Damien slammed the truck door shut and marveled at the massive three-story house standing before him. With extreme overpopulation burdening the city, the vast majority of citizens lived in cramped megacomplexes, and a home such as this was a rare sight reserved for a privileged few.

He’d seen a few similar residences throughout their drive up the winding hills of the north side, but this was one of the most impressive. Four vertical columns surrounded the double-door entrance, connecting to balconies on each side of the second floor and giving it a look that resembled a palace. Unlike all the other homes, however, this was the only one without any lights on, inside or out.

Damien let out an impressed whistle as he and his partners walked up the concrete driveway toward the entrance. “Is this what being a hacker gets you?”

“Only if you’re one of the best at it,” Marcus said. “She came from dirt like the rest of us. Like I said before, there’s many ways to make funds.”

“This whole place hers?”

“Yeah,” Kat said. “She usually prefers to keep away from others. Fair warning though, she’s… eccentric.”

Marcus scoffed. “Just say it, Kat. Lana’s an amazing hacker, but she’s a total brat and a weirdo. Fickle, too. Try not to get on her bad side, Dame.”

The trio made their way up the stairs and past the vertical columns, at which point the front doors opened automatically. They revealed a dark and vacant corridor barely lit up from the moonlight seeping in through the windows. Damien followed along the corridor and through the various rooms of the open-ended design of the home, but he couldn’t help but feel like something was strange here. The place looked uninhabited, like a model of a home meant to be displayed to potential buyers. Only a few pieces of furniture and appliances filled each room, but they looked like they hadn’t been used once.”

When they entered what was undoubtedly the dining room, flashes of red light sparked to life all around them. Tiny clicks echoed through the room and Damien focused his vision to find that the red dots of light were attached to robots of some kind. One of them crawled up the ceiling on its four legs like a spider and focused its crimson eye straight at him.

He ignored the uneasy feeling they gave him. “Does she keeps mechanical pets?”

“They’re not pets,” Marcus said. “They’re security and protection. And they do a hell of a job at it, too. Those bots would fuck us up within a second if Lana gave the word.”

In that case, I definitely don’t wanna get on her bad side…

The mechanical pets followed the pirates as they descended down a set of stairs into a massive basement drowning in a pool of neon lights. All kinds of computer parts were scattered all around, but one thing in particular caught Damien’s attention from the other side of the room. A female figure was lying down on a reclining chair, a massive mechanical headset covering up the top half of her face. Thick wires connected the top part of the helmet to the ceiling, and strands of glowing orange flowed across the sides of her face from underneath.

Her mouth moved as she greeted them, her vision still obscured. “Hello Kat. Marcus. Patient #0148.”

“That’s right, I don’t think we told you,” Kat said. “Lana’s the one who woke you up when I found you inside that warehouse.”

“They really did a number on you, Mister Damien,” Lana said, her voice feminine and youthful. “But I have to say, getting you out of that comatose state was a fun challenge.”

The chair reclined upright and the headset let out a sigh of air as it let go of Lana’s head and retracted to the ceiling, revealing a young woman who appeared to be in her late teens. The girl’s orange hair was long and thin, but it gave out a slight orange glow, adding to the sea of lights within the basement. Surely, the glowing hair was an augment of some kind.

The girl stood up from the chair, revealing a petite figure covered in an over-sized t-shirt and sweatpants. She didn’t even look at the trio as she moved over to a computer station where seven monitors were mounted to the wall. “I’m glad you guys came, but I regret to inform you that I can’t help you in your mission. You’ll have to find another hacker.”

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“Are you serious?” Marcus asked in an irked tone. “You could’ve just told us that instead of calling us out here.”

Lana turned to the three of them and flashed a wicked, devilish smile. “I wanted someone else to be here to witness history. The cumulation of months of my devoted hard work. My Magnum Opus. I present to you, the Freedom Channel!”

She raised her index finger above her head and theatrically dropped it down on to a single key on her keyboard. The seven mounted monitors lit up, each displaying one letter of the word freedom. The intended drama was lost, however, as an awkward silence filled the room and Lana’s proud smile slowly faded. Was she expecting a round of applause?

“Uh, the Freedom Channel?” Kat finally asked.

