Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lovely art by Ahumokio!

A garbage can clanged loudly as it hit the metallic floor. A tall man with blood smudged under his nose stood behind it with fury. 

A robotic voice cheerfully announced the man’s new position for everyone in the sector to hear. Perhaps, even the entire Helios space station. “Senior Vice Janitor Rhys to sector D451 for trash cleanup because that is your job now, to clean up trash with your bare hands. ”

Rhys clenched his jaw tighter “Don’t they have robots for this?”

“I mean, you do have a robot arm, and that Echo Eye of yours.” A short man next to him adjusted his eyeglasses and blurted out, forgetting his best friend’s unfortunate circumstance for a moment despite his sympathy.

The taller man glared down at the accountant with annoyance. “Not. Helping. Vaughn.”

Vaughn winced with embarrassment “Sorry, bro. Guess I can’t think straight from the shock.” The ex-middle manager’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah, me too.”

A woman with side swept dreadlocks and undercut joined the men, her heels clicking smoothly across the hallway. She raised a brow at the still-fuming ex-middle manager. “Rhys… why are you cleaning up trash? I thought you were getting a promotion. Trash duty seems like the opposite of a promotion.”

Rhys let out a scoff, still in disbelief. “Vasquez screwed me out of the promotion.” Vaughn made wild hand gestures as if he was trying to shake off his unease. “He threw Henderson out of an airlock and demoted Rhys to trashman!” 

The requisition expert’s eyes grew wide. “Holy crap.”  A beat of silence. “So.. does that mean you’re not buying?” 

Rhys deadpanned and stomped past her. Vaughn followed, briefly meeting eyes with her and shaking his head, clenching his teeth in a don’t-do-it gesture. ‘Bad timing, Yvette..!’

Yvette dropped her playful demeanour. Things were serious. She sprinted after them. “Well, just… trying to lighten the mood… and I didn’t bring my wallet, so if someone pays for me-” Vaughn, suddenly overcome with a fiery animosity, interjected. “I’ll tell you who’s gonna pay. Vasquez.”  

She looked down at her companion with doubt crossing her face. “I don’t know if he’s the type to-” But the accountant was already heated.  “We can’t let that prick get away with this. We need to do something.”  

Yvette kept her cool, ever the rationalist. “He just killed a guy.”

Rhys spoke up, his boiling anger simmering down to steam at Vaughn’s suggestion.  “We’ll throw him out of an airlock.”

Vaughn jerked back with surprise “Straight up murder the guy? Jeez, Rhys. I meant something more like humiliating him or pranking him really bad.” Yvette tapped her chin at Rhys’ seemingly daring suggestion. “I’m not sure if it’s going to be that easy.”

Rhys shook his head “No, I don’t, I don’t mean it like that . We just have to ruin his deal so he gets himself airlocked by others. Or injured. Or demoted.” The requisitioner crossed her arms. “What are you talking about?” The corner of Rhys’ mouth quirked up, regaining his dignity, or what was left of it.  “Vasquez set up a deal on Pandora for a vault key.” 

Yvette’s eyes shone with intrigue. “Woah.” Encouraged by his friend breaking her cool demeanour at the news, the accountant excitedly jumped in. “That must be why he got the promotion. The only thing Hyperion cares more about than money is vault keys. It’s perfect! I mean not only do we screw over Assquez, but we also have a frickin’ vault key. What are they worth? Like a billion dollars?”

“More.” Yvette pointed out. “But Rhys, how are you going to go about making Hugo get himself screwed?”

 Rhys absentmindedly looked at the wall prints in the hallway. “Well, he is heading down to Pandora. That planet is basically a death trap. Anything can happen there. He could lose an arm or ‘come back’ without a face.” The cybernetic man smirked. “And this is Vasquez we’re talking about. He’s not exactly the smartest cog on Helios.” Vaughn and Yvette both nodded at the truth behind Rhys’ words.

The three continued to walk down the hallway. It didn’t take long for the food court sign to come into view.

Feeling more assured, Rhys continued on. “Aaand he doesn’t know that I hacked into his computer and stole his data. As far as he knows, we don’t know anything. I can easily screw up his deal and swipe the vault key in the middle. Haha, get it? Because I’m the middle manager.”

Vaughn gave him a blank face. 

Yvette slowed her steps, falling a little behind the two men. It took said men a few seconds to notice her retreat. “Get Hugo to get himself killed or demoted, and steal his vault key. Cool. Well looks like you boys got it all figured out. I’m gonna go eat.. Alone. Call me if you don’t get killed alright?”

Alarmed, Vaughn hurriedly ran back towards Yvette, who stopped. “Woah, Woah Woah! Hey! We need your help. We need clearance, transportation. You’re a requisitions master. We need that stuff.” Rhys turned around to join the bow-tied man with a few brisk strides of his long legs. “Yeah, maybe a Loader Bot or two. You know if things get dicey.”

Yvette avoided their expectant gazes. “Look… it’s one thing stealing from a bunch of poor suckers on Pandora... You ‘re talking about stealing from Hyperion .” But the two men were determined. Vaughn smiled brightly “But we’re friends! Friends help each other steal stuff. I mean, that’s how it works.” Rhys nodded and beamed next to Vaughn. Yvette couldn’t help but snort at their puppy-like enthusiasm, and their poor attempt at puppy-eyes. Too bad they were working.

She managed a wry smile. “Listen, I would love to be part of this little scheme, but I don’t want to risk my position in Hyperion. And you don’t want to either. Richter used to steal candy bars. His family still doesn’t know where the body is . ”

The accountant waved his hand dismissively, unempathetic to the fate of their coworker.   “Richter was an asshole and his family are assholes.” Rhys pleaded again. “Come on, Yvette. We’re in this together. One of us moves up, we all move up.” As if taking turns, Vaughn pushed on. “And by that same logic, in some way, we all just got demoted to janitor. Do you really want that?” 

Yvette signed. “I’m just saying that I don’t want to restrict our options to this daring mission down to Pandora. I mean, how do we even know if that Vault Key is real?”

That made Vaughn pause. “I mean, it’s gotta be if Hugo is interested in it. ”

“Yeah. Hugo is interested in it. He may be ruthless and stupidly ambitious, but there’s no guarantee that this is the real deal. It sounds too good to be true.”

“I dunno... What if it is real?”

Yvette kept walking, moving past the two men with more conviction. Rhys and Vaughn looked at each other before following her.

They entered the food court. It bustled with middle-lower level Hyperion employees eager for lunch. Perhaps not so much for the mediocre food itself but for the short moment of peace where they didn’t have to worry about being backstabbed or airlocked. 

The trio headed over to their usual table and sat down. It was located at one of the higher platforms. The geometrically cut bushes created a low fence around half of the table, giving them a bit of privacy and the view of the food court at the same time. They started to tap their order into an attached computer screen. 

Yvette continued their conversation as she punched in the lunch special and employee ID. “Exactly. All we know is that Hugo has a deal. We don’t know if this deal is genuine, or completely sure if he’ll succeed at getting it.” She looked over at the ex-middle manager and the money man over her green-tinted glasses, examining them. “I’d very much like to be one-hundred-percent sure. Did Hugo have a picture of the Vault Key, at least? Or some kind of proof of transaction.”

Rhys brushed a few strands of hair back into its place with his flesh hand. “I downloaded the entire folder with the Vault Key files and Hugo’s personal schedule.” He tapped on the ice cream dessert option to his meal swiftly before tapping his employee ID number for payment.

Elbows resting on the table, Yvette interlaced her fingers in front of her face. “As you guys said: We’re in this together. I would like us to consider more options before jumping into this. This isn’t like our previous corporate team works.”

“ Alright, we only got a couple of hours so we have to decide soon.” Rhys said.

Vaughn nudged his head towards Rhys’ cybernetic arm “Can you show us what you hacked from Hugo’s computer?”

With a flick of his wrist, Rhys turned on his palm display and went through the contents. A photo of a fancy, overcompensating car and Hugo’s schedule popped up. Another window with LOCATION: PANDORA, WORLD OF CURIOSITIES, and a photo of a conical-shaped Vault Key popping up next to it. Descriptions of ‘Unknown Energy Matrix’ and ‘Eridian Petroglyphs’ pointed towards the parts of the Vault Key. 

Vaughn and Yvette leaned over the table, eyes wide with fascination.

The short man adjusted his glasses. “I don’t know how a Vault Key is supposed to look but it seems pretty legit to me.” He leaned closer towards the display. “It looks a lot like the Vault Key painting from the Opportunity wall murals. Do all Vault Keys look the same?” He glanced at Yvette briefly. “I only know about the mural because Rhys showed me… like 10 times”

“Hey I did not”

“You’re right. 20 times”

Yvette’s brows pinched with scrutiny. “Considering how people down there liked to send Handsome Jack dead fake sirens for money, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a fake Vault Key thrown out at Helios for one of the employees to bite. This isn’t the first time some random Hyperion employee got caught by the Big Money Bait from Pandora.”

Rhys tapped the table with his flesh fingers. “There is a rumour that some people have connections with a few big name Pandorans. It wouldn’t be surprising if it was true. People go down and come up pretty regularly. Most of them dead or arrested.” The ex-middle manager shrugged. “And if it is real, I guess we could… ‘take it off his hands’ somehow”

The table computer dinged, alerting the three that their lunches are out and ready to be picked up from each food stall they ordered from.

Soon, all three were munching on their foods quietly, deep in their own thoughts.

Vaughn swallowed a bite of his Pandora-themed veggie wrap. “What are we going to do?”

Yvette put down her fork. “Rhys, you told me that we’re in this together and that if one of us move up, we all move up. You might be stuck as a janitor right now, but Vaughn and I still have shots to bring us all up.”

Rhys scooped up a spoonful of ice cream slowly, glum. “Yeah but… when we were betting on my promotion, we could all help each other to get to our goal. What could a janitor do? I mean, I’m not bad at cleaning-”

“I don’t know about that, bro.” Vaughn side-eyed him.

Rhys side-eyed his roommate back. “As I was saying, I’m not bad at cleaning, but my real skill lies in programming and software engineering.”

Vaughn shrugged and stuffed more pieces of cooked chicken breasts into his mouth.

Yvette continued. “But you won’t be just any janitor. Er, a senior vice janitor. You’d be a janitor with a robot arm, an echo eye, and hacking skills. LIke you showed us before, you look at something and you are in whatever machine’s system. And being a janitor means you have access to much larger parts of the station than a regular employee.”

The accountant perked up. “Yeah! You’re practically out of the grid, bro! You’re a janitor with specialized skills. An ex-securities propaganda employee with janitor duties. Like a Spy . You could help us from the outside!! And sabotage Assquez from a different angle. Steal his deal when he’s about to taste success.”

“That sounds pretty cool if you say it that way.” Rhys pouted. “But being a janitor still sucks.”

Vaughn patted his tall friend’s back. “It won’t be long. Lucky for us my promotion opportunity isn’t that far behind.” 

Yvette waved her index finger playfully. “I’m on a pretty friendly term with my boss. I’m pretty sure I will be the first one to get us to the top.” Vaughn stuck out his tongue at her challenge.

“Just hang in for a while, bro. Once either me or Yvette --heck, even both of us--  move up, you’re going to rise with us!”

“Just be a little patient. And who knows? Maybe you’ll find something that would get you to climb up the ladder before us.”

A genuine smile spread on Rhys’ face. “Thanks, guys.” He was very lucky to have good friends in a place like Helios. Bribe money was cheap, but loyalty was priceless.

“So we got a plan?” Vaughn beamed. 

“We got a plan”

The two men blinked when Yvette awkwardly held out her fist. They stared at her, and she stared back. Eventually, the rare feeling of self-consciousness made Yvette’s face heat up, her composed features turning slightly red. “Um...Go team? Friends forever? Or whatever you say. If you leave me hanging, I’m never paying you back for the lunches.”

Rhys and Vaughn looked at each other before obliging happily. Vaughn grinned. “ Best friends forever.”

“Let’s do this!”

Three fists met together over the lunch table for the ultimate fist-bump. 

The trio’s rejoice over their reaffirmed friendship was interrupted by another cheery robotic announcement: “Senior Vice Janitor Rhys report to the janitor room. Get ready to clean up trash with your bare hands in sector C586.”

Rhys sighed.

