me, and I bounced off of them pretty harshly. They fumbled and crashed on top of my body, which twisted as I slipped.

My temple smacked against the linoleum, and I was sure I felt my brain rattling. It started hurting immediately. I was too stunned to speak, but as I looked up a black blob lifted itself off of me.

“Fuck, fuck fuck. I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.”

Still too hot. Body hurts. Can’t find control of mouth.

“Babe, are you okay?!”

Bella’s shout is what brought me back. Before I knew it, she was lifting me off the ground, and a third hand grabbed onto my upper arm.

“Jesus on a stick, I didn’t mean to do that. Is she gonna be okay?”

I realized the person I ran into sounded familiar, though their voice was garbled in a weird way.

“She’s covered in burning chocolate, what do you think?!”

Bella jumped in front of me and started scrubbing my shirt down. I looked down to see she was right, there was a large wet brown spot on my shirt.

At least I knew where my mocha went. Must have been his Café Au Lait that I was served instead.

And of course I’d be wearing one of my lighter-colored shirts, that’s just begging for disaster.

“I’m okay. I’m okay.” I said as she desperately tried to cool off or scrub off the thin layer of mocha from my clothes.

“Do you need to go to the hospital, that was a hard hit babe.” Bella said as she was still scrubbing me off.

I finally looked up to take in my assaulter and did a double-take. The mask was unmistakable; the BDSM centurion hero had shown up again. This time in pure punk gear complete with a spiked vest and anarchy pins, a DedSec shirt, and ripped jeans.

DedSec. Again. Fucking of course.

He looked smaller, almost thinner. I couldn’t quite pin what it was, but he seemed to take up more space in the desert.

Maybe the black outfit. I dunno. I shook my head, which was a mistake. The throbbing made itself known.

“I’m fine,” I mumbled as I turned to Bella. “I’m okay, just spooked. Let’s... let’s just go. I’ll need to wash this real fast.”

“You’re right, hun. K-k, could you take her to the car? I need to chat with this gentleman.”

Kaiden wrapped an arm around my shoulder and guided me out the door. I heard Bella start laying into him, asking for his information and saying he should pay for any medical bills.

As soon as she was talking about doctors and paying for his mistake, the masked guy burst through the door before it closed behind us. We watched as he started sprinting down the sidewalk away from us.

He clearly ran away from things a lot.

“You son of a bitch, you get back here this second!” Bella shouted as she ran after him.

“Bells, let it go. We can deal with it later.”

Kaiden guided me to his car. I tried to get him to let go of my shoulder, insisting I was fine, but he wouldn’t hear it. He didn’t want to risk a concussion tossing me into the street.

Bella hung behind us to keep an eye on my walking. Once we were in the car, we sat for a bit. Bella sat in the back with me, using a pen light in my eyes and checking me over several times.

“I told you I’m fine.”

“I still think you should go to the emergency room.”

“Yeah, we can pay for it. Kaiden’s got his cash on him. Let’s go!”

There was no arguing with them, so we left. I convinced them to take me to an urgent care instead; I didn’t think it was serious enough for the ER. They were worried about two servings of coffee melting my skin or something.

We were lucky, the urgent care was mostly empty. Once the doctor came in and, after doing some stimulus tests, confirmed I was fine with a mild concussion and topical burns at most, they both breathed a sigh of relief.

Kaiden helped me cash out, and we headed back to his car.

“Thank you. Even though I was right.” I laughed quietly.

Bella hugged me. “Baby, I don’t think you know we care about you. Cause we do, we’re family.”

I nodded. “Family.” I echoed.

“Pact initiated; we will die together.” Kaiden chuckled.

Bella and I laughed along.

"You guys are angels." I mumbled.

“Don’t worry. I’m gonna hit DedSec personally.” Bella said. “But for now, let’s get you home so you can get in your safe zone and clean yourself up.”

Kaiden clapped me on my back. “You call us if you need us, though. Because I don’t trust doctors as fast as I can throw ‘em. I can speed to your house in two minutes if you need me to.”

I nodded as I slid into the backseat of his car. Bella took her spot in the passenger seat up front, and Kaiden hopped in the driver’s seat. Some small talk was made as he started the car, quickly turning to what we should do about DedSec.

Chapter 6: $911$ Hack

Summary:

The two eventual lovebirds meet and have their first real conversation.
This is a bunch of rambling mostly. I'm still trying to figure out how to write Wrench (and his dynamic with KaliKo) so this is mostly just a test chapter. Hope you don't mind the banter, I was trying to tow the line between "POV is annoyed but can't stay mad at this sunshine dork."
Yes, this chapter took me a year to write. I am only sorry for how stilted it might be. ^^;

Notes:

Thank you for your patience! I can't promise this is "back" but my obsession with Wrench has been coming and going for a whole year. It's gotten it's talons on me again enough to keep this going. I wanna write something slow and adorable, which is really difficult because I just wanna speed ahead to when they kiss already! Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story so far and (hopefully) in the future!

My backpack felt too tight as I pulled myself up and over the ledge. 

Fuck, why’d they send me for this one? I whined internally. Send the agoraphobe, yeah. Good idea guys. 

There was the local CTOS hub. I slid my bag off as I approached it, pulling out some gear as quickly as possible. I looked around quickly, some of my eyesight obscured by my scarf. 

I’m definitely out of shape. 

I plugged a USB stick into the hub as I pulled my scarf down enough for me to see. I opened my computer and deploying my rootkit. 

After a few locked screens, I was in. C++, my old friend. 

Not sure why they’re piling this job on me with the request to hit DedSec. I’d already handled some Proviblue hubs that DedSec had left their own gear on. I couldn’t tell if the hack was to steal from people’s accounts or if there was a different reason for their Proviblue attacks. At least they were easy to track down. 

I turned my attention back to my newest operation from MeGa: hitting the police station. Something, something corruption that goes too deep. Something, something, we need to hit them hard. 

I’m all for fucking with the cops, but not in person. 

I hit a separate firewall from the main system. I furrowed my eyebrows and opened the gateway to peak in. There was another system plugged into this one, a stronger firewall hiding inside of the files. Looked like a worm. 

I clicked through it, distracted now. It looked like another hacker team was here at some point. I hummed to myself, reading the code. 

I wasn’t sure if I should bother with it. If they were in the system, that risks them getting into mine or spying on me now. 

I flipped to some of my inactive walls and booted them up, pulling out and plugging a physical one into my laptop. I bit my cheek and walled them off so to speak. I’m not sure I can get rid of them, but I can pretend I’m not here. 

I weighed the options of letting them stay on the hub I found them in, or if I should wipe them from the police’s system. 

No, it’s best if I just focus on my work. It’s their business, and I’m sitting here with plenty of protection. I’m not meant to be here as much as they are. 

“Out for a midnight stroll?” 

I shrieked and jumped up, backing away. I looked towards the voice, seeing a pair of glowing symbols looking back at me from the dark. 

“Woah woah woah!” I saw a pair of hands lift up in the darkness, palms open towards me. “Don’t leap off the roof, I come in peace.” 

I blinked, forcing my eyes to adjust to the darkness. They were still used to staring at the screen, as dim as it was set. 

Luckily they were adjusting fast. Looking down, I could see my foot planted only inches from nearly pure darkness. I stared dumbfounded, surprised I didn’t notice I was that close to the edge. 

“Listen, I’m just here to collect my shit, ‘n I’ll be outta your hair.” The voice sounded like it was coming from a modulator. A familiar modulator. 

“Rude of you to assume I have any.” was my reply. 

As my eyes adjusted, I could see this made him pause. He froze, and I could tell he was calculating a response to that one. I realized I recognized his mask, and the familiarity clicked. 

“Oh fuck, you’re DedSec.” 

I heard the masked man start to speak while I was, then cut himself off. He got giddy and laughed. The shapes on his mask changed quickly to exclamation points and then carets, a frozen ^^ glowing back at me. 

“A fan! Ooh, are you here to try and knock off our stuff?” 

He approached me and swung an arm around my shoulder, and I instantly pulled away, moving further from the ledge. I shivered, feeling the ghost sensation of another person putting hands on me. 