“That’s right. Gone are the days of government prying and oversight of their oh-so-cherished Underground Transportation System. With this channel, the people will be free to move and exchange goods without the greedy eyes of the corrupt and broken system watching over them. This’ll teach our corporate overlords to stop overstepping their boundaries.”

“Hold on,” Marcus said, no longer sounding upset. “Are you telling me you figured out a way to get around the security in the UTS? If we can sell hot gear directly through it, that’ll be a game changer.”

Lana nodded. “That’s right, and you just witnessed as it went live. I got into the UTS architecture and added a variable evasion system designed to mask the contents of each package. A set of interlinked programs will work in unison to constantly disrupt their protocols, and it’ll evolve on its own every time the authorities try to get around it. Even I can’t stop it now.”

Damien wasn’t sure if he was seeing things, but it seemed like Lana’s hair was starting to become lighter, taking on more of a yellow color rather than orange. “So, we can sell all kinds of loot directly through the UTS terminals, now? That means that we can pick up and sell any loot we come across.” He turned toward the young hacker. “You did that all by yourself?”

“I sure did. Grand Wiz himself would be proud, don’t you think?” Lana’s eyes lit up with joy and she pressed her thumb against her lower lip. “This’ll make him acknowledge me. That jerk. Who does he think he is, not responding to my message? He’s probably playing hard to get. Yeah, that’s it. But you can’t ignore me now, Grand Wiz…”

Damien wasn’t sure who she was talking to, so he whispered toward Marcus, “Who’s Grand Wiz?”

“A hacker.”

“He is not just a hacker!” Lana snapped. Her hair color had definitely changed, now resembling a light lime. “He’s more than a hacker. He’s an artist. A freedom fighter. A gallant knight trying to save us from a corrupt government. The embodiment of a hero standing up to tyranny.” She stepped toward Damien and perked herself up on her toes, her face getting far too close to his. “Don’t listen to that oaf. He wouldn’t know a true hero if one stood right in front of him.”

Damien heard Marcus scoff as he slowly backed himself from the girl. “Uhh, okay…”

Her eyes narrowed at him, and he felt like he was being studied by a hawk. “Hmmm. Strong features… symmetrical face… You’re pretty cute. But sorry, I’m unofficially betrothed. Grand Wiz is the only one for me. He’ll see it soon enough.”

“I… didn’t ask…” Marcus was right, this girl’s a total weirdo.

“Look, Lana, the Freedom Channel sounds great and all, and I can’t wait to use it,” Kat said, “but we really need your help with this job. You’re the only hacker we can trust with something so important.”

“Yeah, yeah, you already told me. You want those Archangel files, but they won’t be accessible through hacking directly; no one would be dumb enough to leave them that vulnerable. A closed-off research facility can be a problem. I’ll have to find out the layout of the place, learn about their security and defense systems, and even who’s connected to their local network. Not to mention the on-going support that you’ll undoubtedly need during the mission. It’s a lot of work, and I gotta finish advertising my newest creation and preparing for Grand Wiz to court me.” She tapped her finger against her lips and spaced out as she pondered out loud. “He’ll definitely ask me out once he sees the Freedom Channel, but where will he take me? How am I supposed to act when being courted? What do I wear on our first date? I’ve never worn a dress before. I’ve never even been on a date, either… So much to learn…”

Damien gave a look of confusion to his crew mates. They seemed less bewildered than he’d expected, as if they’d already accepted that this was just the way the girl was.

“We just need two days of your time and we’ll pay you double the standard fee,” Marcus said. “There’s a fat paycheck in it for us, so we can afford it.”

Lana shook her head. “It’s not about the money. It’s about something much deeper.”

Marcus murmured some curses under his breath. The financial angle had failed, just as asking out of good faith. She seemed dead set on her future encounter with this fantastical person that she admired so much.

An idea popped to Damien’s mind. It was risky, and would possibly put him on the hacker’s bad side, but they didn’t have much choice. “Sounds like you’re lacking experience when it comes to love,” he said. “If you help us with this job, we’ll help you court this Grand Wiz person.”

“And how would you help?”

Damien shrugged. “To be honest, I’m not sure. But I’m willing to help you out with whatever you need.”

Lana placed her thumb on her lips once again as she eyed him from head to toe, her hair now glowing violet. Her bright green eyes stared at him for a moment before she finally spoke. “Now that you mention it, I do need practical experience. I guess there is one thing you could do for me…”