Chapter Text

Rhys tried to pull down the legs of his gray janitor jumpsuit, but it refused to stretch and cover his ankles, making his socks peek out past the hems. Besides his yellow socks with tiny Rakk pattern, the rest of his outfit made him blend into the metallic walls and floors of the space station. The gray hat completed the look, obscuring his face. 

He looked over to another demoted employee who was mopping the floor, still in his fancy suit. “How come I have to wear a uniform and they don’t, Jim?”

Senior Janitor Jim, a stout man in his mid-50s, stood in front of the ex-middle manager, closing the janitor room door. He was a head shorter than Rhys, his portly belly stretching the uniform out. “Because you’re a vice senior janitor.” He looked Rhys up and down. “You’re a little young to be working this job, ain’t ya? You look too prissy to take this job willingly. What got you here? Kicked out of the internship program?”

Rhys grunted as he struggled to pin his name tag onto his chest. “Wh, internship? I got demoted , because I worked here for nearly four years and climbed up high enough to almost become a Senior Vice President of Securities Propaganda.”

The senior janitor waved his hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah. Everyone’s got a story to tell. Pull the cart. I have to show you around.” Rhys started to push the janitor cart, following Jim down the hallway. “I got demoted 15 years ago. Used to work in propaganda and marketing.”

“Why didn’t you go back? ...I mean, could you go back?”

“ Go back? Are you kidding me? Once you get demoted you’re as good as dead. And all janitors are assigned their own uniforms. These poor Used-to-Bes just don’t want to wear ‘em.” The old man smacked one of the said suited janitors in the legs with a broom. 

“ ‘Sides it’s not a bad job. People will pay you extra just so you don’t report a mysterious dead body or an unidentifiable stain.” Rhys made a disgusted noise. Jim snorted. “Get used to it, chump. And you’re gonna have to get used to working while everyone else is sleepin’. It’s a pretty good job if it works out for ya.”

Rhys grimaced. They stopped in front of a wall covered in hardened.... Cheese? At Jim’s direction, he picked up a cleaning solution and a scraper. The Senior Janitor glanced towards Rhys’ bare hands. “Always have gloves on unless you want a permanent stain on your dainty hands.” Then Jim’s eyes widened at Rhys’ right robot hand. 

“That’s some fancy hand you got there. It’s gonna be real useful when you clean out the R&D sector. The mess they make down there is gruesome.” He took off his dirty glove and held up his robot hand. It was one of the earlier versions of Hyperion’s prosthetic hands. It had no palm screen or intrinsic muscles. It resembled more of a five-digit clamp than a human hand. Rhys noticed that Jim was assuming his robot part only extended up to the wrist like the old man. 

The passersby didn’t seem to register a tall and lanky janitor scraping away at the wall. Rhys sprayed the wall with the cleaning solution before getting back to scraping the mustard-coloured substance.  “Is...Is that how you lost your hand? At the R&D sector?”

“ What? No. I lost it while visiting Pandora. Went down as a representative, and BLAM it got shot off by a bandit.”

Rhys turned towards Jim, his eyes wide. The old man shrugged. “They always send the expendable ones to do the dirty job. Or if they want to get rid of you. Took care of that bastard years ago.”

“You killed him?” Rhys asked.

“Nope. Someone else sure did. I just bagged and dumped the body.” Jim said nonchalantly as if he was commenting on the weather. “Anyhow, welcome onboard. Don’t know how long you’ll last, but I’m hoping you’ll last until my retirement at the end of this year. So help me help you, got it, kid?”

The cybernetic man pursed his lips in annoyance. “ I’m 27.”

“ Yet you have an attitude of a newborn baby.”

For a week Rhys followed Jim around and learned how to do various cleaning and maintenance tasks by assisting him. There wasn’t a lot to learn, compared to his old workload, but they were important for “staying safe”, as Jim claimed.

Rhys noticed that people treated janitors like automated robots than people: A part of the fast-paced Helios environment, another landscape object, a huge boulder standing on the edge of the road that they had to walk around. The ones that refused to wear the janitor uniforms got a few glances over their expensive suits, but no further acknowledgement on the actual person wearing the suits was given.

When Rhys tried to talk to Hyperion employees directly they either ignored him, sneered at him, or laughed at him. Once, when Jim was on his break, Rhys tried to make a deal with one of the lower managers, and he almost got punched in the face. 

Remembering the incident, Rhys grumbled in annoyance and anger. “Ugh. Why do they always go for the face?”

Rhys jerked back in alarm when Jim pointedly swung his mop handle towards Rhys’ face, before flipping up Rhys’ janitor cap. “Hey!” Rhys managed to snatch it before it fell off his head.

Lumbering over closer to Rhys, he harrumphed. “Hey, big forehead! Listen up and pay attention. This is the last bit I’m going to teach ya before I let you go on your own.”

“ After mopping the floors with these two solutions, spray the spot so the dead body odour can be completely covered up. Don’t touch them with your bare hands. Regularly change your gloves. Keeps stains and stench out of your skin.”

The janitor gloves came in the standard white, black, and dark gray colours which were made with a thick fabric for handling corrosive/contaminated substances.

“ Don’t forget to notify the transfer folks so they know that a body is coming up. It doesn’t take that long for ‘em to start stinking up the place. And don’t lose that earpiece unless you want the entire station to know that you’ll be cleaning out clogged toilets next.”

Jim pushed the janitor cart towards Rhys. It rolled over and bumped into Rhys, who staggered a bit at the cart’s weight.

“ Any questions?”

“ Do I get health insurance coverage?”

“ HA! You’re funny. Now get the hell out. My shift’s over.”

Rhys watched as Jim walked away, leaving him and the cart alone in the dim hallway. The light from Elpis shone through the large window panels. The headlights of the janitor cart the only source of lighting.

Through Rhys’ earpiece, a robotic voice announced Rhys’ next task: “Senior Vice Janitor Rhys to sector A to begin regular office room cleaning. Have a wonderful night cleaning up questionable substances off the floor and clearing garbage bins.”

“ God, at least it’s not a sector where Hugo is.” Rhys mumbled.

On the elevator Rhys’ echo eye notified him of an incoming call. Not deciding to bother with his palm projection, he answered it directly through the echo eye. 

“ Hey bro, how’s my spy dude doing? Today’s your first day as a stand-alone janitor, right?” Vaughn chimed in, the sound of a beer can opening coming through the call. Rhys smiled.

“Hey bro. Not much. Now I don’t have Jim hovering over me making sure I go through every single safety procedure the way he does. On my way to clean ‘questionable substances’ in all the rooms in sector A.

Yvette joined the chat, but not through her own call. “Wow, what a bummer way to spend the night.”

“ Yvette? Why are you with Vaughn this late at night? Is there something that I should know?” Rhys joked.

Yvette let out a dry laugh. “Oh haha. Just checking in with Vaughn with our promotion process. Things are going okay so far, but who knows what asshole will jump in and ruin that for us.”

“ And today is our regular Pizza Friday, dude! You’re missing out!!”

“ Yeah, I know. It’s kind of hard to join our regular hangouts when the majority of my shifts starts at midnight. Save a few slices for me.”

“ Any luck with your spy mission?” Yvette asked.

“ Now that Jim is out of the way, I can try. He hasn’t noticed my echo eye or my arm. He thinks my right hand is the only robot part of my arm.” Rhys pressed to level 35 inside the elevator. “About the Vault Key thing… I’m worried that we might be a little late. It’s been a week. Have you guys heard of or seen Hugo?”

“Not really,” Vaughn answered, his mouth full of pizza.

“ Good. It’s better to keep things that way. The fewer people know about your portable computer arm, the better advantage we have.” Yvette answered, sparing the cybernetic man the sound of wet chewing by not talking with her mouth full.

“Yvette and I pulled some strings and apparently they lost contact with Hugo. And he’s blacklisted for stealing ten million dollars. They’re also trying to track him down.”

Rhys got off the elevator and started his cleanup round in Sector A. “ What, did he die?”

“ Dunno. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did.” Vaughn answered.

“If I can access Hugo’s record I might be able to track him with his pinkie prosthetic product number. All Hyperion cybernetics can be tracked down.”

“ Good old Hyperion.” Yvette said sardonically.

Vaughn gulped down his beer, washing down the greasy pizza. “ How are you going to do that?”

Rhys held up his janitor access key and slid it into the first office door in the hallway. It opened immediately. “If I can access the cybernetics department manager’s’ computer, I might gain access to the product record list and the tracking codes.”

“Cybernetics department is in Sector C. Where are you right now, Rhys?”

“ Sector A. If I get through this part of the station fast enough, I might be able to reach sector C.”

By the time the three finished gossiping and chatting, Rhys had finished clearing out Sector A and B, and starting working on Sector C. Rhys reached the Cybernetic department head’s office and swiped his access card. The doors didn’t budge. “ Shit.”

Vaughn tried to stifle his yawn. “What’s wrong?”

“ I don’t have clearance to access the executive office. It doesn’t make sense. I could access all the other sector heads’ offices without any issue.”

“ What? But then how do they expect the office to get cleaned? Is it because you have more robot parts?”

Rhys sighed. “No. I think Jim forgot to update my clearance. Or it could be a glitch.”

“ Does that mean we have to wait until tomorrow?” Vaughn asked.

“ We don’t have the time. If Hugo is alive, he could come up anytime soon.” Yvette said, her voice tight.

Rhys looked around. No one was there but him in the hallway. “ Hold on, I got it.” Rhys tried accessing the keypad with his echo eye.  An access screen popped up in his vision. Rhys took off his right glove and turned on his palm projection, putting in a security check command. It wasn’t hard to do since his old job involved a lot of data-mining and software securities. Hugo may have demoted him, but he couldn’t take away all the knowledge and experience Rhys accumulated through the years.

Once the security access window popped up. Casting another glance around the hallway, he went through the door access history and found the most recently used access code. It was only a couple of hours ago, by the department head themselves.

“ Aaand I’m in”

The doors slid open. 

Vaughn whooped. “ Heck yeah!”

“Impressive. Try not to get caught.” Rhys could hear the relief in Yvette’s tone.

“ Don’t worry I’ll erase my trace on my way out. Accessing the computer is the easy part.” Rhys slowly started vacuuming the edges of the room, keeping his Echo eye on the computer station located in the back of the office room. The computer booted up, the screen coming into life. Rhys quickly scanned through the contents through his Echo eye once it synced with the computer. It took him a few minutes to find the Executive-access-only folder.

The senior vice janitor approached the desk more closely as he continued vacuuming. It didn’t take him long to find Hugo’s name on the Cybernetic Registration List. He copied and downloaded the entire folder. He had to turn on his palm projection to do the last task. 

A particular file caught his interest. It was named ‘HJ_Proj’. Rhys opened the document. His eyes widened with alarm. “Oh wow, this guy is worse than Hugo. How can that much money get stolen over months and not get tracked?”

“How much is it?” Vaughn perked.

“50mil.”

“Holy crap. Is this guy nuts? Then again, he’s a Department Head. Disappointed? Yes. Surprised? No.”

“Well, according to him, he plans to impress Handsome Jack. But I don’t know how it can be done since he’s basically selling out Hyperion tech.”

After shutting down the computer Rhys emptied the trash bin and exited the office. He erased his door access record with a quick keypad scan with his Echo eye. 

“I got Hugo’s tracking number.” Rhys declared with triumph. 

“ Nice.” Yvette gave him a few claps. 

The sound of a sofa squeaking could be heard over the call as Vaughn opened another beer can and settled back in. The TV seemed to be on, probably streaming a random show. 

“ Can you track Hugo right now?” Vaughn inquired. 

“ I could…” Rhys took another look around the hallway. It was quiet except for the gentle whirr his janitor cart moving to the next office room. “ But it might be safer for me to track him down at my place. My progress is being tracked as I work, so if I don’t finish this part of the station in time, I’m going to be sent out for ‘questioning’.”

“ Oh wow. Didn’t think janitors would be under that kind of pressure. You sure it’d be alright to keep going through others’ computers?”

“ Don’t worry bro, hacking is basically my 3rd sense now. And knowing the whereabouts of Hugo and the Vault Key is our top priority right now. And I got nothing else to do. I’ll only hack a few tonight. I can hack more stations later.” Rhys looked at the time: It was almost 2 am.

“ You guys go ahead and get some sleep. I’ll let you know about Hugo’s whereabouts in the morning when my shift ends.”

“ Sounds good. I should head back to my apartment too. Good night Rhys. See you at lunch?”

“Sure. I can’t really do dinner for a while. So lunch it is.”