“Not a fan, bud. Just a fellow hacker doin’ a job.” 

“Aw, c’mon. You can’t tell me you’re not a fan! You’re even hiding your face!” 

I paused, realizing I forgot I was even wearing my scarf. I touched it for a second, now able to feel it as it sat on my face. 

“I’m pretty sure most of us don’t show our faces when we’re out on a job.” I scoffed. “I promise you, I mean you no harm just as much as you mean me none.” 

“And... You just happen to be on this roof when I’m coming to pick up our hardware?” 

Hardware? “What, that firewall?” 

“So you do know it’s there.” 

“What? No, I saw it when I plugged in to the system, dude. Why’re you talking circles around me?” 

“I can talk circles on circles on, hey don’t distract me!” He let out a laugh, as though we were in on a joke. 

He walked passed me, moving to the CTOS hub. 

“Hey, don’t touch that! I’m in the middle of a job.” 

“Nah, don’t worry, I won’t touch your shit.” 

He sounded more serious now. Did I hurt his feelings that bad cause I’m not a fan? I stifled a laugh while thinking that. 

I sat back down at my computer, looking at the screen. I still had access to the firewall. 

“Hold up. I don’t think that’s the best idea.” 

“Why the hell not?” 

“Because my system is in yours right now. I have it open now.” 

“That’s a dirty way to get the juices flowing!” He shouted, spinning to look at me. 

I jumped at the outburst, looking around. Then I whisper-yelled “You know what I mean.” 

“Oh, I do. Don’t worry, hackin’ Becky, I’ll let ya finish your job.” 

He leaned against the wall with the CTOS hub, crossing his arms over his chest. After a few seconds, he pulled out his phone and started typing. He looked more like a rambunctious teenager than an experienced hacker. 

Was DedSec actually comprised of children? 

“...‘Hacking Becky’...?” 

“Yeah, it’ll be you’re nickname if you don’t get that stick outta your ass.” 

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, typing on my keyboard. “You don’t even know who I am dude. Chill out before you get your underpants in a twist.” 

“So you’re like in-in the firewall? Or were you just hoping to keep my pretty face around a little longer?” 

“Unfortunately, I did have access to your code. So I gotta be double-careful not to trip the fail-safes THAT is connected to.” 

I looked at him over my screen, seeing him facing the hub. 

“Listen, give me a handful of seconds, and I’ll be outta your hair.” 

“Mmmm ‘bold of you to assume I had any’.” 

“Yeah, I walked right into that one.” 

Glancing at him I saw a wink disappear and replace with the caret effects again. It started picking my mind, going back to the first time we met. 

“You said your mask was custom. How’d you do that?” 

He missed a beat, apparently he didn’t remember me. It clicked he wouldn’t; he’s seeing me now in my mask, but the two times we’ve met he saw me without it. 

“Don’t think I even mentioned that.” He chuckled. “B’yeah it is custom.” 

“Small world.” 

“Small world? Like the Disney ride?” 

I clenched my eyes closed and I stopped typing. I heard him giggle after I reacted. I loathe that ride, loathe the song, loathe Disney in general. 

“I mean like,” I read over my work to make sure I could pick up where I left off, “‘Cause we met before. And you mentioned it was custom.” 

“Damn, nice.” 

“Mm.” I nodded, resuming typing. “I’m almost done. I just needed some evidence.” 

“Shit, us too. That’s what I’m here to collect.” 

“Bet you are.” I bit my lower lip, calculating what I wanted to give away. “Look, we’re like. Rivals--” 

“Rivals?!” His head went back and he laughed loudly. “Ok short-stuff, I’ve always wanted a rival. How’re we rivals?” 

“Like... I dunno if I can even tell you this.” 

“Shoot.” 

“As long as it’s not at me.” I tried to laugh it off, feeling embarrassed. “I’m not stealing your work, just to make things a hundred-percent clear. I came here on a job and noticed your shit.” 

“Right. Doesn’t make us rivals.” 

“No, but I am from like. A rival hacking group.” 

“Yeah, Einstein. You saying ‘oh jumping joseph gosh, it’s DedSec!’ told me that.” 

I looked up at him and saw him finishing up an emote, cradling his head in his hands like he was feigning surprise. He wasn’t leaning against the hub anymore, it looked like he was inching closer to me. I stifled a smirk and another laugh. 

“You’re adorable.” 

“Thank you! I’m glad someone notices the work I put in.” 

That got me to laugh. 

“Anyway, when did we meet?” 

He sat down with a hard thunk in front of me. It must have hurt with the exhale he released. 

“Watch your tailbone.” 

He scoffed. 

“We met in the desert, if you’d like to know.” 

“Swelter Skelter? Damn, that is a small world.” 

“Better than the second time.” 

His head tilted to the side. “This isn’t the second time?” 

I laughed quietly. My laptop dinged, and I saw that my job had been completed. The evidence had been fully copied and my firewalls were finished disengaging. I virtually ejected my system, it was now safe to clean up. 

“I’ll let you try to remember.” I giggled. “You acted like a hero to me when we first ‘ran into’ each other. And like a roadrunner the second time.” 

I closed my laptop, leaving us face to face. His mask was running through a few emojis, mostly lingering on @@ signs. I started gathering my physical hardware and putting it in my bag. 

“Next time, ask me on a coffee date instead of spilling an entire cup on me.” 

That hint did it. He stood up fast. 

“Fuck, you’re the gal from the coffee shop.” 

I smiled, and I felt my eyes crease over my scarf. “Yep.” 

He started sputtering out an apology. Apparently that was enough to make his confidence crumble. 

“Don’t worry, I won’t forward you my medical bills.” I stood up on my own, moving to the CTOS hub. “Nor do I hold any bad blood. I think we’re on even ground. Saving me and all.” 

“Whaddaya mean I saved you?” 

I giggled. “I hope you don’t remember my face. You got the crowd to stop from crushing me.” 

“MOSH PIT GAL! No shit, that was you?!” 

I laughed loudly. “It’s a bit backwards, y’know. Usually you offend someone, then you do a heroic action to make it up.” 

“Fuck, that’s an even smaller world than I thought.” 

“Stop.” 

He laughed, slinging an arm over my shoulder as I pulled my wires from the hub. 

“So we’re even then?” 

“I mean, you DedSec guys crashed my computer during the hacktivist challenge.” I made a grandiose sigh as I pulled his arm off me. “But you pulled me out of a death wall before that, so yeah, I’d say we’re even.” 

He mimed wiping sweat off his brow. “Good, I thought I wasted my chances with someone already.” 

I laughed quietly. “I’m under the ace umbrella, buddy. You didn’t stand much of a chance anyway.” 

“Oh yeah, you and that girl calling you ‘Babe’ at the coffee shop. Nice.” He nodded affirmatively. 

“Sorta.” 

“Sorta?” 

“Anyway,” I waved my hand to brush off the topic. “I’m done. You said you had something you needed to do.” 

“Right. No more flirting and whitty banter.” 

“Respectfully, I wasn’t flirting.” 

“I just flirt overall.” 

“Good for you bud. Don’t see much coming out of this though, since my group is a little mad at you.” 

“What, for the coffee?” 

“Yeah, and the sweltering skeltering. Your group knocked my computer out of the challenge.” 

“Oooh...” His voice trailed off like he was trying to think about it. “Must’ve been the rootkit tool. It’s late, but it really was just an application download. One of those old ‘opens a thousand windows and crashes your computer’ tricks. Nothing malicious attached.” 

“I know. But I also know your group likes to hide ghost software.” 

“Yeah. I guess I can see why that’s scary as shit. Damn, looks like I owe you a computer and a coffee.” 

“I’ll hold you to that.” I laughed, packing up the last of my gear. “Anyway. I’m off. To sleep this conversation off. And hide for a few years.” 

“Well I’ll keep an eye out for you then.” His mask winked at me. “If I run off that time it’s to get you a new coffee or something.” 

I swallowed another laugh. It felt too easy to chat with him. I couldn’t tell if it was a performance to disarm anyone from seeing him as a threat or if this was his personality. 

