Imagine being an ex-employee for Blume, working for DedSec and Wrench asks you out.

Young you walking through Blume's gates for the first time, lured in by your ex, had felt amazing. You had graduated from college with excellent grades, and working for Blume, the "better future", held all your dreams together. You had imagined helping to build assets that would assist those in vulnerable positions, and changing the world into something better.

But then you first got introduced to how exactly ctOS worked, and everything you had believed in came crumbling down. Now, you truly saw what Blume was doing, gathering information about people without them consenting, behind a veil for a better future. It was sickening to see, but you were too deep to get out without anyone suspecting anything.

So, you moved out of the city you had lived all your life in, you lied to your boss that you simply need to take a break from work. You and your ex had separated a few months before that, so leaving him behind wasn't a problem — especially when you weren't even sure if he'd be accepting of Blume's ways. He was more in the office and not really in the technical field like you, he may not even know what Blume is doing. But you wouldn't be able to risk it, if he ever told Blume that you've told him about secrets they had made you vow never to tell outside that room with towers of data... you didn't want to find out what would happen. It could be possible that they'd silence him too.

Your journey eventually brought you to San Francisco, where you got yourself a little apartment downtown. You knew you probably would be wiser if you just left the USA altogether, somewhere where Blume wouldn't be able to find you and you could try chipping on them remotely, but... you couldn't run and hide in another country you didn't know. So you set up your computers and tried to find a way to help... but then, one day, you got a bag in your head and you got dragged somewhere. And your first thought was that Blume had found you, found out you were trying to sabotage them, and now they would silence you for good.

So when the bag was taken off your head, you assumed to see Dušan Nemec in front of you, accompanied by some Blume security guards. But instead, you saw four people around you, and it didn't take long to figure out who they were – DedSec. A woman, a guy with a mask, a dark skinned, sturdy man, and a young man in a green hoodie, slightly turned away from the rest of you.

Your mouth opened and closed a few times, before you shook your head. "I'm not..."

You didn't know how to finish the sentence. Your attempts to breach Blume's network, you had occasionally come across another foreign signal while probing through their systems. You had collided with it a few times, but now it made sense. It should have made sense at the start. It had been DedSec, and now they probably thought you'd been trying to sabotage them.

You sat there frozen, your eyes jumping between them. But then the woman who stood closest to you huffed with a slight smile. "Relax. We're not here to hurt you."

You swallowed, a small hint of relief washing over you. "I wasn't targeting you, I'm sorry if it looked like that."

The guy wearing a mask snorted. "Yeah, we get that. If you were targeting us, you'd have done a pretty bad job, even for a Blume counter hacker."

"Wrench," the woman sighed, shooting a glance at the man. He shrugged and fell silent.

The dark skinned man stepped forward. "You've done a pretty solid job, considering you've done everything alone. But you know, it won't take long before Blume will track you down. They've already found the area the unwanted signals are coming from, and in a few hours at most, your apartment will be raided. It isn't safe for you to go there anymore.

You shot up to stand. "But my whole life is there, all my—"

The man held up a hand. "All your equipment, all your data, all your personal belongings. We know. We already retrieved them. And we also wiped your info from the housing database.

Wrench snickered. "And the database will tell them that the apartment was rented by a giraffe-crocodile named Fuck Off."

You blinked. "You... how?"

The man in a green hoodie finally turned towards you. "You only had a mattress without a bed and a few laptops, and some food. It wasn't hard to get them out."

The woman cleared her throat. "We've had you on our radar ever since we first noticed your signal a few days ago. Not because we think you're a threat, quite the opposite. You could be useful for us."

You frowned. "You mean... you're trying to recruit me?"

The woman nodded. "You have the freedom to choose, of course. If you say no, we will prepare a burner phone for you with a few contacts so you'll be able to disappear. But there's a chance Blume will find you again unless you get out of the country, and even then it's possible they'll keep chasing you if there's even a slightest doubt on their end that you're the one who sent that signal.

You sighed. "So, my options are joining DedSec or running away and pray Blume won't find me. Splendid."

Wrench put his hand over his chest. "You make it sound like working with me wouldn't be an opportunity of a lifetime."