“Man, I never thought I would be looking forward to hearing Hugo’s news. Night bro!”

“Night, guys.”

Rhys ended the call. The next office door swished open as he swiped his janitor access card through the keypad. He walked in with his cleaning tools, his Echo eye glowing bright blue.

Chapter Text

Art by Visnomer

Rhys flopped down on his bed, only clad in boxers and socks, his janitor outfit discarded on the floor.

After lying motionless for a few minutes, letting the exhaustion drain out of his body, he held up his palm screen and opened the cybernetic registration list he stole. He needed an access code to view the official registration list and the last time it was located. All Hyperion tech had a tracker inside, and that included cybernetics.  

“I need an executive clearance code to actually track Hugo down on Pandora. At least the last record of the time he was tracked.” He pondered a bit before pulling up information of the person in charge of securing Hyperion cybernetic tech. The man worked alongside the Cybernetic Department Head. Rhys was glad he decided to hack the executive’s computer.

The vice senior janitor came across a Client List in the man’s folder. Thinking that’s the list he was looking for, Rhys opened the file. But the clients on that list were definitely not Hyperion. “Someone hasn’t been a good loyal employee…”

Identifying the Cybernetic Securities and Repossession manager’s Direct Message-ID took only a few seconds. “Bingo. I’ll just set up a fake account… build some walls…“ The ex-middle manager ended up spending a couple of hours making sure no one can hack his account and trace back to his real identity. Layering personalized codes of firewalls, malware, and traps that kicked any intruders out of the network altogether. 

For an average person this would take days or even weeks, but Rhys worked with the speed of a supercomputer: the computer in his arm synced directly with his thought process streaming through his brain.

When he was finished, Rhys blinked rapidly, trying to steady himself from disorientation as he found himself outside of the virtual space again. “Man, that always feels weird.” Vaughn joked about how android-like Rhys looked when he went into a full-immersion mode into cyberspace.

Setting up an anonymous account was easy. He tried to brainstorm cool code names, but the fatigue started to crawl up him again. Doing physically demanding job and carrying out an intense programming on top of that drained any motivation for extra work. In the end Rhys settle with “The Company Man.” He wasn’t trying to stand out anyway. The cybernetic man sent out a message to the manager of Cybernetic Securities and Repossession.

[The Company Man] : It seems like your loyalty to Hyperion isn’t solid as it seems, Mr. Humphrey. I may look over it if you share your executive clearance code with me.

[H650_Humphrey] : Who is this? Perry, is that you?

Rhys rolled his eyes.

[The Company Man] : No Humphrey, this is your mom. That’s why I’m asking you for your personal information. So I can publicly embarrass you in front of your colleagues.

[H650_Humphrey]: Shut it. I will find out who you are and have you airlocked.

[The Company Man] : I’m pretty sure that you will be ahead in line if this information reaches any of your bosses… or Handsome Jack.

Rhys sends a page from Humphrey’s secret client list.

It took Humphrey longer to respond. 

[H650_Humphrey] : Who gave you that file.

[The Company Man] : As far as Hyperion knows, you did. Willingly. That’s a lot of zeros you stole from Hyperion, Humphrey. And I don’t have to share this little secret of yours with one of your bosses specifically-- it can be anyone. You know how it is in Hyperion. A little slip and others will be going after you like hungry piranha.

There was a long pause.

[H650_Humphrey] : The hell do you want.

[The Company Man]: Just your executive clearance code. Don’t worry, I’m not interested in doing anything else with you after that. You will be out of my picture once you hand over what I want. This conversation will be deleted afterwards, and no one will have to know.

Another long pause.

Then the access code popped up in the chat.

[H650_Humphrey]: You better stay quiet.

[The Company Man] : We’ll see, depending on how y ou do.

Rhys disconnected and wiped out the chat. He let out a heavy breath he was holding. He was definitely screwing that guy over later. 

“Well, that went well. If he actually got me the right key. Not that I think he can play around with our deal.” With the access code he obtained from Humphrey, he was finally able to see the full cybernetic registration list. It showed the timestamps and locations of their most recent tracking record.

Rhys found Hugo’s name on the list. He squinted at the location. “Yesterday at 14:00 at Pandoran Time. The old Atlas Facility? What is he doing there? Does this mean he’s still alive?” Rolling to his side on his bed, he dialled Vaughn and Yvette’s Echo comm number. 

Vaughn picked up first. “Sup, bro.”

Yvette followed soon after. “ Got any updates, Rhys?”

“Hey guys, I found our asshole.”

“ Where is he?” Vaughn asked.

“He’s near one of the old Atlas facilities.”

“An Atlas facility? What is he doing there?” Rhys could imagine Yvette raising a brow.

“ Taking a giant dump, maybe.” Vaughn piped in. 

“ That’s gross, dude.”

Yvette kept typing on her keyboard. “If he’s still down there and not up on Helios with the promised Vault Key, something must have gone wrong.”

Vaughn huffed in exertion. “ Now how do we know when he’s coming on board?”

“ He should still have his ID chip. But I don’t think those can be tracked. At least not with my --I mean, Humphrey’s clearance level. I need a Top-Level Executive access code to do that.” Rhys paused in confusion at the accountant’s harsh breathing. “You okay bro?”

“Huh? Oh yeah just on my workout bike. I got one in my office a few months ago.”

Rhys absorbed “I didn’t know you worked out.”

“It helps me calm down and focus. Besides, it’s pretty fun.”

“ That sounds a little risky.” Yvette worried.

“It’s actually pretty safe.” 

“No, I meant needing to hack a top-level executive access code for our next step.”

“Right now Jim is in charge of maintaining the top executive floors. I need his approval to move onto the top of the floors.” Informed Rhys. He got up and headed towards the shower. “But I don’t have to directly access the executive rooms to get that code. You wouldn’t believe how much dirt I picked up from just scanning the Vice Presidents’ computers last night. I can make them hand it over… Well, that’s what I’m hoping at least.”

“ That sounds pretty useful! As much as it increases the chance of us being found out and getting airlocked, it also increases our chance of getting promoted and getting back at Hugo--If he ever comes back up. Either way, we’re back on track with our original plan!” Vaughn reckoned. 

Yvette agreed. “ So we don’t know if Hugo is even alive at this point. Maybe it’s better to focus on what we can do and keep our eyes on whether he shows up his face on the station or not. I like where this is going, but be careful, Rhys. If you disappear, where else could I find my leggy lunch buddy?”

Rhys threw the clothes he was wearing underneath his janitor outfit into the laundry basket outside the bathroom. “ I’m so touched. Truly. I feel so assured. And I’m not that leggy.”

“ Uh-huh. Just like how my hair isn’t chic fabulous.”

The money man jovially pointed out. “I’m sorry to break it to you bro, but your legs alone could reach the top of the Helios station.”

Rhys let out a laugh as he turned on the shower. “ I’ll see what I can do during my usual night rounds. Let me know if you guys have any particular person in mind you would like to blackmail.”

“ I’ll see if Hugo’s account goes through any changes.” Vaughn offered.

The requisition expert joined in. “ If Hugo doesn’t show up after a week, he’s probably dead. If he’s not dead, I’m sure Hyperion will be after him. I’ll keep my eye on any supply request under his name.”

“ Sounds like a plan. See you guys at lunch.” Rhys hung up and stepped into the shower.

Chapter Text

Hugo did not show up after a week.

Or the week after.

When the Hyperion soldiers were dispatched to collect his small piece of pinkie cybernetic, the body was not found. Even if he were to return to Helios, his embezzlement of 10 million dollars would have him in considerable trouble. And by considerable trouble, it meant blacklisted and possibly face Handsome Jack’s wrath. Wasting company money on a fake vault key (as reported by Hugo’s Pandoran dealer ‘August’ testified), is hard to be forgiven on Helios. 

Rhys sighed as he tried to find Hugo’s name on the cybernetic registry for the last time through his Echo Eye before his shift. Nothing. There was really no point since wherever Hugo was, he lost his cybernetic finger, and seemingly his employee ID chip too since Hyperion couldn’t locate him at all. Rhys grabbed and put on his janitor uniform.

“ I guess as far as Hyperion knows or cares, Hugo’s dead.”

“ I wouldn’t be surprised if he just went AWOL for a reason. He might be looking for something that will make up for his big mess.” Vaughn answered.

“ The only thing he could bring to the company to make up for his mess is to bring up a real vault key or 20 million worth of the deal. I doubt he could pull that off” Yvette reasoned. 

“ The last time I checked, Hugo’s bank account is locked. But even before that, there wasn’t any change in his balance. I think they locked his account the moment he didn’t return in the given time period.”

The halls were mostly empty save for a few overtime workers who were slowly drifting out of the hallway into the elevators or shuttles. Rhys activated his janitor cart, its headlights lighting up the dark hallway like a single candle in a winter night. “I didn’t expect Hugo to turn into a cryptid figure but here we are.”

“ You know who else is also a cryptid figure?” Yvette quipped. “The Company Man. I wonder who that would be.”

Vaughn sounded unimpressed. “ Really, Rhys? The Company Man?”

“ Hey, you call yourself a Money Man. You don’t have any rights to call me out.”

“ Money Man sounds cool. And it’s specific and iconic.”

Yvette tutted in mock exasperation. “That’s enough, gentlemen. You’re both pretty.”

“ I was in a rush, okay? And The Company Man sounds inconspicuous enough. I’m not really trying to stand out here.”

Rhys’ earpiece beeped with a notification. The usual robotic voice announced his next task: “Senior Vice Janitor Rhys report to sector B385. Be prepared to get dirty.” The said Vice Janitor rolled his eyes. Whoever worked on the Al just couldn’t resist adding suggestive phrases and irritatingly cheery insults to every announcement. 

“ What sector are you starting tonight?” The money man asked, perceiving that his friend has gotten another job direction.

“ Sector B385.”

Yvette perked up. “Hey, that’s my sector.  Let me know if you find anything good on Carr. She’s getting a little too close to swiping my promotion.”

“ Will do. Be careful Yvette. I’ll see you guys later. Night.”

“ See you later boogeyman.” Vaughn joked.

Vaughn and Yvette bid Rhys goodnight and hung up. Rhys looked at the time. It was five past midnight. “Heh, the boogeyman.”

Every night Rhys cleaned the hallway and each office room. So far he hasn’t come across anything particularly nasty except for earlier today when he had to clean up a body covered in some mutated skag poop. Rhys shuddered at the memory. It took several washes to get the stench out of his uniform. Why couldn’t they give him a spare uniform?

Rhys started mopping an office floor after quickly vacuuming it. He moved between each cubicle with slow deliberation for any visible clues that could be useful. He didn’t linger too long around regular employees or lower-level executives. When he reached the middle and/or higher executives’ desks however, he made sure to work around them so he can access the computers. His Echo Eye came in handy for that.

Suspicious files were noticeable because they tended to be heavily encrypted. The smart ones took classified information with them to their home, so he couldn’t get every shady deed to use against all potential targets. But he had a way of working around that and creating a chain of blackmail for others to get physically inaccessible information.

He quickly gained notoriety as The Company Man, an anonymous hacker who destroyed reputations of corrupted executives to gain what they wanted. To most people The Company Man is a baseless rumour, a made-up character created by disgruntled lower-level employees who should know better than to believe in something so ridiculous.

Rhys eventually finished up the hallway he was in and moved onto sector A. He tried to randomize his cleaning pattern so it would be harder to track him. And the computer stations he chose to hack each day were different too. 

Unfortunately for Yvette, all he could dig up on Carr so far was her attempts to bribe the department’s Assistant to Resource Manager. Bribery was so common on Helios, it was not worth trying to bait any employee with it. 

As Rhys scanned one of the last computers in sector A, a particularly heavily encrypted file caught his Echo eye. It may look like any other files to those with no programming knowledge, but to Rhys, it stood out in a way a gift box with an obnoxious wrapping does among monochrome gift boxes. And Rhys couldn’t resist opening one when it was offered to him in such a blatant display. 

After carefully peeling off the layers of encryption, records of Hyperion product data was revealed. Pages after pages were full of faked data on classic Hyperion gun model parts and electronic device parts. The numbers and original date of each part didn’t match up. And it dated back to...two years ago. All for the extra bonus cash in their pockets. These were probably documented as a form of the transaction receipt. 

Rhys looked at the desk plaque in front of him: Ken Hynkel, Senior Hardware Systems Manager. You can’t pull off with this kind of scheme alone. Meaning once Ken is pulled off the ground, Rows of his co-conspirators would be Dangling behind him, forced to face the wrath of Hyperion. All for the bonus cash for Ken and his buddies.