“Maybe you’ll get lucky. I don’t go outside often, so the last handful of times I’ve been out I’ve run into you.” 

“Damn, and we don’t even know each other yet.” 

He held out his hand, and I stared at it for a second. I wasn’t certain there wouldn’t be a prank buzzer in it. I took it, and he shook it limply. 

“I’m Wrench.” 

“I’m KaliKo.” 

He laughed, then paused. “You’re the one who took credit for that Proviblue attack a few months back.” 

“Yeah, I commented about it on some forums. I know that’s not gonna do much in the digital world. But that was us.” 

“I saw them! Damn, good job. We were sizing them up a bit before then.” 

I smiled, my eyes crinkling over my scarf again. “Keep an eye out for the credentials. They’re going through some changes in upper management, something about a sex scandal.” 

“Damn, the most common of scandals.” 

I shrugged. “It gets people’s attention when it hits the public. Sex sells. Or so I’m told.” 

“Bold to claim it doesn’t work on you.” 

“Nah, there’s some neuron activation in there. I’m just tired of it being used everywhere. Just annoys me more than anything.” 

“Eh, that’s fair.” He folded his arms behind his head. “See ya around then?” 

“Maybe. Hopefully we don’t but heads too much. I’ll be waiting for that coffee.” 

“It’s a fuckin’ date then. See ya Mosh Girl.” 

I laughed, moving to the edge of the roof. He turned back to the CTOS hub as I tried to carefully climb down. 

Hopefully he doesn’t notice the bug I placed on his tech until I’m several blocks from here. At least I got him to confirm it was DedSec work for me before I finished up my hack. 

I slipped into an alleyway and looked for the fastest way back to my apartment. 

Chapter 7: $911$ Aftermath

Summary:

Two chapters in one day??
I had to keep going on this. No real Wrench this chapter, just the fallout of Kali's hack and letting Wrench go without consequence. (Not that Kali knew there would be.)

Once I had sent a report of my work to MeGa, I collapsed into my bed. I finished our hack of the police station by writing up a dossier of the evidence I collected (mostly to save some time to anyone sorting through it later). It was done, sent to our research pool. 

I rifled through my mind now I had some time to myself, starting to let it wander about the masked vigilante. 

Some connections were making themselves known in my brain. I wasn’t sure if it was important that I kept meeting him. It felt important. 

Maybe it’s just coincidence. 

Maybe it’s Maybeline-- shut up brain.  

I groaned at myself. Sometimes I’m tired of how my mind makes connections. One second it’s putting together thoughts with thumbtacks and string like a conspiracy theorist, then it’s derailed into some theme song based on a single word. 

My phone chirped. I picked it up, and it was confirmation from MeGa they received the dossier. 

Should I tell them I came face to face, err mask to mask, with DedSec? Specifically the DedSec guy that keeps running into me? 

Almost literally each time now. Every time we’ve met we’ve had some sort of physical contact. Pulling me out of a mosh pit. Running into me in a coffee shop. Even pseudo-hugging me on the roof. 

Maybe they don’t need to know. I bugged his bug after all. And noted that their tech was there in the dossier. They’ll figure out he took it soon. 

Knowing MeGa, they’d likely cross-reference the timing. Then ask why I didn’t physically bug Wrench’s person. 

I giggled quietly at the idea, one of my cats jolting from her sleeping position between my legs. I looked down at her and whispered a “sorry, baby” as I reached to her and pet her head. She quietly settled back down with a purr. 

Wrench was a silly name. I kinda liked it. It made me wonder if he was actually a nonbinary person. I didn’t ask, so maybe I should next time. 

I smiled quietly. He seemed like a wild card, even for a hacker. I wondered how good he was, if he knew what took down my laptop during that challenge. Was he the one that designed the rootkit tool? 

Maybe. Maybe it didn’t matter. 

Maybe it’s - shut up!  

Ugh. I yawned. Definitely too tired. I looked over at my window, seeing the telltale shift in lighting. The sun was rising, and the sky looked grey-blue. 

I stretched in place, feeling my back pop. I already felt sore for hopping onto the roof of a police station, especially finding the CTOS hub with a blind spot to the cameras. 

A new connection formed in my mind. I picked up my phone and opened my notes. 

‘Found a DedSec bug in camera blindspot. They seem to be all over SF, might be good to check other blind spots to weed out mroe DedSec tech.’  

My eyes felt heavy, protesting the light of my phone screen facing me. I put it back down on my mattress, not even caring to turn off the screen. 

I quickly slipped into a peaceful slumber. Flickers of a masked man and some nonsense flickered behind my eyes. Codes and dreams filling my head. 

---- 

My phone dinging repeatedly woke me. I snapped out of my dead slumber and sat up, seeing a slightly lit bedroom facing me. My small tortoiseshell cat, Torti, peaked out from behind my blackout curtains and mewed at me. 

“Hey baby.” I mumbled, rubbing my face to wake myself fully. 

The light fluctuated as she hopped out of the window. I picked up my phone as she hopped on my bed. I ran my hand over her head and down her back, tapping in the code with my thumb. 

Several messages were still coming in. A lot of “Holy shit, turn on the local news” were coming through. “Look at the forums and the news.” 

I sprung up, startling Torti. I ran to my tv and turned it on, flipping to the local channels as soon as I could. Miranda Comay, a local politician was speaking. 

My other cat, Cinnamon, greeted me on my couch. 

“Hi sweetie.” I smiled at her, turning up the volume. I set the remote down and pet her too. I pointed at the screen. “I voted for that lady on the screen.” 

Cinnamon leaned into my hand, clearly not understanding the human standard of voting and laws. Oh, to be a cat. 

Miranda was speaking to reporters and a crowd of people. Her saying “watchdogs” caught my attention. I picked up the remote and rewound it a little. 

"--But if it were not for public watchdogs and one very forthcoming eyewitness, we would not be having this conversation. It is my pleasure to announce that we have already launched a full-scale internal investigation with the cooperation of Oakland’s finest.” 

I turned my attention to my phone, reading through the group messages as the broadcast continued. 

‘Fucking DedSec took credit!’ 

‘Holy shit look at the forums.’ 

‘Rude af, that was our info!’ 

It hit me what I was looking at. Screenshots from some coding forums. DedSec was taking credit as the watchdogs Miranda mentioned. 

Oh no. 

Oh fuck, this was gonna be my fault. 

‘Gyys wait.’ I sent. ‘*Guys.’ 

My hands were trembling. “Fuck.” I whispered to myself “Fuck fuck fucking fuck.” 

‘Their tech was at the station I raided.’ 

‘Wdym?’ That one was from Kaiden. 

‘I bugged it, but their tech was hanging off the CTOS hub during my mission.’ 

I bit my thumb, feeling my anxiety shaking my whole body. 

Do I tell them Wrench was there?? I didn’t before, fuck. What do I do? 

‘It’s possible they were already working on this before us.’ I sent. 

‘Why are you defending them?’ 

‘I’m not. Reread the dossier I sent, I noted it there. They didn’t steal it from us. It looks like some of them were sticking their heads in the fuzz’s business at teh same time we were.’ 

I shivered, though my apartment was rather warm. My bones felt like Jello. 

My phone started ringing in my hand. MiNor_Dik was the name calling me. 

“MeGa, hi, hello,” I said as soon as I answered. 

“You mentioned DedSec had tech where you were getting the evidence.” The voice modulation was heavier than Wrench’s now that I noticed, somehow making this sound sinister. 

“Yep, uh huh.” My legs felt like warm pudding. 

“Your report didn’t mention that you tampered with it outside of bugging it.” 

“Nope.” I shuddered. “No, I didn’t think to.” 

“Didn’t think t-- You should have wiped their systems!” 

“Why would I? You told me to bug the tech I find, not wipe it.” 

“If you are compiling a report on police corruption and you find a faction’s work that isn’t ours, I expect you to undo their work.” 

“That’s not what you said-.” 

“I didn’t think I needed to!” 