"The thing is," the woman spoke again, "that you've already started fighting back. You clearly have a desire to bring Blume down, but you just don't have resources for it. If you join us, we will have your back, we will teach you to hold the ropes and show you how exactly you help."

You looked down at your hands, and your fingers twitched slightly as your thoughts fought with each other. What other choice did you have?

The woman stepped closer. "Listen, we're not here to pressure you. We just wanted to give you the chance to make the call before Blume does it for you."

"And they will," the man in the green hoodie added. "Blume doesn't let loose ends walk free. You've seen what they do. You know too much now."

You turned your head and stared at the wall. "If... if I do this, there's not going back."

You saw from the corner of your eye how the dark-skinned man shook his head. "Not to your old life, no. But the life waiting for you with DedSec? It's worth it."

Wrench suddenly jumped in, throwing his arms wide. "Yeah! You get to hang with super cool hackers! What's not to love?"

You felt everyone staring at you, and then you carefully nodded. "Okay. Okay, I will join. But I won't be doing anything crazy, alright? At least... not at first. I need time to learn."

The woman smiled. "Welcome to DedSec."

Wrench whooped, slinging an arm over your shoulders. "You're gonna love it here! First mission: pick your hacker name. And no, you can't steal mine, but I'm open to inspiration."

—

A lot had happened during the past year. For the first three months, you had a hacking bootcamp held by Josh, and you ended up becoming pretty good at it. And now, you were doing just some checkups on your firewalls even though it wasn't really necessary but it was a good way to pass time. Wrench sat by his workbench, you had noticed he was quieter than usual. When it was just the two of you, he wouldn't shut up. He'd swing jokes and stories your way, but now he was just sitting there, fidgeting.

But then, he spoke. "Uh... are you finishing up soon?"

You snorted. "I've been finished for about an hour, just passing time for now."

He turned on his stool. "Oh, cool. That's good."

He stared at you for a moment, and you stared back. You caught his mask showing heart eyes for a fraction of a second, and you frowned. "What?"

"Um, I was thinking... we've worked together for a long time, right? And... I think you're cool. Really cool. Coolest person around. And uh..." he stammered, his mask displaying a heart again for a moment before disappearing. "I was wondering if... we could go out tonight? Not as DedSec partners, nor really friends either. Or I, I mean if you want to go as friends, that's cool too, but... I was thinking of like, a date. With me?"

You froze, staring at him in turn. His mask flickered between three different emoticons, and you held back a smile when you realised he was panicking.

"A date?" you echoed. You wanted to make sure you heard right, understood right. Maybe his mask glitched somehow, it was so not like Wrench to panic like that.

He nodded while wringing his hands together. "Yeah, a date. Like a dinner, or a movie, or just a walk in a park I guess. I just... I want to get to know you better, beyond uh... friendship. No pressure! If you aren't interested, we can pretend this discussion never happened, and I can go back to just being friends, or colleagues, or—"

"Wrench," you interrupted, unable to hold back a smile now. "I'd love to go on a date with you."

He froze for a moment, then jumped up, his mask displaying fireworks. "Yes! Okay, awesome, cool. Cool, cool, uh. What do you want to do? I'm going to make something amazing, like movie-level amazing. But not like, cheesy rom-com amazing," he babbled, then froze again, looking at you. "Unless you like cheesy rom-coms. Do you like cheesy rom-coms?"

You laughed, standing up and walking up to him, before you took his hand into yours and squeezed. "Relax, Wrench. Anything we will do is fine, as long as you're there."

He was quiet for a moment, and his mask went through multiple emoticons again. Heart eyes, blush, joy... before he lifted his other hand to the side of it, resetting it to those default X's. "You're going to make my mask short–circuit if you keep my heart rate jumping like this."

You laughed again, bringing his hand to your own chest so he could feel the rapid thumping of your own heart. His mask settled into heart eyes again, and you looked behind you. "Do I need to dress up for where we're going?"

He was quiet for a moment, then shrugged. "If you want to. But you look gorgeous either way."

You felt yourself blush again, and you knew Wrench was also bright red behind his mask. And you knew that this date would be amazing either way.