Rhys mulled over as he emptied the trash can and left the office, heading to the elevator to 

start cleaning the other sectors and the Hub of Heroism.

Or rather, they needed to face the wrath of Mr. Hyperion himself: Handsome Jack. This seemed too big of a scandal for Rhys to play around with. He targeted individual targets for easy tracking and control, all recorded in his little black folder inside his subsystem. Dealing with a web full of an undetermined number of spiders ready to strike down anyone who dared to pull one of them out was too risky. Better to have them swept out in one swoop by a giant handsome broom.

Rhys sniggered at the mental image of Handsome Jack fighting off cobwebs full of spiders with a gun. A flame gun would make more sense but regular gun sounded more amusing.

After a moment of hesitation and reinstating confidence in his coding skills, Rhys sent the file to Handsome Jack’s general directory under the name of his alter ego.

Chapter Text

Handsome Jack’s office was filled with the sound of keyboard buttons being roughly pressed by heavy, deft fingers. Jack sat in front of his desk, the light from Elpis streaming through the wall-length window panels behind him. His eyebrows were scrunched together in concentration as his eyes zeroed on the document he was working on. Empty coffee cups littered the desk. A freshly brewed hot coffee sat next to the CEO, slowly cooling in the chilly office air.

He’s been working on a new company security strategy and developing ways to implement it into the company network as soon as possible. Since none of the people he was paying to do the job was coming up with a solid plan, he had to do it himself. As he always did. 

Jack grunted with renewed annoyance as a new message notification binged, snapping him out of his trance. He checked the time on his screen: it was almost 1 am. Since Meg has left the office hours ago, all messages were automatically forwarded directly to him. It was rare to receive any messages at this time unless it was urgent. He almost ignored it, before remembering Angel recovering in the highly secured single infirmary room. 

After the incident with Angel luring the Vault Hunters to her dome and almost getting herself killed, his daughter has been taken up to Helios in a hurry. She has been slowly recovering from the attack and the forced disconnection from the Eridium injector. The doctor in charge firmly insisted that she needed to recover from the Eridium dependence if Jack wanted her to make a full recovery. Despite being frazzled and at the brink of losing his mind, he managed to not pull the trigger in front of unconscious Angel. He needed the doctor. It was the last self-control he could manage before he went back to his penthouse and destroyed everything in sight.

It relieved him to know that Angel was where he could easily protect her, even if she refused to talk to him, look at him, or answer his questions. She only sent out curt replies to his text messages. Angel had never rebelled against him growing up. And he wasn’t sure how to react or deal with Angel’s new behaviour…or dealing with the revelation of his own mistakes.

He was used to people loving him-- and hating him. He could bear Angel despising him if it meant that her life won’t be at risk of being taken away so easily. 

Weariness and exhaustion washed over Jack. 

He opened up the new message with little to no enthusiasm, leaning back in his chair and taking another sip of his coffee. It could be Angel answering to any of his messages. Or her asking for something she needed. Maybe she will send something besides “fine” or “no” or “yes”. Instead, an unfamiliar name appeared on his screen. 

[The Company Man]: Thought you might want to look into this.

“Who the hell calls themselves The Company Man? What a dumb name.” he grouched. He scanned the attached file thoroughly for any malware or corruption. His security software detecting none, Jack opened the file. The man’s half-lidded eyes lazily looked over the document. They got bigger and bigger the more he poured over the records of fudged Hyperion product parts. Jack groaned in aggravation. Was this why the sales faltered in the last quarterly report?

“I thought I cleaned up this mess when I became a CEO. Son of a taint… This is why I hate old farts…” Jack looked down at the sender’s name again. His fingers started moving across the keyboard, this time to find out who is behind the username. He blinked in surprise when his attempt to trace them down got rejected. Jack leaned forward and tried to trace the sender again, only to be rejected...again..?

“What the hell..?” The man noticed the reply button on the screen and contemplated for a moment before shrugging and typing in a reply. He could always bust this person’s ass later. 

[HJack69]: Who the hell are you.

There was no immediate answer. Jack almost closed the chat window to deal with it later until he got a response.

[The Company Man]: Isn’t my username obvious enough, sir?

Jack’s lip twitched in irritation and amusement. But mostly irritation. “Cheeky little shit, ain’t ya?”

[HJack69]: Alright, asshole. What do you want?

Jack tried to tracing the stranger through the message reply directory, following where his responses ended up reaching. He had to keep The Company Asshole talking.

[The Company Man]: I haven’t thought about that.

Jack’s eyebrow quirked up. What idiot was this?

[The Company Man]: Nothing at the moment. But if I think of anything I’ll let you know.

If they think of anything--Jack huffed, incredulous.  

[HJack69]: Which company are you working for, smartass? Maliwan? Vladof? Dahl?

[The Company Man]: Why would I bother giving you a file that exposes one of your unfaithful high-level executives if I worked for any of those companies? And seriously, Dahl?

[HJack69]: I don’t know, to get on my good side and stab me in the back later? And if you’re not working for any of the shitty companies, who are you working for?

Jack tapped his chair arm with his fingers in frustration. Whatever command he sent to find who The Company Idiot was got lost in the void as if getting sucked into a virtual black hole.  It almost felt like he was dealing with an A.I.-managed network. Whoever this asshole was, they or it was good. 

[The Company Man]: Technically you, if hearing that makes you feel better.

[HJack69]: Alright, good job on letting me know who I should put on my shit list. Have a cookie. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t track you down and personally deal with you.

So this guy --he assumed he was a guy from the nickname-- was a Hyperion employee. Jack could ask Angel to help him track him down. It would be a piece of cake for Angel with her siren abilities.

A memory of Angel lying on a hospital bed, pale and gaunt from the withdrawal shock, flashed through Jack’s mind. Jack’s fingers still. Angel has clearly shown that she doesn’t want anything to do with him. It would be better to not involve Angel in any of this. For her sake. And for his own. 

Jack massaged his forehead with a sigh. And not for the first time, wished he had a wife who could handle this better than him. But it was always just him. These thoughts only made him feel more irritated. 

[The Company Man]: Because I’m on your side. And If you could track me down, you would already have found me by now.

Jack’s eyes narrowed, peeved. The Company Man wasn’t wrong.

[HJack69]: Real cute, pumpkin. You’re talking to the person who built the network you’re in. 

[The Company Man]: Guess I’d better go then. Have fun with Ken and his crew, because I’m not touching that mess.

No new message appeared afterwards.

Jack downed his last cup of coffee, scrunched the empty container and threw it to the general direction of where the trash can was. He looked at his half-finished papers on his desk with disdain. Jack picked up a pen near his right hand and fiddled with it.

Everything that happened a few months ago left him exhausted if he had to admit. He’d lost two of his best crews, his city, wasted his resources, and nearly lost his daughter. The Vault Hunters seemed to have paused their advance, but they could spring back anytime. They were hungry for his blood. He’ll have to deal with Pandora later.

Vault Hunters. The searing and suffocating dread he felt through his body at the possibility of losing Angel forever still lingered and kept him awake at night. It was the very reason why Jack locked himself away in his office past midnight. He didn’t know what to do with himself when he was alone with his thoughts.

The pen snapped in half in his grip. He never  ever wanted to feel that helpless again. He never considered the possibility that he could lose. Or that he would lose his crew or his daughter. But now he had to add those possibilities to the equation. 

Jack looked at the chat log again. He didn’t know how much access The Company Man had within Helios, but if the stranger happened to gain access to the medical sector and discover Angel…Anything was possible. 

Jack closed the documents he was working on and opened a new one. The CEO started to type streams of codes, building a new program from scratch. It was better to deal with a problem when it was on an early stage.

It was time to catch a mouse.

Chapter Text

Rhys had not expected Jack to respond to his message. He expected to be ignored or even ridiculed. When his system detected attempts to breach his security, he freaked out. The CEO responded rather aggressively, but Rhys did breach Hyperion securities. It was considered against user agreement and technically a crime under company rules.

Oops. He’d better up his security. Which meant that he would have to personally customize and modify his cybernetics. Rhys stared at his palm screen projection, lying in his bed in his sleepwear. He may have to order some parts for the mods. It was a good thing that he had money saved up from his previous job.

Beyond all reasonable thoughts, one fact kept rearing its head up and disrupted his focus: He talked with Handsome Jack.

Rhys lay in bed with a dopey grin on his face, his shopping list forgotten. Then he rolled over and started flailing his legs, his face buried in his pillow. When he rolled back again, his cheeks were red from trying to suppress his giggles.

He talked with Handsome Jack! 

There’s a knock at his door. Vaughn appeared, holding a can of beer. “You okay, bro?”

“Oh, um, yeah just… tired I guess.” Of course his best bro had to witness his undignified fanboying. Again.

Vaughn stared at Rhys’ still heated face and his disheveled hair. The bed covers were rumpled in odd directions. “Oh, uh, sorry for bothering you during your Jack-session. My bad. Please go ahead after I leave your premises.”

This time Rhys’ entire face turns beet red. “What? How- no WAIT Vaughn it’s totally not what you’re thinking!”

“Uh-huh. Just like you weren’t totally making goo-goo eyes at Handsome Jack action figure last time.”

“ I was not making goo-goo eyes at-” Rhys let out a frustrated groan. He could totally see Vaughn hiding his grin behind his beer can.

“Listen, I just talked with Jack!”

“Uh-huh. Did he say he wants to sweep you off your feet?”

Rhys glared at Vaughn. “You’ve been spending way too much time with Yvette.” He composed himself and sat upright. “And it was more like he wanted to grab me by my feet and bust me. I’m serious Vaughn, I just talked with Jack as, you know, under my alias. I just sent him some stuff he might wanna check out since picking up dirt is my job… Uh, literally and figuratively…and this stuff I found last night was a bit of a big deal for me to mess with it.”

Vaughn downed the beer with a painful gulp. .”You made first contact with Handsome Jack ? Bro, I love you but you do know that he literally built pretty much everything on Helios, right? What if he finds you ?!”

“Vaughn, it’s okay. This is not the first time I’ve hacked a company system and didn’t get found out.”

“That’s only because it was a small company that didn’t know what online security meant. And that was during college days. Oh god. Hold my beer. I’m getting you off this station tonight.”

“Chill, dude. If Jack really wanted to find me, he would already have. I have a background security program constantly running here-” He tapped his forehead where his port was located. “-and since I’m getting live feedback, I can respond with the speed of an Artificial Intelligence if any real attack happens. I’m basically running on three computers here. And I’m ordering extra parts for modification. See?” Rhys showed Vaughn his shopping list.

Vaughn stared at him. “I swear Rhys, you sometimes scare me. Don’t try to plot for world dominance and destruction of mankind when you go full robot.”

Rhys threw a pillow at Vaughn. “I’ll be after your ass first when the time comes.”

Vaughn laughed and threw Rhys’ pillow back, who failed to catch it and fell backward with an Oomph . When did Vaughn get so strong?

“Alright. Don’t take any more risk on your own. Call out for me or Yvette if you need extra support. I’m heading to bed now. Good night bro!”

“Night.”

Rhys ordered the parts he needed online. He fumbled with his arm once more, examining it, before crawling under the covers and getting comfortable. Maybe he went too far during his conversation with Handsome Jack. Yet there was no denying that it was exciting to chat with Handsome Jack himself, despite the CEO being an asshole as he was known to be. 

Addicting, even. He won’t tell Vaughn that … He still wanted to have some dignity around his best bro. 

Rhys’ eyelids became heavier. Vaughn was right. It was probably not a good idea to keep contacting the CEO in any form. This will be the first and the last time. Since he was sort of helpful to the CEO it wasn’t likely that the CEO will consider him a threat and come after him with a vengeance. He hoped not.

----------------

Rhys made a face at the vomit splattered in the middle of the hallway. It could have been some poor sap losing getting tormented in the office. He was starting to learn that it was not uncommon on Sector 0, where all the top administration and executive offices were (except for Jack’s).  Or maybe they got drunk. Whatever the circumstances, it was disgusting and Rhys had to clean it up.

He had come to get accustomed to dealing with unidentifiable substances, but that still didn’t stop him from standing 3 feet away from said substances while cleaning. Janitor outfit and his cheapest running shoes or not, he was not getting in contact with... that . Especially not his hair. Rhys pulled down his janitor cap further down his face to protect his hair. He had nice hair and was proud of it, alright?