I bit my tongue on how fast I shut my mouth. Cinnamon sprung up, clearly the volume or tone startling her. 

“You had better make this up, soon.” 

“I b-bugged their tech.” was all I could muster. Cinnamon leaned into me, and I placed a hand on her back. 

“That doesn’t matter now! DedSec produced a body murdered by the police and freed a captive they were going to kill. Anything we release now will be looked at as running-up and useless.” 

“W-Why... Why not release the dossier I typed up, then. You can pr-prove the how and when. We f-finished our work literally hours before them.” 

There was silence. There was some tapping on the other end, garbled slightly by the voice filter. 

“You’re lucky your group has more credibility than DedSec.” MeGa was clearly speaking through gritted teeth. “Otherwise we would be working with them instead.” 

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?” 

“It means your group is on thin ice and won’t be receiving our resources if you keep messing up like this.” 

“How is this a mess-up? I did what you asked, to the fucking l-letter. Next time tell me when you want me to trip up a rival in front of their face.” 

“In their face?” 

I stumbled, biting my tongue in the same spot as before. “Wh-what do you think would happen if someone were to collect that tech and nothing was on it? It was clearly sitting there for a while, they had been p-planning this for a while. If they discover our bug and trace it to us, wiping their systems would be a nuclear fucking declaration for war!” 

There was silence on the other line. 

“The money for the dossier has been wired to you.” MeGa said after a prolonged silence.  

“Did you not wire it earlier?” 

“You’re lucky most of what DedSec has brought is mostly circumstantial so far. The eyewitness and some security footage. Your paperwork includes some substantial internal reporting that’s shady on its own. We have names and a paper trail. We can release those asap before them.” 

“Listen, just make it clear when it’s posted that we were NOT working with them and just happened to be working on it at the same time. Coincidences happen.” 

“... You’re right. Coincidences happen.” 

I swallowed dryly. “So, are we done?” 

“Not completely. We will still be working with V3rsus, and you through them.” 

I sighed in relief. As much as I hate MeGa, they’ve brought in a lot of work for us. They have inside scoops on things that are about to happen, giving us a leg up on some competition. If I screwed us over, I don’t know what would happen to V3rsus. 

“I meant with our ph-phone call.” 

“Ah. Yes. Thank you for your time.” 

Click.  

I scoffed as I stared down at my phone. It showed a call ended screen before fading to black. 

“Minor Dick indeed.” I whispered. 

Cinnamon was leaning against me, and I finally used both hands to pet her. She climbed onto my lap and started making biscuits, purring and rubbing on me. 

“Thanks, baby.” I said quietly, pausing the pets as I spoke. “You really helped me get through that.” 

She stopped making biscuits, looked at me in the eyes and meowed loudly. 

“Ok, ok. I’ll keep petting you.” I giggled. 

I resumed her pets, watching as her fur floated off my hands and descended to the floor. After a couple seconds I leaned forward and hugged her. 

“At least you don’t judge me for not picking up on subtleties.” 

She meowed in protest, and I pulled away. I kept petting her and she kept making her biscuits. 

Miranda was speaking to the news in a repeat of the earlier clip. 

I turned my attention to my phone, reading through some texts from the group and some from Bella and Kaiden. Mostly just people throwing their hands up and chiming in with “what the fuck was that” messages. 

I sent my update to the group chat. Mostly a recap of my perspective, and what MeGa had said. 

My anxiety started to lift from my bones. I felt too weak to stand so soon, but I felt some strength returning from me. 

It’s gonna be ok... I thought, still texting. It’s... it’s gonna be ok...  

There was one left over message I hadn’t responded to. It had come through earlier than the rest, so got buried in the avalanche of other people’s concerns. 

It looked like a wrong number. At first. 

‘hey. just sayin hey.’ 

‘oh, you don’t know who this is.’ 

‘just sayin, it’s ur friendly neighborhood Spider-Wrench. ;P' 

‘oh shit i didn’t mean to send a winky. *:P' 

‘ignore the overt flirting there.’ 

‘jk unless...’ 

‘lol’ 

‘anyway, i found your ping from the tower near the hub. i'll get you that coffee if ur serious about it.’ 

‘if not, this message will self-destruct in 3...2...1...’ 

‘also we got a fuck ton of evidence we’re releasing. hope you don’t mind it, but we got a lot of shit. i know ur group is workin on somethin.’ 

‘but we got, like, a lot of shit. so we’ll go first and release it.’ 

‘this is a burner number, so feel free to text if you want. if not, y’know. no hard feelins.’ 

‘kthxbai’ 

I felt... Weird looking at the messages. They sounded exactly like the guy I met on the police station roof. 

I guess that just is his personality. Kinda made me smile. Even for a dude that hides his face, he felt more “real” than most people I’ve met. It put me at ease a little, though I should probably keep my guard up. Since he is DedSec.

I did a quick cross reference and found the number tied to a screen name. It startled me, reading “Your Future, Boyfriend”. I laughed quietly, hell of a screen name. I’d seen it before in some forums, I guess I never thought it was the same guy. 

I saw some associated screen names, Joan of Fucking Arc, HawtSauce... Retr0? Damn, Retr0 has been making waves... No wonder DedSec were able to get that hack out before us. 

‘Heya.’ I started typing, trying not to overthink something like a text message. ‘You’ve reached KaliKo. She/he/they currently isn’t available right now, but if you feel inclined, please leave your pronouns after the beep.’ 

I paused. Then quickly sent another message, feeling silly I had even sent that to him. 

‘*Beeep.*’ 

Now I felt sillier. Who am I even fooling pretending I’m some joke-cracking texter. I guess I’m just trying to match his energy. 

I smiled to myself, shutting off my phone and going back to petting Cinnamon. 

Notes:

I know the pronouns thing is a little contrived, but when I was talking to a friend of mine about Wrench one of the things they said to me is "that is a nonbinary person" when I was explaining how casual the game is with Miranda as a trans character and discussing how awesome Wrench is. And I honestly agree, Wrench gives me very he/they vibes, so I'm planning on running with that in this story. I hope no one minds. ><;

Chapter 8: Beachside Chats

Summary:

Kali takes a break and visits the beach to check out a new "art installment" on the Golden Gate Bridge. Bella appears and nearly ruins everything.
-Some drama finally happens. Thanks, Bells.-
This is meant to be establishing some things to come, so I ended up mostly rambling. This is my least favorite chapter so far, but bare with me. Lemme cook.

Notes:

Tw there is slight mention of suicide mixed in with Bella and Kali's banter near the middle. It's meant to read as close friends who understand each other checking in on the other. I did want to make sure you are braced for it though.

I fiddled with my phone, checking the wait time for the bus. I had taken a day for myself and wandered down to the beaches under the golden gate bridge. 

One of the biggest scandals was finished last week, and I had to admit I needed to see it for myself. Even if the angle wasn’t great from the beach, there it was. Someone tagged the grand golden gate bridge with DedSec memorabilia. 

It had to be prepped paper like the rest of the tags downtown, but 

“Eyeing the damn propaganda?” 

I jumped and turned, seeing Bella waving at me. She was beaming at me, walking towards where I was sitting. She sat down in the sand next to me. 

“I guess. Didn’t get a chance before now.” 

“Really?”  

I laughed at her tone. “Incredulous, I like it.” 

She giggled. I felt a tap on my leg. Looking down, she was handing me a slim tin can covered in condensation. 

“Don’t tell your chaperone, I’m giving alcohol to minors.” 

I laughed, taking it from her and turning it over to look at the label. 

“It’s just a canned margarita. Not too cheap, not too expensive.” 

“Thanks, Bells. I trust ya’.” 

She made spooky fingers at me, flaring them and speaking with a campfire story inflection. “How do you know~... I could’ve gotten a job at the canning company~... Oooh~...” 

I laughed aloud as I pulled on the tab and popped the can open. 

“So how’ve you been, you’ve been quiet in the group lately.” 

“Yeah, I dunno.” I sipped the alcohol. It was nice and cool, and it felt nice to hold in my hand. “The last few hacks have been getting to me, y’know?” 

“Is it that one dude?” 