Things were quiet after Rhys disconnected with Jack in the chat. He assumed that Jack had forgotten about it and moved on. The senior vice janitor knew for sure that Jack actually looked into what Rhys sent him. Ken’s office was emptied out, along with his name plaque, 3 days later he reported to Jack. 

His ‘Black Book of Sin’, as Vaughn liked to call it, was getting longer and longer. He tried to not get overboard, and only saved the ones that might be useful to him. Some of them were saved because they were funny, even if he had no use for them. Who knew Sian from the Help Desk had a thing for the ‘sexy’ take on Loaderbots? The trio laughed for a long time at that. 

During those two days, Rhys managed to obtain the modification parts through express shipping. He obtained each piece separately so the company security system won’t detect any suspicion. His free time was spent putting those parts together, updating his hard drives and reinforcing his security. The physical modification was mostly done on the arm. He decided to leave the cybernetic implant alone and focus on updating its software: overhauling its coding and implementing streamlined defense programming. Technically he had breached the user agreement by updating his Echo eye on his own, but as long as they didn’t come after his ass, who cared, really. They would probably ‘fire’ him just for hacking the company module. It was a shame he didn’t have an opportunity to test it out yet.

The opportunity came to him in the form of Handsome Jack.

As Rhys was mopping up the vomit, an alert from his echo eye blocked the corner of his view with its message window. 

[Attempt to compromise subsystem detected]

Rhys stopped his mopping. Something was trying to hack into his system from all directions at once, and it was quickly eating through his defense walls. 

[HJack69 enforcing Chief Executive Officer Override Command]

“ Oh shit- ”

The janitor hid behind his cart and took off his right glove. The brunet rapidly started to live-patch each hole. Synced with his palm display that showed streams of codes, his Echo Eye glowed cyan blue, flickering in the dark hallway. 

The attack was vicious and it felt like trying to contain a breaking dam all on his own, but somehow Rhys was able to stop the override command. He slumped down on the floor (not on the vomit, thank you very much), trying to catch his breath from exertion. He could feel slight pressure of an oncoming headache. God, he deserved a bucket of ice cream after this workout.

Noticing that he’s behind schedule, the cybernetic man hurriedly stood up and rushed forward-

-only to crash into something hard.

Rhys landed directly on the soggy floor on his ass, the back of his janitor outfit soaking up the muddy mixture of diluted vomit. Air wooshed out of his lungs as someone heavier landed on his body, knocking his janitor hat askew.

“Friggin- what in the hell-?!”

Handsome Jack’s fiery glare met Rhys’ startled ones. Blood drained from Rhys’ face, recognizing the CEO. He had enough sense left to spare to quickly readjust his hat and hide his port and echo eye. The cybernetic man didn’t expect Jack to find him this fast. He thought he had blocked the malware Jack sent and secured his log activity! What was Handsome Jack even doing on this level at this time? Did he personally track him down so he could strangle Rhys to death for daring to mess with company data? Rhys felt dizzy with all the possibilities.

Jack quickly got up, holding a fluffy object in one hand, pressing down on Rhys’ stomach with his other hand to push his body upward. The young man let out a quiet ‘Oof’. My god, the CEO’s hands were big. The janitor was pretty sure his boss could encircle his entire waist using both of his hands.

Unaware of Rhys’ terrified (and excited) state, said CEO adjusted his jacket and looked down to the janitor who was struggling to get up from his spot on the floor. The older man pointed his index finger at Rhys’ face. It had the effect of a gun, making the scrambling janitor freeze. “Watch it. Count yourself lucky that I didn’t get any filth on my stuff, or we would have a problem. Finish cleaning this mess up and get the hell home.”

Rhys managed to stand up, using his janitor cart as support. He straightened his back, his flesh hand starting to sweat from nervousness. The cybernetic man glanced down at Jack’s hand, noticing a worn-looking rainbow unicorn plushie and an ebook pad.

The young man cursed at himself for thinking that was cute when his life was on the line. “I’m very sorry Handsome Jack sir, er, it won’t happen again. But sir, I uh, I still have to finish up this area before my shift.” Rhys hated how his voice got smaller and smaller.

Jack halted in mid-stride turned around to look back at the janitor. The CEO squinted at Rhys’s height. Why was this guy so friggin’ tall? Did he specialize in cleaning the ceilings? And why did he still keep janitors around? “Don’t we have robots for cleaning up craps on the floor…and the ceiling?” Jack thought out loud.

Rhys’ nervously tried to comb through his hair with his hand out of habit, only to have his hat obstruct the way. He awkwardly put his gloved hand down again. “Haha, I guess some work still needs a, um, a personal touch... Sir.”

Jack let out a contemplative hum as he tilted his head in an attempt to see Rhys’ face. The older man only got a glimpse of a blue eye before the janitor looked down. 

The ex-middle manager tried to calm his breathing. It seemed like Jack wasn’t coming after him or knew who he was (why would he?). This was a mere coincidence. A terrifying coincidence. 

“Eh, you sound a little young to be a janitor. You new?”

“Yes sir, I started three weeks ago.”

“Mh. Didn’t know we were taking in interns for a janitor position.” Jack quickly looked around the hallway. “Everything else looks clean enough. Go get laid or something, kiddo. Go home. I don’t have time to deal with you.” With a wave of his hand, Jack left the hallway and took off into the darkness in a hurry, disappearing from the janitor’s sight.

Rhys stood there for a while, standing in the semi-dried up puddle of mop water and vomit. “I hope I wasn’t hallucinating that... Or maybe I was..” Dazed, but delighted at the aspect that he can finish his shift early, Rhys quickly cleaned up the mess he was standing on and went towards the elevator. God, he hoped that there was still Rum Vanilla Caramel Truffle ice cream left in his refrigerator.

----------------

Jack stood in front of Angel’s patient room. Through the door window, he could see Angel sleeping. Eridium was slowly dripping into her system. It would take some time for her body to adjust supporting itself without the alien substance, even with the most highly advanced medical technology money can buy in the galaxy at disposal.

As an “A.I.” Angel could access everything and anything on the Echonet. More, if she wished. Jack vaguely remembered being sick as a child. All he could remember was the intense boredom and a ratty room. Everything else was hazy. He didn’t remember anyone taking care of him. Heck, he didn’t remember the last time he was sick as an adult. As always, he had to make up his lack of reference through Echonet or whatever he assumed people did to take care of other sick people. 

Angel was never sick as a child. He assumed it had something to do with being a siren. Of course, she was still vaccinated and went through regular health checkups and all such, but she never needed to see a doctor for a cold or any other illness. 

With silent footsteps Jack entered the room. He placed Angel’s old favorite plushie and ebook pad on the table next to her bed. He couldn’t let her have access to Echonet, but she loved reading as a kid, and he could at least allow her that much for now. That’s all he could figure out what to do. The CEO carefully cradled Angel’s hand in his, tracing his thumb over her palm. Her hands were so tiny as a baby, and even as a young lady her hands were still much smaller than his. 

What good did that memories do now, now that his own daughter ended up being hurt because of him? Nothing. Good intentions meant shit.

Jack closed the patient room door and left the medical sector. It was a good thing that the janitor didn’t ruin Angel’s childhood plushie, or he would have ended up with one less janitor and a ruined, bloody unicorn. But the stuffed unicorn ended up just fine. Plus, the janitor’s young voice and height caught him off guard. Not that he cared, but all janitors he’d come across were old and unappealing. Insignificant. 

The CEO mentally shrugged and headed towards his penthouse.

He absentmindedly wondered if the hacking software he sent out managed to track down The Company Asshole. 

Chapter Text

Yvette sounded scandalous. “ Really? You bumped into him at 1am on the executive floor?”

“More like crashed into him.” Rhys indulged her with a conspiratory delivery of what happened last night. 

“ And he was holding a… unicorn plushie… are you sure you weren’t hallucinating?” Vaughn interjected, pushing up his glasses.

“ That’s what I thought so too… but I could feel his presence so… I guess not..? I mean, I could feel his weight and touch.. and all that.” Rhys munched on his microwaved brunch. It was more of his dinner since he slept in the afternoon and woke up late evening.  “And I got attacked by Jack’s override software before meeting him.”

Vaughn moaned. “Oh my god. I knew it. Hold my glasses, Yvette.”

“ Vaughn, we’re in different sectors, I can’t hold onto your glasses. What are you going to do without your glasses? You can’t see without them.” Yvette responded, amused but exasperated.

“It’s a good thing I upgraded my tech. The attack just caught me off guard but I managed to rebuff it.” They didn’t need to know that he became sick after finishing that battle. He ran another diagnostic on his system. Everything was in good shape.

“You know I don’t need glasses to see properly, Yvette. They’re for accounting.” He turned towards his hacker friend in the video chat window. “ Rhys, maybe you should stop this for a while. Yvette and I got you. We can support you while you look for safer ways to work.”

Rhys poked at the mashed potatoes in his tray. “Coming face to face with Handsome Jack was terrifying, guys. But I really doubt I’ll come across him again. Besides, why would he? I helped him. Once he calms down, I'm sure he’d lose interest.”

“ How did he even manage to discover where to send his attack dog?” Yvette pondered. 

“I have no idea- oh, wait.”

“Rhys…?”

Silence.

“ Rhys .”

“ I forgot to block our Direct Message route. I will… do that right now.” The embarrassment was palpable.

Yvette shook her head. “Please do that. I have to get back to work now before I have another heart attack.”

“ Same. I’ll talk to you later, bro. Stay safe!” Vaughn quickly disconnected his video chat, following Yvette. 

Rhys turned off the palm projection and groaned. “I can’t believe I made such an amateur mistake.” He dunked the empty tray into the sink and flopped down on the sofa. His limbs splaying over the edge of the sofa arms and seats. He turned on his palm display.

Rhys blinked at the new message alert. He looked at the sender. Oh no.

[Sent by: HJack69  5 hours ago]

[HJack69]: I know you can read this asshole. Answer.

After a moment of contemplation, which should have lasted longer, Rhys scanned the message for any hidden malware. The message was clean. Curiosity outweighing his common sense, Rhys opened the message.

[HJack69] : So you somehow managed to rebuff my program, which, I gotta admit, is not bad. You seem to know your way around codes. My theory is that you are on A.I.  Why don’t you tell me what’s in this picture?

Attached was a crudely drawn picture of a claptrap with ‘The Company Man’ written over its face, getting eaten by a skag.

Rhys snorted. And after a very short-lived internal debate, typed in his response.

[TheCompanyMan]: I’m much more good-looking than that, thank you very much. And I’m definitely not a claptrap. Or plan to get eaten by a skag.

Rhys waited, and when he didn’t get an immediate response, he started to change into his sleepwear.

It took 5 minutes for Jack to respond.

[HJack69] : Oh, so you’re not a bot. This means I can give you a free hands-on interrogation experience. Congrats, pumpkin.

[TheCompanyMan]: Is there something that I can do for you? Otherwise, I’ll have to permanently block you.

[HJack69] : Why, scared that I might catch you?

[TheCompanyMan] : Actually, yes. I don’t really want the honor of getting strangled to death by mighty Handsome Jack.

[HJack69]: Why shouldn’t I?

[TheCompanyMan]: Did the Ken-case not come out well?

[HJack69]: Oh, I sent little Kenny and his buddies down to Pandora. Dropped them right in the middle of a bullymong den. I’m sure they got a warm welcome.

[TheCompanyMan] : Cruel and unusual punishment, but effective, I guess. Does that mean I’m off the hook?

[HJack69] : Not quite, dum dum. Who knows what you’re really trying to pull here. Trying to sell my company data to the competitors? 

[TheCompanyMan] : If it helps you in any way, I’m not really trying to maim you, Hyperion or Helios. I’m more focused on getting back at one specific person.

[HJack69]: Who?

[TheCompanyMan] : It’s nobody you’d know. But he screwed me up really bad.

[HJack69]: Not gonna tell me, huh?

[TheCompanyMan]: Nope. I’m trying not to be found here. Or killed.

[HJack69]: There’s no shame in hiding your talent from me, but alright, that’s fair.

Rhys found it a little bit suspicious that Jack was so gracious about his security being invaded by an anonymous hacker. Rhys knew he shouldn’t be chatting with the CEO like this. It was too risky. But it also sent a thrill through his body, knowing that Jack was interested enough to talk with him. Vaughn was right, he had issues.