“Kaiden?” I laughed, causing Bella to laugh too. “Nah, he seems fine.” 

“Nah, that one dude trying to join V3rsus. The weird guy with the mask.” 

“Which guy with the mask? The rat dude?” 

“The rat mask.” Bella flapped her hand, pulling another alcoholic beverage from her bag. She popped it open as she continued, “The blue, Defalt knock-off, rat mask. They’re weird, right?” 

I giggled, then took a swig. It tasted sweet. “Nah, it isn’t him.” 

“Still think we should get MeGa to ban him.” 

“Maybe. Maybe you just hate rats.” 

“Yeah, yeah I do.” She swallowed a large portion of her drink, covering her mouth with her arm to swallow. She kept going once her mouth was empty. “But I think it’s rude, y’know? I know Defalt went off the grid a few years ago, but I’ve been seeing a few of them around town. I don’t think any of them are the real Defalt.” 

“I dunno if I believe he went off the grid. Raymond Kenny went off the grid, and he was still kicking around.” 

“Yeah, but he was missing for years before then.”

"Kenney didn't have a high-speed chase ending in someone dying seconds after Defalt was last seen."

"You think that conspiracy is true? Internet sleuths said it's not related."

I shrugged. "I think it's be more interesting that way."

The sun was setting, the dim lighting of the sky blending into the bridge. The lights were coming on and it lit up the DedSec graffiti. 

“You do gotta admit, it’s impressive that they did that.” I said as I drank some more.

“... Yeah. Yeah, I do. I just wanna know the hows and whys of it. Well, not the whys. Showing off their dick is clearly the point of it.” 

“It’s an army recruitment poster.” 

Bella laughed, spilling her drink somewhat. 

“I think that’s what the Defalt rip-off is doing.” 

“Recruiting?”

“Yeah." She sighed. "There’s a few of them. They look like they’re handing out sign-up sheets, but when they’re approached by some other hacking group they say it’s an art installment.” 

“Then why is one of them trying to break into V3rsus?” 

Bella shrugged. “I’m worried they’re gonna try and pull someone from our group and something is gonna go south for them.” 

“Because you’ll make it go south for kidnapping family, or because someone from our group will show them all up?” 

Bella laughed aloud. “Both, if we’re lucky.” 

I giggled, feeling my head start to swim. Ah, fuck. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken a drink on an empty stomach. 

“Uh, I’m not...” I searched for the words to inform Bella what I was experiencing. “I shoulda eaten first.” 

“Ah, shit. I meant to hand you the water first.” 

She pulled out a water bottle from her bag, handing it off to me. I uncapped it and downed almost half of it. 

“That’s better. I’ll call K-K and ask to pick us up.” 

“‘S ok. I’m waitin’ on the bus.” 

She laughed. “Hun, if I were gonna let you go home alone, I wouldn’t give you a drink.” 

I nodded. Everything felt peaceful for a bit. I kept staring at the bridge. 

“Do we even need to worry about DedSec?” 

“What do you mean?” 

I didn’t even know. “I dunno, they just... They seem harmless.” 

“One of them broke into !Nvite.” 

“What, when?” 

“Back before Swelter Skelter. It hit the news a few months before we left.” 

“Damn.” I sipped my margarita again. “Maybe I should watch the news more often.” 

Bella giggled, drinking from her own can. “I recall someone saying that the news is worse propaganda than the videos on the backchannels.” 

“Hey, at least DedSec honestly covered New Dawn. Jimmy Siska’s video alone was hella convincing.” 

“He’s an actor, he’s supposed to be convincing.” 

“Didn’t they ruin his movie too?” 

“Yeah. Even before the !Nvite stuff. They stole his car and gave the cops a run for their money.” 

“Hopefully their jobs too.” 

Bella clapped me on the back. “You made sure of that.” 

“Over a different hacking job though. That DedSec still got the credit for.” 

“Yeah, but a lot of people paid attention to the report you put together. Don’t worry about it, we’ll catch up to them.” 

I glanced over at her, seeing a few people gathering on the beach a ways down. Bella turned and looked at them too. 

“Looks like a bonfire party.” 

I laughed quietly. “Like that’s abnormal.” 

She giggled. 

“So how’re you feeling, really?” 

I shrugged, drinking some more. “I don’t really know. I’ve been feeling pretty drained. Depressed maybe? Disconnected at best. ‘S why I came down to the beach.” 

“Not just for the DedSec bile.” 

I laughed. “No, not for that. Had to see the graffiti for myself. Needed the ocean for a mental break.” 

Bella nodded, watching the ocean with me. 

“Just as long as you’re not thinking of walking off the bridge.” 

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I try not to think about it so often.” 

“At least they put up the rails.” 

“Thank the gods for small graces.” 

Bella mimed crossing herself. “Amen.” 

We both laughed for a while.  

My phone buzzed in my pocket. Both of us looked down at my shorts, and I put my hand in my pocket. Pulling it out, I saw a picture text sent from a contact labeled Wrench.  

“Ooh, who’s that?” Bella leaned over my shoulder as I opened it without thinking too much. 

Trying to hide it would just get her to want to see it more. I felt some anxiousness at how I’d explain who it is. 

The picture that faced me was a selfie. Wrench was posing, flipping the bird to the camera. The lights of his mask were barely picking up in the photo, but they looked like they were displaying an X-eyed expression. He was holding the camera at a pretty far distance, intentionally including the background. It was slightly obscured with skull stickers and neon letters reading “YOU ARE INVITED – JOIN OR DIE” in two different fonts. 

The background was a beach under the bridge, and two people were sitting nearly center frame. The figures were grainy, but it wasn’t hard to tell who they were. My stomach churned. 

“No fucking way.” Bella chimed. 

I looked up with her, seeing the party goers still gathering on the beach. One was facing us, and it was easy to tell it was Wrench. If nothing else, his spiked jacket was a giveaway. He waved his arm in the air at us before turning back to his group. 

“That’s the dude from the coffee shop, right?” Bella looked at me expectantly. 

I sighed. “Yep. It is.” 

“When did that start?!” 

“It’s not a relationship.” I winced. “I mean, it’s sort of a bugging-you-when-bored friendship. But I’ve only had his number for a few weeks.” 

“He’s fucking DedSec!” 

“Yep.” 

“And you’re not gonna tell me about it?” 

I tried to be nonchalant. “What’s there to tell? Dude’s super horny for technology and tries to keep in contact with hackers, regardless of groups.” 

“Is that what he told you?” 

“General vibe I got.” I leaned back, downing the rest of my margarita. “I saw some of his contacts on his burner. General hard drug suppliers, soft drugs, and handful of hacker accounts, even some insider hackers wanting to jump ship from Blume and Tidis.” 

“Babe, he could’ve spoofed those.” 

“Convincing spoofing. They all have different account ages and usage levels.” 

“I don’t believe you.” 

“You never do, Bells. You thought me getting the pizza delivery driver’s number meant I was dating him.” 

“You saved his name!” 

“Because he texted ‘This is your delivery driver Mark. Your pizza is on it’s way, estimated time 30 minutes’.” 

Bella pointed at the party. “That is not a pizza driver.” 

“No.” I sighed. “Do you think you can keep a secret?” 

She set her drink down and turned to face me. She definitely looked excited for me to tell her I found a partner. 

“I’m not dating him.” 

“Aww, you’re no fun.” She comically slumped her shoulders. 

“Look, the thing is...” 

“Yeesss?” 

I rolled my eyes. “I met him when I was getting that evidence from the police station.” 

“You’re joking.” 

“No.” 

I shook my head, trying to convince myself the series of events made sense. 

“I showed up, started compiling evidence, he showed up and nearly spooked me off the roof.” 

“And he didn’t think it was weird?” 

“He said he was there to grab some tech they left from their own job.” 

“That’s the one you mentioned in the report.” 

“Yeah. I didn’t know how to tell you all he showed up. And nearly screwed it up.” 

“You tell us by making a comment that we go after DedSec harder.” 

“I said he almost did. He just teased me while I was trying to concentrate on not tripping his own gear.” 