[TheCompanyMan]: Wow, Handsome Jack himself complimenting me? I’m flattered.

[HJack69]: That’s a real cute attitude you got there. Keeping going. See where it gets you.

[TheCompanyMan]: ..I wasn’t being sarcastic. 

[HJack69]: So you just snoop around and find dirt on other employees in your free time?

[TheCompanyMan]: I guess you can say that. 

[HJack69]: I can send you so many more malware towards you. Even hire a systems analyst team to track you down. Why shouldn’t I do that?

Rhys felt panic spark in his chest. That would be a pain in the ass, and if Jack did manage to catch him, it would ruin him and his friends’ plan too.

[TheCompanyMan]: I really doubt anyone else can do what you can’t do. I could… keep sending you information on people who steal from Hyperion? I can report any potential risk before it happens. At least the ones I find.

[HJack69] : Alright, make yourself useful then. Prove your worth to me. Then we’ll see.

...What. Just like that? Rhys waited for more response but didn’t get any. He grabbed his shirt and slumped on the sofa, his voice muffled by the fabric. “He’s lying. He’s totally lying and he’s going to keep trying to find me.”

He got another notification alert.

[HJack69]: That means no blocking or disconnecting, pumpkin. 

Oh god, he was going to keep talking to him, wasn’t he? Rhys didn’t know whether he should be excited or terrified. 

He ended up spending another hour making sure any messages Jack sent would be visible to him, but won’t get traced by anyone. The automated company package update feature was disabled in case it would somehow lead Jack to him. Rhys has fantasized about getting the CEO’s attention but not like this. Hadn’t he made clear that his motivation was personal and harmless to Jack? Talk about being paranoid. 

----------------

Jack smirked in his office chair. “I’m totally tracking this asshole down.”

The CEO managed to learn a few things from the conversation: One, The Company Man was an employee on Helios. Two, his goal seemed to be a personal vendetta towards another lowly employee and not him or his company. At least it wasn’t his main goal for now. Three, this guy was a pleaser. Four, what a weirdo. Who snoops around and goes through other people’s dirty secrets and trash?

He didn’t know if The Company Man would actually listen to him and not cut off their communication, but he already had the sucker’s real IP address. It was hard to track down its location from what he decoded since The Company Man was using some kind of custom VPN that routed him through other nearby networks 24/7. But he could still talk to him and send out more override commands whenever he wanted. The guy appeared to be forgetting that Jack was the one who renovated and built the Helios network years ago. He had the highest clearance for ALL commands.

Unfortunately, anything else about the mystery man was still unknown. The location of the device the man was using couldn’t be pinpointed by Hyperion’s surveillance system. Calling the Helios Echonet service was useless since they couldn't find anything either. As far as they knew The Company Man’s IP address didn’t exist.

Oh, this guy was good. Boring choice in an alias name, but good.

If he could catch this guy, Jack might be able to use him.  But he would have to contain him and figure out how honest or dishonest this guy was being. He couldn't have the company system he built get compromised by an unknown agent. It risked everything he worked for and Angel’s safety. Handsome Jack will be the one to make the final call on The Company Man’s fate.

----------------

Jack got a text from the hacker close to midnight.

[TheCompanyMan] : Did you seriously try to track me down again today? This is the 3rd time. Give me a break.

[HJack69]: If you hate it so much, you can just tell me who you are. I could use a guy like you.

[TheCompanyMan] : Not after harassing me three times in one day. 

[HJack69]: Why are you messaging me at night?

[The Company Man]: I’m a night owl. 

Jack smirked. This guy was handing over clues on his own! What an idiot. He’ll just have to keep lying, er, sweet-talking this guy. 

[The Company Man]: I also expected you to check my message the next day. Sorry if I woke you up.

Sorry? He’s sorry for- Jack repeated in his head, taken aback. Maybe not that soft, considering the number of scandals that were being reported on Helios News on Echonet the past few weeks. That’s how he learned that The Company Man was already notorious among his employees, and even some executives. 

Then again, Jack mused, the guy could be trying to sweet-talk him too.

[HJack69]: Have to finish some work. Unless you have something to share with me, go back to doing whatever you’re doing. 

[The Company Man] : Slow night. Getting some cleaning done. Got nothing major to share with you yet.

[The Company Man] : But could you please stop tracking me down?

[HJack69]: Haha no.

[The Company Man] : Could you at least not do it in the afternoon?

[HJack69]: Now that you’ve mentioned that, I’m going to do it more in the afternoon.

[The Company Man] : >:( 

[The Company Man] : What does a man gotta do to get some peace of mind?

Jack grinned. This guy sounded and texted like a major nerd. He had a feeling that The Company Man looked unassuming in real life. 

[HJack69]: Say the magic word, then I might skip the afternoons.

[The Company Man] : Please?

[HJack69]: No.

[The Company Man] : You suck.

Jack sniggered. This guy was entertaining to make fun of. But despite his mushy attitude, the CEO knew that the hacker was cunning. Jack still couldn’t break down this guy’s system walls after several attempts. He had to keep his guard up.

Then a thought came to his mind: what if it’s not one person, but a team of hackers pretending to be one person? 

[HJack69]: You don’t happen to have a twin, do you?

[The Company Man] : I don’t know. Do I?

Jack leaned back, the corners of his lips twitching in a mixture of irritation and amusement.

[HJack69]: Your twin is named The Regular Man and he takes turns with you to keep the security running. He likes pineapple on pizza and has a funny accent because he’s a cartoon villain.

[The Company Man] : lol That would be pretty convenient. But no I work solo.

[The Company Man] : But I do like pineapple on pizza.

[HJack69]: I’ll have to put you in the cell just for that.

[The Company Man] : Hey, they’re good!

[HJack69]: No fruits on my pizza. Or in any bread.

[The Company Man] : Guess only those with superior taste buds knows how to appreciate a genius cuisine. 

[HJack69]: Someone with actual taste buds will appreciate sardine on pizza.

[The Company Man] : Oh gross. This is the breaking point. You’re not cool anymore.

Jack leaned forward. No one dare insults Handsome Jack’s preference in food.

[HJack69]: It’s good stuff, pumpkin. And it’s not your average sardine, it’s the stuff they import from Aqua-B. Those are more expensive than lobsters and truffles. And they don’t have that gross fishy stink. Put some hot sauce and pretzels on it, and it's a godsend. You never know until you try it.

[HJack69]: You think I’m cool?

[The Company Man] : This is torture.

[The Company Man] : No. Not anymore I don’t understand what you’re saying or what you decide to put in your mouth.

[HJack69]: It’s okay to be attracted to me.

Who wouldn’t, really.

[The Company Man] : Being attracted to you is fatal. 

[HJack69]: You won’t be saying that if you tried one at the...The Empire? Ah, The Empress.

[The Company Man] : The Empress? Not happening on my salary. Especially not for that abomination. Oh god is that the pizza I hear so much about? The Handsome Deluxe?

[HJack69]: Yeup. Became an actual menu because I ordered it so often. 

[The Company Man] : You do realize that it was a trend to do an eating challenge with that pizza, right? Your pizza is a meme.

[HJack69]: People still order it because they know in their hearts that it’s a masterpiece and delicious.  

[The Company Man] : You know what a meme is, right? You can’t be that old.

Jack let out an indignant huff. Cheeky little bastard.

[HJack69]: I know what a meme is--

. . .

By the time Jack looked up from his chat screen, it was past midnight. He frowned. Wow, did he really talk nonsense with this guy for over an hour?

[HJack69]: Alright, enough chitchat. 

[The Company Man] : Oh crap, it’s late. Goodnight Handsome Jack, sir.

Jack rolled his eyes at the sudden formality but didn’t try to suppress his smile.

[HJack69]: Just call me Jack. You dropped ‘Sir’ a long time ago. You don’t have to say my full name every time you address me.

[The Company Man] : Getting a little too familiar, don’t you think?

Jack paused.  So far he knew that The Company Man was one of his lower-level employees (which is a shame considering his competence). It was unlikely that he would have seen this guy since he rarely went down to those sectors. And possibly less chance to catch this guy in broad simulated-daylight since he’s supposedly more “active” during nighttime. Maybe he’s one of the Programmers or part of the Security Specialist. It’s common for them to work overtime and overnight. The Company Man could have easily used work as an excuse to snoop around.

[HJack69]: It won’t be long until we meet face-to-face so why not? It’s good to get familiar with each other ;)

[The Company Man] : I won’t be leaving Helios unless you want me to. Or make me. 

[HJack69]: Oh you won’t be leaving Helios that easily, pumpkin.

He wasn’t lying. If The Company Man left Helios and decided to work against him, it would be a problem. Another reason to find out the identity behind his hacker.

[HJack69]: Alright, humor me before you go. Give me one detail about how you look.

[The Company Man] : Hmm… I don’t know… What if you vent everyone with that detail into space? I’m all for sabotaging assholes but not being a cause of mass death. 

[HJack69]: Rehiring that many people is a pain in the ass. The board members won’t stop bothering me if I do that. Do you know how much money the company loses every time we have to rehire and retrain newbies? It sucks.

[The Company Man] : Promise me that you won’t strangle me.

[HJack69]: I won’t strangle you. On sight.

[The Company Man] : Uhuh. Don’t think I missed the implication.

[HJack69]: Gimmie something.

[The Company Man] : Okay. I have brown hair. 

[HJack69]: That’s not helpful at all.

[The Company Man] : Good luck! ;)  Bye, Jack.

Jack totally did not sulk with disappointment. Nope.

----------------

“ Sup, kiddos! I hope you’re working hard to make daddy and his company rich! Enjoy your lunchtime while it lasts!!” 

People started to scatter left and right out of the lower sector hallway, making room for the Hyperion CEO. His lips curled up in the corners with satisfaction, the man prowled through the lower level sector, eyes searching for someone. Some stood still like a prey too startled to do anything but stare at the incoming predator.

But Jack had no interest in any of them. His eyes only stayed momentarily on those with brown hair. But none of them seemed to match his image of The Company Man. The guy could have lied about his hair color too. But something told him that he would know once he saw the guy’s face. 

His eyes briefly met with a short nerdy brunette with a goatee and green tech glasses. Jack smirked when the man shrank away. Nope, that was totally not the man he’s looking for.

Unfortunately, his visit to the Programming or the Security department turned out to be fruitless. None of the few employees who stayed overtime on the night he chatted with The Company Man stayed nearly midnight. The Head of Programming was blond and the Security Specialist Lead was a redhead.

Did the Company Man lie? Annoyed, he typed in a command on his watch to send out another attack on The Company Man. Jack did another look-around the two departments for any reactions. Nothing. And none of the computers in this sector matched the IP address of The Company Man.

Mood soured with disappointed, Jack stomped over to the commercial area where The Empress was located. They didn’t take pickup order but he was the damn CEO that owned the restaurant, and if he wanted a Handsome Deluxe to go, he was getting one no matter what.

----------------

Rhys, still tangled in his bedsheets, sat on the bed. His bloodshot eyes narrowed and focused on the palm projection screen that was currently being filled with spiteful messages towards the Hyperion CEO. He ignored the strands of hair falling over his forehead, separating itself from the curly bird’s nest of a bedhead. Rhys was too riled up to care about the state of his hair right now. He wanted to sleep in peace, damn it!

[The Company Man] : I really ask that you do not interrupt me during the afternoon, sir .

Early afternoon until late evening was the time he spent sleeping for his night shift. Unless he got a call to clean up a big mess, he didn’t leave his apartment. CEO or not it was a dick move.

Rhys sighed in defeat after aggressively typing and sending the message to the CEO. He looked around his messy bedroom. The floor was mostly clean save for his janitor outfit and the socks he took off a few hours ago. Below a shelf full of figurines of loaderbots and DnD characters was his computer station. And right next to the computer station was his bookshelf full of video games and books he still needed to finish reading. Next to the shelves was his “Hyperion Shrine” as Vaughn called it. It was mostly Handsome Jack motivational posters. He flopped back down and tried to go back to sleep, glaring at his posters.

A message alert binged loudly inside his head. Rhys groaned and opened his palm.

[HJack69]: Come on, buddy! Why the formality?

[The Company Man] : What’s this? Oh, this is the sound of me blocking you.

[HJack69]: Alright, jeez. I was walking around to find you, okay?

He what?! Rhys nearly jumped out of his own skin at that single remark. The cybernetic man, feeling much more awake, sat upright on his bed.

[The Company Man] : What? Where?

[HJack69]: I dropped by a few departments to see if you were there.

[The Company Man] : You don’t even know how my face looks.

[HJack69]: Meh, none of them felt like you. Or had your IP address.

Rhys was still piqued that Jack managed to snatch his IP address through the first few exchanges. He pouted at the reminder.

[The Company Man] : What do you mean none of them “felt” like me?

[HJack69]: Y’know… None of them had your energy. 

Did Handsome Jack just say he tried to find me based on the vibe he gets from me? Rhys wasn’t quite sure the man was being serious or trying to humor him. 

[The Company Man] : Was the last file I sent you not good enough?

[HJack69]: No that was a good find. Had fun strangling one and airlocking the rest. 

[HJack69]: Ahaha one of them actually begged me not to kill him because ‘Oh Mr. Handsome Jack sir, I have three kids and a wife!’ 

[HJack69]: That was rich coming from someone who stole welfare money. That son of a taint was stealing my money that I invested in my company, and that’s the best excuse he could give me? Idiot.  

[The Company Man] : And that wasn’t even the only thing he stole.

[The Company Man] : What happened to his wife and kids though?

[HJack69]: What, his little munchkins, and his wife? They’re getting enough insurance money to cover their asses for a decade from insurance and welfare service.

[HJack69]: Ironic, tragic and funny, really. 

[HJack69]: Mostly funny.

[The Company Man] : That’s a weirdly nice thing for you to do. I mean, you also support passing bandit hunting as a legal sport, but it’s something.

[HJack69]: Don’t patronize me, kiddo. Providing for your own team is what heroes do. Those bastards were working against Hyperion, which is pretty much the same as working against me. You don’t wanna do that.

Subtle.

[The Company Man]: That was a pretty narrow definition of a hero.

[HJack69]: What, you got a problem with how I do things?

Being on a chat was lowering his inhibitions and sense of self-preservation, wasn’t it?

[The Company Man] : I didn’t say I did. Just that some might. If I did, I wouldn’t be here, would I? And you gotta admit that you do things that are… Questionable, at times. 

[HJack69]: Nice save. But watch your mouth. 

[HJack69]: Eeh. Yeah I’ve done some.. things for the greater good but if there was a better way to get things done quickly I’d take it.

[The Company Man] : You’ll get faster results if you leave me alone at least during the afternoons. I’ll be able to do my job more quickly. 

[HJack69]: Why, you up to something no good during the afternoons? Scared that big bad Jack will getcha?

[The Company Man] : It’s for the sake of my sanity if you must know.

[HJack69]: I’ll stop bugging you if you stop being so secretive. 

[The Company Man] : No.

[HJack69]: You’re no fun.

[HJack69]: Guess what I’m eating for lunch.

[The Company Man] : My respect?

[HJack69]: No dumdum. The most beautiful combination of food mankind could create.

[The Company Man] : Oh no.

[HJack69]: MMMMMmmmm I’m moaning right now. Cuz it’s that good. Soooo good.

The Company Man blushed at the mental image. This man was so embarrassing.

Rhys’ janitor earpiece BINGed with an alert that he’s needed in the R&D lab for a cleanup. Rhys made a face. So far he was lucky enough to visit the R&D section only two times. He was not looking forward to dealing with whatever carcass or bile waiting for him.

[The Company Man] : I have to go back to work now. Bye. 

[HJack69]: C ya nerd.

The senior vice janitor rolled his eyes. And what was jack exactly? The king of nerds? From what he gathered the CEO geeked over new technology as much as he did, if not more. He was a grade-A asshole but he knew his way around software and engineering. 

As Rhys was about to head out, he heard another BING. Wow, Jack was feeling a bit clingy today. Instead, he was greeted by the voice of his best bro.

“Rhys! Rhys!! Are you okay? Holy crap, dude, I saw Handsome Jack near your old department! He saw my face! What if he can smell you from me!” Vaughn rushed, full of worry. 

“ Okay, first, don’t phrase it like that, dude. Jack doesn’t go around sniffing people. What would I even smell like? Why would he get my smell from you? It’s weird.” Rhys fumbled into his janitor outfit. Today’s socks had blue stripes with yellow stars. “Second, I’m fine. He was just stopping by to find me. Which is ridiculous because he doesn’t even know my face. Can you believe that he tried to find me based on his ‘vibe’ of me? Nobody died, right?”

“ You’re still talking to him?! Are you nuts, Rhys??!!” A beat. “ And no, no one died. He just looked pissed when he finally left.”

Rhys tried to soothe Vaughn’s anxiety. “See? It’s okay bro. I don’t think he’s really interested in killing me. And I can’t block him that easily. He knows my ghost IP address. Besides, He wants to find me but I don’t feel my murderous intention from him. Did you know that he likes sardine on pizza? With pretzels and hot sauce. Talk about tragedy.” He rambled. 

“ You can’t tell if he has murderous intentions or not because it’s a text . What if he’s preparing some kind of torture chamber for you?! Also, gross. But I’ve seen you eat worse.”

“ No need to feel jealous of my cuisine choice, dude.” The cybernetic man jokes. “He’s actually pretty... Friendly? “

Vaughn deadpanned. “ Rhys. He’s the type who would talk to you like best buds and shoot you in the face in less than 0.5 seconds..”

Rhys left his and Vaughn’s apartment and headed towards the janitor room. “I know.” He sighed. “Listen, he still hasn’t figured out how to track me down yet. He only knows my ghost IP address. He doesn’t know how I look, where I work, where I live and where I am. If it gets too risky, I’ll stop.”

“ You’re way too calm about this, Rhys.” Vaughn said, ameliorated a little bit by Rhys’ promise.

“ You know I won’t risk our plan just because of Handsome Jack. And he sorta kinda hired me to do a job?”

“ I dunno about that …” The Money Man mumbled.

“Vaughn, I’m serious.” Rhys held up the breathing mask and one of these thicker gloves. It was going to be messy in R&D. “I promise that if things start to look too risky or serious, I’ll stop. I’ll ditch my current VPN and change my IP address again. He won’t be able to contact me, and I won’t contact him. Deal?”

“ Deal. But that’s just me. You should probably talk to Yvette too.”

“ Will do.”

Rhy’s janitor earpiece rang again, the robotic voice repeating the same message from earlier. He needed to head out. “After I clean the R&D lab.”

“Oof. Be careful about that, bro. Just.. stop surrounding yourself with things that could potentially kill you as much as you can, okay?” 

“I’ll try.”

--------

Rhys was very glad that he was wearing a breathing mask because just looking at the exploded carcasses of the text subject made him want to vomit. 

The RD team was trying to develop the next hot gun model. They were trying to develop a mechanism that would give its bullets the effect of the elemental damage. Ideally, they would try to reverse-engineer Maliwan guns and replicate how they make every output into elemental rounds, but such effort ended with no success. 

Rhys looked at the destroyed and scorched bodies of a random psycho, a corporate spy, and a creature he assumed was dragged from Pandora. It seemed like they were getting somewhere, but it didn’t seem as strong as the elemental Maliwan guns he had seen from advertisements. It was an interesting idea though, and Rhys was looking forward to the research data he stole during his current shift. 

The janitor was putting a piece of flesh into one of the waste bags when the main door to the R&D opening. 

“Alright, show me what you got so far. Surprise me. And make it quick.” It was the CEO himself. 

Rhys internally groaned. Why was Jack here? Why did he have to be here now, right after they talked on the comm? Nervous, he moved to the other end of the test range area with his back towards Jack and the equally nervous head gun developer. 

Jack was not pleased with the slow progress of the new gun tech development. He liked to test out the prototypes himself to check their efficiency before approving them for mass production. He didn’t want the Hyperion guns to be boring. 

He grabbed one of the first prototypes the lead researcher showed him. It was heavy. The rebound wasn’t as bad as he expected. Accuracy was okay. The bullet did what it did: destroy the target. The next prototype was about the same. None of them felt satisfying. The CEO tsked with annoyance as he inspected the third prototype he held in his hands. Ignoring the anxious twitch of the development lead standing next to him, he raised the gun towards the test target nonetheless. Tip of his index finger pressed on the trigger- 

BANG

Before the man’s finger could pull the trigger all the way, the bullet shot out, ricocheting off the walls, the shooting station on the other end, before landing right next to someone’s feet, narrowly missing their toes.

Said someone yelped, jumped into the air, and slipped on the floor. 

Jack stared as he realized that the person was wearing a janitor’s outfit. And they started slipping on the floor covered with carcass goops. And slipped. And slipped. He swore the janitor slipped for nearly 10 seconds, looking like a spider on ice, legs flying everywhere.

By the time the janitor actually tripped, flipped over the entire janitor cart, and fell down, the CEO’s body was shaking with laughter. “Did you,” he inhaled, “Did you SEE that? KAHAHAHAHAHA-.” The lead developer could only stare blankly as her whole life flashed in front of her eyes, well aware of the fact that what just happened could very well send her to the airlock. Jack was too busy trying to breathe properly to pay any attention to the prototype misfire incident.  A couple of scientists in the background were struggling to hold in their laughter too. 

He handed the 3rd prototype over to the team lead. “H-here. Take it and fix whatever just happened. Otherwise, it’s a solid B-. I expect progress next time. Impress me. Or else. You know the usual.” Jack started walking towards the janitor to see if the guy was dead. It would be hilarious if they actually died right after that fiasco. He chuckled at the sight of long legs sticking out from behind the cart. 

Rhys groaned from his spot on the ground. He was lying on his back, the lower half of his body supported by the wall of the cart and standing upright.  He could feel the slimy liquid sliding down his face and his mask. Realizing that it was the carcass goop he was previously cleaning, he suddenly felt sick. Ewewewew--

“You still alive there, buddy?”

“Uh...” Oh shit. Great going Rhys, you just did one thing that you told yourself not to do: you got the Hyperion CEO’s attention. Worse, the older man seemed to recognize Rhys’ voice. Rhys nervously peered up under his janitor cap. He could see Jack’s amused grin on his face. 

“Oh, it’s you. And you’re alive! Good. Because I want to see you do it again,” Jack’s eyes landed on the janitor’s name tag on his uniform, “Reece.”

‘I’d rather not.’ Rhys thought as he struggled to push himself upright. The ground was so slippery and his limbs kept getting in each other's way. Jack leaned against the janitor cart and watched as if he was watching one of the most entertaining TV shows. The jerk didn’t bother to help him. But eventually, the cybernetic man managed to stand up while holding onto the cart. 

His face lit up suddenly. “They have surveillance cameras here! I gotta find that video of you failing to use those legs of yours properly.” And with that, the CEO sauntered out of the lab grinning ear to ear. 

The scientists and engineers quickly returned their focus to their tasks, ignoring the janitor’s presence again. Rhys huffed in annoyance. While he was grateful that the interaction with the CEO lasted only for a short moment, he wasn’t amused at what happened. He almost got shot and failed at keeping his distance from the CEO. It’s like the universe was trying to kill him.

Chapter Text

Jack visited Angel again during his lunch break. She was reading through the ebook tablet that he got her, the plushie on her side. He was going through the work-related documents through his own tablet a few feet away from her. It was both unfamiliar and familiar to spend time like this with Angel. Not that they have made any conversation yet. 

The CEO looked up from his tablet, looking at Angel properly. He realized that he never took the time to actually look at her up close. He didn’t remember the last time he bothered to check up on Angel like this. He was always so busy trying to be a big hero that he forgot to actually pay attention to Angel. And the consequence was harrowing.

The first week of Angel’s transfer up to Helios, Jack was so stricken that he couldn’t leave Angel’s side, so he brought his work to the patient room and kept his eyes over her, barely feeding himself. It wasn’t until the doctor forced him out of Angel’s room, insisting that she will be fine and that she needed her space, that he began to return to his routine. Ballsy woman, that doctor. 

Now it was very obvious to Jack, seeing her up close like this, that his baby girl was all grown up. He planned to have her take over Hyperion when the right time came. But now he wasn’t sure he wanted to risk putting Angel on the same path as him. Just being near him and Hyperion did this to her. Jack put down his tablet and cleared his throat. 

“ The doctor told me that the checkup results are much more stable now. That’s great, isn’t it?”

“ …”

“ Maybe when you get better we.. you.. can finally visit Eden-0 or Aquator.”

“ …”

“ What’cha reading there? Something about horses?”