“And he just invited you to a party. By sending you a stalker text.” 

I handed her my phone. “Read our banter. It really isn’t that serious.” 

She snatched my phone and started scrolling. I wasn’t sure what she was expecting to read, but it wasn’t there. She scrolled as high as she could and sped through our texts sequentially. 

“He told you DedSec was gonna release the cop stuff?” 

“If you’d believe it, I got home and passed out before he sent that. Since sleeping after every job is kind of my M.O.” 

“‘Blume sux.’ ‘They sure do.’ ‘Got any dirt on them?’ ‘Not anything you’re entitled to’?” 

Bella laughed as she kept going. 

“‘No quid pro quo then?’ ‘!Nvite’s CFO made Forbes’ 30 under 30.’ ‘K true.’ ‘His closest contacts engaged in insider trading on !Nvite and Blume’s wall street port’s. It’s pretty simple to tie him and some Blume employees to it.’ ‘Ooh, I’ll look into it, thanks!’” 

I shrugged as she laughed at some of the memes, most of which were “DedSec Proofs” as he called them, made by a friend of his. 

“Kali, this guy sounds like fun.” 

Most of my text exchanges with Wrench were exactly as blunt. He wasn’t really engaging more than a “what’s up” now and again, which were sometimes very clearly something he was asking on behalf of his own group. 

“And he knows, right? That we’re V3rsus?” 

“No, not specifically. He knows we’re in a group, but I didn’t think it necessary to tell him which. I might as well be part of Prime_Eight for all he knows.” 

“Better than nothing I guess.” She sighed dramatically and crossed her hand over her forehead. “One of these days, I’m gonna set you up on a date.” 

“I don’t need a partner.” 

“You need someone more than me and K-K! We love you, but two friends and a group of self-driven hacktivists anonymous behind screen names aren’t enough. Each time your little demi butt makes a new friend, I’m kinda hoping you find someone that--” 

“Could we cut this contrived discussion short?” I leaned back in the sand, the alcohol still making my head swim. “I get it. You think demisexuality means I’m gonna find my soulmate when I next fall for someone.” 

“Of course I do!” 

“You’re lucky, you get to fall in love with any woman you see and you’re convinced she’s your true love.” 

Bella giggled like a schoolgirl. There wasn’t any denying that at least. 

“My stupid heart taking it’s time doesn’t mean I’m gonna find my soulmate when it starts working. I’ll make the same mistakes you and K-K do, find someone toxic or wonderful or out of my league.” 

“And if anyone breaks your heart, they’ll have me and Kaiden to answer to.” 

“Right.” I yawned, laying in the sand and looking up at the sky. A few clouds blotted out the stars, reflecting the city lights back at us. The rest of the stars were half drowned out by the lights from San Francisco. 

“Hun, I do want you to be happy.” 

“I know you do...” I yawned again. “But I doubt my soulmate is the punk from another hacker group.” 

“Yeah. You’d never get away with it. At least MeGa would be bratty about it. Or, hey-!” 

I opened my eyes to see Bella launch her face close to mine. I recoiled, unable to move deeper into the sand. 

“Maybe you could use it to get close to them! Like a spy, bug ‘em even closer!” 

“And... Why would I do that?” 

Bella shrugged, hoping off me. “Make it easier to track them. Maybe learn their trade secrets!” 

“Yeah, but that’s mean as fuck.” 

“Your funeral at MeGa’s hand.” 

“You just said MeGa would take issue with me mingling with DedSec.” 

“Yeah, but not if you’re a super spy!” 

I rolled my eyes, then resumed staring at the stars. I could feel the ocean beating at the sands, the vibrations reaching us easily. I closed my eyes and tuned into the sound of rush of water climbing the shore and receding. 

A shrill sound made me jump. I looked over at Bella as she moved a hand from her mouth – looks like she had just whistled – and she raised her arm. She was waving at someone. 

“What’re you--?” 

I saw my phone still in her hand, the glow of it lighting her shirt. As I sat up, I could barely see that it was still opened on the text exchange, and a new sent bubble under the photo. From my side of the conversation. 

“Oh, you didn’t.” 

“Relax, worrywart. I’m not gonna do anything drastic.” 

“Fuck me. That’s what I get for letting you handle my phone unsupervised.” 

She giggled. “It’s a new record.” 

I sat up, glancing over at the party as I brushed sand from my hair. The party now had a bonfire lit, and a shadowy figure with glowing eyes was walking towards us. 

“Bella, if you don’t convince MeGa to kill us, you’re going to invite a serial killer into our abode.” 

“Relax, babe. I just wanna meet him.” 

“Knowing you, you still want to smack him for the coffee incident.” 

She paused. “Yes, that too. I can’t promise you I won’t lay hands on him.” 

I watched as she turned, still holding my phone, and reached into her bag. Her margarita can was laying in the sand, so she must have finished it at some point. I lifted an eyebrow. 

“Did you just grab a taser?” 

“Nope, not a taser. Shoosh.” 

Wrench arrived. He was holding a beer in one hand. “How can I help ya’, ladies?” 

“Hi, we met before, but we didn’t get the pleasure of greeting each other.” Bella sprung up and held out her hand. 

“Right, if I remember you chased me out of a public donut shop.” 

Bella forced a laugh. “It’s ok, no hard feelings anymore.” 

“Right. Heya, KaliKo.” He waved at me like we were casual friends. “You sent something that just said ‘Come meet me ‘n my friend’?” 

I felt my face heat up, and I just pointed at Bella. 

“That was me!” She flashed my phone to him, dropping her extended hand. “I wanted to scope you out and make sure you don’t hurt my Kali. Or, at least not hurt her again.” 

“Ooh... kay...?” 

“Oh, don’t be shy, I’m Bella.” She giggled like she was pretending to flirt. I made a face at her back. 

“Oh right, you’re Kali’s girlfriend.” 

“Close, but not quite.” 

“Is that like that ‘Sorta’ riddle?” 

“Sorta!” she chimed. 

She was acting weird. 

“Uh, this was all her idea. I don’t know what’s gotten into her.” I sighed, then started to stand up. 

“I think the alcohol’s hit me, babe.” She giggled, glancing back at me. The look she gave me said play along.  

Uh, no. I don’t even know what you’re trying to do. I thought. 

I busied myself with gathering our bags and garbage. 

“A’right. Anyway, you’re both free to join us down the beach. We got alcohol, fire, and the hacking types. I dunno how much you’re into the tech sphere.” 

“Oh, you are so nice! Hacking is literally my life.” 

“Cool, I’ll let the group know you’re cool.” 

“Actually, we were about to take off, I just wanted to get the chance to meet you.” 

“Uhh, ok. Thanks for meeting me, then. I’m Wrench.” 

He held out his free hand, and Bella shocked me by taking it and pulling him into a hug.  

“Wh-hup-ho'kay then.” He lifted his arms away from her, clearly not expecting any physical contact. His mask flashed two unmatched circles, mimicking surprise. 

Oh my god, Bella, what the fuck.  

I stared at the duo. Just as fast as she had hugged him, she pulled away. 

“Anyway, our ride’s down the road. We gotta get running. Nice to meet you, Wrench!” 

“I... guess so?” 

“I'm so sorry, Wrench. I’m gonna get her home, and make her sleep off the margaritas.” 

“Ok then. You’re free to join some other day if you want.” 

I winced. “I will have to do that. Chat with you later.” 

“Seeya.” 

I pulled on Bella’s arm and started walking away. I glanced back to see him wandering back to his own group of people. 

“What the actual fuck was that??” I whispered when we were halfway to the parking lot. 

“I don’t know what you mean.” She was smiling way too wide. “Ooh, actually, could you grab my phone?” 

“Yeah, gimme mine first.” 

I opened her bag and started rifling through it. She held out my phone and I passed her her own. She opened it up and started typing quickly. 

“Are you reaching out to Kaiden, or should I?” 

“You should do that, I’m writing a report to MeGa.” 

My voice caught in my throat as I paused. “What do you mean?” 

She was giggling like a child that got away with something. She looked positively giddy. She was walking with a spring in her step like she was fighting dancing in place. 

“Dude’s a punk, it’s pretty clear he doesn’t wash his clothes – at least he won’t often.” 

“That doesn’t answer anything.” 

“Did you notice one of his patches is falling off?” 

“No.” 

“Well, ~I~ just showed you up!” 

I frowned, opening my texts with Kaiden. ‘Hey, bud. Bella’s gone completely insane. We’re down by shark tooth beach, we’ve had alcohol, please come pick us up.’ 

“Bella, I’m about two minutes from checking you into the hospital.” 

“Ok, ok, ok ok ok ok.” She giggled, trying to catch her breath. “That sewn-on patch, the meme thing, is falling off on his vest. His vest looks like leather, or at least a fake-leather you don’t wash. I hugged him and slam-dunked a bug into the patch.” 

I stopped walking. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. 

“You didn’t.” 

“I di~id !” she sang with a high tone. “I grabbed one of MeGa’s microphone bugs – heavy on the micro - and put it right on his patch.” 

“Dude.” 

“I KNOW !” 

All possibilities were running through my head. All bad. 

“Oh my god, Bells. You are going to get us killed.” 

“Baby, that’s why I sized him up first. He won’t hurt ‘ya!” 

“You can’t know that.” 

My phone vibrated, and my blood felt chilled. 

I looked down at the screen and sighed with relief that it was just Kaiden. He sent a thumbs up, and an ‘I’m on my way.’ 

“Correction. Bells, you’re gonna get me killed.” 

She was now dancing slightly in the parking lot. “Don’t worry. He won’t notice until you two stop thinking about each other.”

"We're not--! Ugh."

I shook my head.

"I’m gonna stay in my apartment forever. Actually, no, I’m applying for witness protection as soon as I get home.” 

She giggled, slinging an arm over my shoulder. 

“And you, missy, are going in time out when you get home.” 

“Aw, have I been too naughty?” 

“That’s it,” I pulled out from under her arm. “I’m walking home.” 

“Aw, no! That’s not fair!” 

“It’s absolutely fair. You get stalked by the masked punk, not me.” 

“That’s backwards, Kali!” 

“Regardless.” I rolled my head to emphasize an eye roll. I had to admit, I was fighting my own giddy smile. “When he comes knocking, you’re on your own.” 

I could hear screeching down the street, and we both turned as Kaiden’s car flew around the corner. 

“The hell did you tell him?” 

“You’ve been acting crazy since you grabbed my phone. I think you have acute radiation poisoning.” 

She slung her arms over my shoulders as we waited for Kaiden’s car to roll to a stop. 

“Aww, you’re ‘acute’ little radiation, Kali.” 

“How did I drink on an empty stomach and you’re acting worse?” 

“It’s the adrenaline, not the alcohol, babe.” 

I opened the passenger door, pushing her in while she was still giggling. I hopped in the back seat. 

“Everyone... okay?” Kaiden looked at me over his headrest.  

“Bella’s in time out.” 

“Uh oh. Sounds like fun.” 

And then, the car was moving out of the parking lot. 

Chapter 9: Fixing the Code

Summary:

Wrench helps Kali with some code. Kali has mixed feelings about this situation.

I fiddled with a pencil in my hand. I was tapping the eraser on my notebook. The notebook itself wasn’t marked in, the leaves of paper pulled out and strewn across my table. Some handwritten code was staring back at me. I was trying to work through a hiccup in my code and thought writing it out would help.

It wasn’t, but staring at it wasn’t helping much either.

My phone buzzed on the table next to me. I looked over at the screen, and it was a text from Wrench. I felt cold as some anxiety shivered down my spine. It had been a couple days since the bugging incident.

We’re not really friends. We’re barely acquaintances.

Swiping my phone open, it wasn’t a death threat. At least as far as I could tell.

‘So was that normal for your friend or did you tell them we were an item?’

I sighed. Fucking Bells.

‘Yes and no. Bells thinks that any new friend of mine means I’m gonna start going head over heels for them.’

Another text came through from him as I was typing my next message.

‘Ah. I was worried we gave each other the wrong impression.’

‘Nah. No crossed wires here. You aren’t interested in me, I’m not interested in you. Still happy to be your friend tho.’

‘Cool.’

I felt a pang of conscience. I was wondering if I should tell him what Bella did.

She had sent me a screen cap of the text message from MeGa, though that really amounted to a “good job, well done” comment. They mentioned that she shouldn’t take drastic measures, but if it turns out okay she’d get a bonus.

I’m fine with bugging their tech, somewhat. Placing worms meant to read keystrokes or see how they handle tech wasn’t that egregious. We were already stealing info from their operations. Putting an actual bug on a person... It felt a little more intrusive.

My phone buzzed again. I picked it up and unlocked it.

‘Working on anything fun?’

‘Feeling bored? Not anything too interesting, trust me.’

‘Eh, just trying to pass the time. Nothing but reruns are on tv.’

I turned back to my code, tapping my pencil against my notebook some more. Trying to focus on the pitfall.

I sighed, leaning back, rubbing my face with my hands.

Do I start over, do I get back on my laptop?

I glanced over at my laptop. It had been in sleep mode since I finished writing down the code. 13 failed tests with this string, but it was partially recycled from my older code.

Well, not mine, community code, but stuff I’d integrated into my standard work. Stuff that’s supposed to work.

An idea crossed my mind. I looked back at my phone.

Would he even bother helping?

I shook my head. No, no asking a rival hacker for help. I’ve already done enough shit to him and his group. I bit on my tongue a little bit, eyeing my phone.

How many bugs had the group added to the research pool? I knew I had bugged three pieces of DedSec’s tech myself. The one where I did it in front of Wrench was the second one, and the third was in another camera blindspot. My bugs were just worms meant to copy data and send the records to one of our servers for us to sort through. I wasn’t even aware MeGa had given out microphones until Bella bugged him.

I kept tapping the eraser of my pencil on the notebook, turning my attention back to my work. The repetitive thunking stimulating my brain enough to make me feel like I was thinking.

The pitfall was still there, and I couldn’t locate it on my own. I glanced over at my phone again.

“I’m gonna regret this.” I mumbled under my breath.

I spaced out the sheets evenly, then snapped a picture. I bit my lower lip hard as I increased the sharpness slightly, then added a small sticker that looked like an Enter key.

I took a deep breath, then sent it.

‘If you wanna know, this is what I’m doing.’ I typed out. I sent another message to follow up, ‘I’m trying to streamline some of our bypass keys, and I’m workshopping some old code. This one in particular isn’t cooperating and keeps failing in all of my control tests.’

‘Ooh, haven’t met anyone who wrote out code on paper. Do you do that every time?’

‘No, not really. Only when it’s kicking my ass.’

‘What’s wrong with this one?’

‘We need a bypass that allows a backdoor to be installed. I’m looking for a way to take it from three separate code applications down to at most one.’

‘Like a plug ‘n play?’

‘Yeah. Gonna distribute it on USB sticks like candy. (sarcasm, please take that as sarcasm.)’

I was leaning back in my chair, glancing up at the paper spread out on the table. I gnawed on my lip. I didn’t really care if he used this code, it was mostly community effort.

‘Anyway, if you wanna spend your bored time by fixing my code, be my guest.’

I set the phone down, staring at the papers again. I resumed my tapping rhythm, reading the code from the beginning. Insert a bypass key here, or disable a program’s failsafe to run through a few combinations at a time, but it won’t transition to the backdoor section of code. What is causing it to freeze and fail?

A few more minutes passed in silence, starting from the beginning yet again, and I still wasn’t making progress. My phone buzzing on the table made me jump slightly.

I opened up Wrench’s message to see it was my picture sent back. There was a change, three black and white pixelated hands pointing and circling around some of the lines.

‘You left in a hard stop here.’ Was quickly sent after I had opened it.

He’s joking.

I looked over at my papers. I compared it to the picture I received. There it was, there was a line meant to end the sequence rather than proceed to the next step.

No he isn’t.

‘Sonofabitch, thanks. A fucking end process rather than a loop that I didn’t notice.’

A thumbs-up emoji was sent back to me.

‘I’m gonna pretend I didn’t just embarrass myself with my whole chest. Lemme know if I can make it up to you or something.’ I sent, then set my phone down.

I grabbed my laptop, waking it up and starting to edit the code. I cleared the hard stop I had added – so stupid – and added in a proper transition. Once it finished it’s bypass, it should autonomously install a backdoor.

My phone vibrated with another message. ‘Hey, I didn’t see anything. This conversation never happened.’

I giggled quietly, then felt that pang of conscience hit me again.

I waved it away with my hand like it was a cloud. I told myself it was gonna be fine, I can probably just ignore my transgressions.

Now for an even harder part. Adding a backdoor that’s nigh unnoticeable. Like trying to make a character a believable genius, I need to make it difficult to find. Even for me.

I crumpled up the papers I had written on, tearing them up slightly. It didn’t really matter to me that I covered my tracks, hand-written code is usually ignored by most people.

At least I think so.

I tossed the pieces in the garbage, sitting back down at the table. I tapped out a few lines and set a few checks in place.

The new code instructed the system to add a new folder just one file before the temporary files. If it doesn’t have temp files, it can be reworked to tie to whatever gets rid of the data. If it’s connected to the internet in anyway, we would have a backdoor accessible from our servers. If it isn’t, it’ll have to hold on to the data until one of V3rsus gets back in. When something gets marked as available, or deleted, the backdoor will snap it up and hold it separately.

I connected to a remote server V3rsus set aside to test the codes. I opened up a few pathways I thought the backdoor would install. I virtually added the code, and started the sequence.

I was jiggling both of my legs on my chair, holding my breath and expecting it to fail again.

There wasn’t a sound effect, but my brain added a “ding” when the backdoor appeared in the folders I had open. There they were, the backdoor application had installed in the locations I expected.

I did a few system searches, finding another application in the temporary files. It worked perfectly.

‘Fuck. That solved it.’ I felt like I needed to update him for some reason. ‘Thanks for being nice.’

I smiled to myself, breathing a sigh of relief. I saved my work, then opened a browser. I copied, pasted, and sent my work to our data pool. It was out there in our group, and ready to use.

My phone buzzed with a new message.

‘Hey, no problem. Hackerz gotta look out for each other right.’

That hurt. The conscience that had been surfacing was lacerated like a nasty zit. It made me think he knew something, but I wasn’t sure.

‘I forgot you don’t know which group I’m with.’ I chewed on my lip, trying to think through what I was saying. ‘We’re not really all hacktivists. Is that still ok?’

‘As long as that backdoor isn’t found on our servers, I don’t have a problem with it and don’t really care who you work for.’

Hahaha, yeah he knows. The thought rushed through my mind.

I jumped from my seat and started to pace, feeling a manic laughter rising in my chest. Adrenaline and nerves were clashing and sending my mind into a spiral.

“It’s fine.” I whispered. “Iiit’s fiiine...”

I laughed quietly, trying to convince myself I was going mad. Torti started following me as I was walking up and down my small apartment. Kitchen, hallway, bedroom, hallway, kitchen, hallway. I was trying to calm myself down, but every thought was pointing to something that raised my flags.

I looked down at my phone, still gripped in my hand while I was pacing. It was practically glued to my person most days, so I didn’t notice I was still holding it.

Too far. I’m going to go too far.

My hands felt clammy, and I unlocked the screen again. Our messages were exactly as I’d left them. My hands were shaking, but I couldn’t stop the pressing thoughts I was having.

‘Nah. This backdoor was just finished, and it won’t be going near your servers if I can help it. It might end up in the community though, so you have my permission to track me down if it does.’

I chewed my lip again once I sent it. For some reason, I wanted that to be true. It was going to be used on them, and I wasn’t going to be able to stop it. It was already in the hands of his enemies. V3rsus wasn’t above playing dirty and stealing from other groups, but I’ve never had a direct contact with the people I was stealing from.

I’d stolen from Prime_Eight before, then had a pleasant conversation with Lenni when I ran into her at her haunting grounds. Well, as pleasant a conversation you can have with Lenni, but that was as close as I had gotten. I’ve stolen from my old employers when they screwed me over. No direct messages or any pally behavior, just bad blood under the bridge.

I don’t know how people can do this in front of others, or even to their faces. It doesn’t feel like something that gets easier for me. I wear my fears on my face and would prefer to be honest to a fault.

This is exactly why I’m a shut-in. The outside world is too intimidating.

I took a deep breath. It didn’t do much to calm my nerves.

My phone buzzed, and I looked down at the message.

‘If you see it on yours, then I’m sure you’ll know who it came from. ;)’

I fidgeted, staring at my phone. I wasn’t sure how to respond. Should I respond? Should I just leave him alone and try to cover my tracks?

Yeesh. How much is paranoia on my end and how much is guilt?

I set my phone down.

Why am I feeling guilty?

My hands froze from typing on my laptop. The answer was found in my mind almost immediately, of course.

Wrench hasn’t really done anything, at least not intentionally, nor has DedSec really warranted such an extreme attack from our hacking group. They knocked us out of a good-natured hacking challenge, with nothing really bad coming from it. That felt unsportsman-like. Wrench ran into me once in the donut shop, and yeah I got burned, but it’s likely he came out of that with a few burns too. Putting the pieces together, it felt odd that we were doing something as extreme as bugging their work.

It wasn’t fine. But I didn’t know how to rectify it either.

I glanced back at my phone. I felt the need to tell him, or at least warn them at what was coming their way. I didn’t want to be apart of it anymore.

How do I tell my friends? Try to drop it into conversations that it feels are leaning towards the subject? Imply it weirdly feels like we are trying too hard to bring DedSec down?

I drummed my fingers on my laptop. Do I want to go to bed? Am I overthinking because I’m tired?

I sighed, leaning back and picking up my phone. I scrolled through some social media and catching up on world news. It was tempting to switch back and send him a message. A warning. Something to tip him off their data is in danger.

Should I even do that though? Wouldn’t that just put a target on my back?

Before I knew it, I was staring at our text messages again. My fingers hovered over the keys and I felt a little lightheaded with nerves.

‘Hey,’ I found myself typing out, ‘if my code or something I do result in your safety being compromised, I am genuinely sorry in advance. That doesn’t negate the damage that would come from it. But if it does, and you/I/we figure out I was the cause, I want to make up for it.’

My stomach churned a bit as I saw the message had fully sent and delivered.

‘Sorry, for some reason I got hit with a wave of “fuck my actions impact the world around me” type guilt.’

I shut my phone off before I could send anything else. Damn it, your stupid want for justice will just get you targeted and killed.

I swallowed and shut my laptop. Bed time. Definitely bed time.

My phone dinged, and I hesitated to even touch it. I did, of course. Certified addict.

‘Hey, no problem. We got that trojan condom protection from our experts, no sweat. We all get pangs of conscience, you’ll figure out how to swallow it down eventually.’

Something about that made me exhale from my nose and smile at my phone. I dislike sex jokes at the best of times, but Wrench was definitely original with them. I sent a laughing emoji.

‘Thanks.’

I received a thumbs up shortly after. I felt more at ease, my adrenaline subsiding and giving me a crash.

I gathered what I had laid out, putting the laptop in a protective bag and setting it in its home – my shoulder bag that I carry my usual gear in. I wandered into my bedroom and collapsed into my bed.

Well. The dynamic we have will be fun while it lasts. I thought as I wandered into my room. My blackout curtains made the room almost perfectly dark, though I didn't really pay attention to the time of day anymore.

I snuggled into my sheets, one of my cats coming to greet me and find perch between my legs.

“G’night, hun.” I mumbled to them, then drifted to sleep.

Notes:

Out of universe comment, but Wrench doesn't know about anything Kali has done (yet). Kali is bending herself into knots reading too much into their interactions. If you've seen the Legend of Zelda fanart where Zelda is not sure how to propose or if Link likes her like that, and Link is blissfully thinking "man I love my wife", that vibe is this chapter.