“ …”

“ You used to be really into horses. Especially unicorns. You were obsessed with those.” Jack held out his hands, aligning them parallel to each other to illustrate the height of a small kindergartener. “You used to beg me to buy you a real one when you were yea big. Couldn’t afford one back then, but managed to make one recently.”

Angel’s finger twitched. But she didn’t take her eyes away from the tablet.

“If you’d like, I can bring Buttstallion here. It was meant to be your birthday present, but I didn’t get a chance to actually give it to you. You can ride her and show her off to everyone else as yours.”

They sat in silence for a while, Angel still looking down at her reading pad and Jack listening to the machines attached to Angel letting out a quiet whir, occasionally glancing at his daughter. The eridium dripping into her in a lower dosage. It meant to help control her power. Learn what her siren powers can do. Expand her abilities. He didn’t remember when he forgot that everything was meant for her sake, and not himself.

Jack remembered the main reason why he came early today.

An awkward silence filled the room.

He should probably leave. He wasn’t good at this. This was way easier when… she was around. He swallowed the anger that rose again at the thought of his first wife. Jack looked down at his hands, rotating the ring around his right index finger. He had ditched his first ring a long time ago and replaced it with a more practical one on a different finger.

He knew he had a temper. And that he can lose control of his actions when the anger got the best of him. He hated losing control. He hadn’t meant to. Or he did and didn’t care. The CEO gritted his teeth.

“ Angel, I’m…”

Angel continued to stare at the same page of the book. Jack knew she could hear him. He had to say them now. He had been pushing it back for far too long. He didn’t want to risk losing Angel again. He straightened his back, looking at Angel properly.

Please-

“ ...Don’t scare me like that ever again. I’d rather lose Hyperion than lose you like that. My plans mean nothing if losing you is the price.” He looked down at his hands again, tightening them into fists. “And…I’m sorry. You don’t have to forgive me. Just don’t… don’t throw yourself away like that.” He murmured. He didn’t feel like Handsome Jack. Just a man who was once called John. He hated it.

Angel still didn’t answer. The same page of the book glowing from her tablet screen and lighting her pale face, her expression unreadable. 

Jack’s ECHOcomm BEEPed, making both Jack and Angel jump. The man grumbled and looked down at the device to see whose caller ID it was. Whoever called during the most inconvenient time ever was going to get a handful of-- The frown on his face smoothed out at the ‘The Company Nerd.’ He should feel angry but seeing that name filled him with a certain… expectation. Expectation for what? He didn’t know. 

[The Company Man] : Have I ever told you about this one guy who’s a big fan of a sexy humanized version of loader bots?

A wry smile graced Jack’s lips. What a stupid thing to message an infamous CEO of Hyperion for.  He was supposed to catch this guy and put a stop to whatever the hacker was actually planning. Eliminate any potential risk. Don’t let what happened happen again.

He really wished he could put a face on the now-familiar nickname. Jack considered ignoring the message and return his attention to Angel, but it was quite rare for The Company Man to reach out to him first. He decided to give the hacker a quick response. 

[HJack69]: Kinda in the middle of something important. Aren’t you supposed to send me corporate scams my employees are committing instead of going through their porn folders?

[HJack69]: And who wouldn’t wanna bang loader bots? They’re total studs.

[The Company Man] : You will never believe the horrors I find. I don’t know if it’s just Helios but your employees have some of the weirdest kinks I’ve ever seen, sir.

[HJack69]: Quit with the sirs.

[HJack69]: My employees being naughty? Nooo. It cannot be. Does that include you? Have you been naughty?

[The Company Man] : No comment.

This guy definitely harbored his own freaky kinks. Hmm.. can’t say he’s not curious.

[HJack69]: Aw, you don’t have to get shy around me. We’re both adults here.

[The Company Man] : Didn’t you say you were busy.

[HJack69]: C’mon throw me a bone.

[The Company Man] : Bye , Jack. 

Then Jack remembered something from a few days ago.

[HJack69]: Wait, hold on for a sec. I wanna show you something.

Stifling his snicker, he attached a video vile and pressed send.

[HJack69]: You really gotta check it out. Oh man , you should have seen the action in real life! Because that janitor slipping for forever and finally crashing was ART. But you can experience its glory in the form of a CCTV footage.

[The Company Man] : … It’s hilarious. I’m dying inside.

[HJack69]: I know right? Wanna make it go viral?

[The Company Man] : I think I’m good. 

[HJack69]: You must be fun at parties. 

[The Company Man] : And you must be a killer at parties.

[HJack69]: Very funny.

[The Company Man] : I’m hilarious :’)

[HJack69]: Alright. Shoo. Go do whatever you do. I got an important matter to deal with.

Jack finally put down his ECHOcomm and looked up, only to directly meet Angel’s gaze. The CEO froze like a deer in the headlights at his daughter’s inquisitive eyes. The man blinked a few times before letting out a forced cough and starting to put his ECHOcomm away. He didn’t know why he felt so awkward. 

“ Who is that?”

Jack blinked again. Caught off guard his daughter’s voice. She was… talking to him?

“ Who?”

“ The person you’re texting.”

“ Oh.”

Jack didn’t respond right away. He told himself that he would handle this Company Guy alone and not involve Angel. At this point, however, he wasn’t sure if there was any problem with the mystery man to begin with.

But it wouldn’t hurt to tell her. He didn’t want to upset her any more than he already did.

“ Er...It’s some guy that calls himself The Company Man. He sneaks around and finds dirty secrets to blackmail other employees. He’s got some kind of vendetta towards his nemesis or whatever.” Jack huffed out a laugh. “He randomly sent me evidence of some workers stealing Hyperion property one day. The nerve of this guy, honestly. And ever since then we came to er… an agreement. He’ll keep sending me things that need my attention, and I would… not… strangle him on sight?”

Angel looked at him, unimpressed.

“ But, er, I don’t really plan to unless he turns out to be a real asshole. At this point I just wanna know who he is. Again, if it turns out he’s not a lying asshole.”

Angel raised her brows, making her eyes look more owlish. “ You couldn’t track him down?”

“ I tried, sweetheart. I even made an entirely new software from scratch that its only purpose is to go through his defense system and track him down. I think he’s one of the programmers gone rogue.”

“ You can try trapping him. Plant some fake files that alert you when they get hacked. Then you can map out his usual route and catch him.”

Jack stared at Angel. Oh, his daughter was smart . Of course she was smart, considering who her dad was. “ That’s a brilliant idea…! I guess it’s worth a shot.”

“ What are you going to do when you find him?”

Jack glanced down at this ECHOcomm. What did he want to do? Kill him? Punish him? Interrogate him? He needed to know more about the man before he could decide to do anything. Killing was always the most convenient and fast way to deal with cases like this, but he just… didn’t feel like it.

Jack shrugged.

“ I don’t know. At first, I was going to capture him to make sure he’s not a threat. But now...He’s too...er...how do I say this.. Soft? Stupid? Silly? I just want to know who he is at this point. All I know is that he’s a brunet.”

Angel frowned. “How do you know that?”

“ Er, he told me.” 

“ Why would he tell you that?”

“ I asked him.” Jack answered as if the reason was the most obvious thing in the world.

“ And he just told you?”

“ Yea? I don’t get why that’s so weird. There are tons of brunets. It's useless information.” 

Angel hummed. “Ask him again.”

“Ask him what?”

“ Ask him to tell you more about himself.”

Jack looked at his daughter in confusion. Her pale blue eyes sparkled with curiosity. 

“ I don’t think-”

“ Just try it.”

Too fixated on the relief that Angel was talking to him again, Jack decided to follow her command instead of admonishing her for her tone.

Angel calmly looked at Jack typing in a new message.

[HJack69]: Throw me another bone, pumpkin. Tell me something else about you.

After a few seconds, The Company Man replied.

[TheCompanyMan] : Jack, please. Phrasing.

[TheCompanyMan] : Like what? My amazing programming skills?

[HJack69]: Don’t get cocky with me. I meant more detail about you as a person.

[The Company Man] : Then promise me that you will stop trying to track me down during the afternoons.

[HJack69]: Fine, whatever. 

[The Company Man] : Pinkie promise?

[HJack69]: What are you, 5?

[The Company Man] : Pinkie promise or nothing.

[HJack69]: Alright, pinkie promise. God. You’d better not speak a word of this.

[The Company Man] : I won’t. I can’t do that for my sake anyway.

[The Company Man] : I have two tattoos.

[HJack69]: What kind of tattoos?

[The Company Man] :  :)

Jack sighed in exasperation.

[HJack69]: Alright, fine. 

[HJack69]: But from now on I want you to report everything you find to me.

[The Company Man] :  Everything? That’s a lot of data to go through.

[The Company Man] :  I don’t know if you want to know every dirty secret your employees keep. 

A cheshire cat grin stretched on Jack’s face.

[HJack69]: Will there be yours too? 

[The Company Man] :  Dunno. Maybe if you ask really nicely.

[The Company Man] :  Talk to you later. Gotta go.

Jack’s eyebrows rose at the response. He assumed The Company Man would act closed off at his joke, but the guy shot right back. That got Jack excited for some reason.

Angel observed her father. “What did he say?”

Jack looked up in surprise. Oh, right, his daughter was in the same room. He wondered what got his daughter to open up today. “Nothing much. Apparently he has two tattoos. Won’t tell me what kind, though. Not that useful unless he walks around showing off his tats.”

“Again, he just told you because you asked . Sounds like The Company Man wants you to find him.”

Jack frowned. “Why the heck would he want me to find him?”

“ I’unno.” Angel muttered.

Jack groaned and slumped back in his seat. “Not you too.”

Angel took that moment to grab Jack’s ECHOcomm. 

“Woah, hey now. You could have just asked.” He was used to sharing communication logs with Angel. But for some unknown reason, seeing Angel reading these particular texts got him nervous.

The siren hummed as she skimmed through the texts. She handed it back to Jack without a word after a minute. Then she slid back under the blanket. “ I’m going to take a nap.”

Puzzled at the sudden change of topic, Jack answered. “ ...Alright.” He got up from his chair to leave.

Angel buried himself under the soft covers Jack brought in for her (because the hospital bed sheets sucked.) Her head was the only thing visible under the cover, poking out at the edge. The CEO leaned towards Angel. He hesitated before reaching out his hand and ruffling her hair. Angel didn’t respond and curled into herself instead.

As Jack started to close the door, Angel whispered. “Bring your spy boy friend when you find him.”

He whipped his head around. “ What was that?”

“ What was what?”

Jack squinted at the lump of bedsheet that was his daughter and slowly left the room, gently closing the door behind him. He’ll let go of that, whatever she was saying. He was just glad that Angel was talking to him again.

Chapter Text

As they had promised the day before, The Company Man started to report everything he found like he was told to. The hacker’s loyalty to their promise, if Jack had to be honest, buttered up his ego. As a reward, he decided that he can bug The Company Man around the evenings or nights instead of afternoons.

After throwing the figurative net hooked with baits, it only took the CEO a week to figure out the hacker’s route. Every day Jack scanned through the files Rhys sent him, a lot of which made him crack up. OH man, some of the things his little worker bees hid in their little hard drives…  A few of them went to his shit list. Especially the one who drowned cats for fun. 

Whenever he came across the fake files he planted on the list, he marked which device it was from. It immensely pleased Jack that he was finally getting some concrete results, and finally closing in on The Company Man’s identity.

It seemed like his little hacker went through different computers in each major sector regularly in the same pattern, but the computer stations the man actually accessed was random. And most files were accessed around 11pm to 3am. This guy got hardly any sleep. Maybe that’s why he was so cranky during the afternoons. 

Jack decided to update his attack dog software and make it regularly push against The Company Man’s security barrier. If there was even a tiny hole in the codes, it would immediately push through and locate the man. So far, it led him nowhere. The Company Man sure didn’t seem bothered. It fired up Jack’s curiosity and determination tenfold. It added a little excitement to his otherwise boring routine.

The CEO found himself messaging The Company Man to talk about nonsensical things when he was bored. Sure, he had tons of papers to review and requests to approve or deny; he didn’t say he wasn’t busy. Plus, antagonizing Vault Hunters lost its appeal. 

Jack sat in his large chair, slumped back, his legs sticking out and feet resting on the disorganized desk, and his fingers typing away at his ECHOcomm. The Company Man apparently had managed to get his hands on the next elemental damage gun research data, 

[The Company Man] : -So that’s why I think it would be a lot more efficient to work on the bullets themselves rather than developing an entirely new internal mechanism that gives bullets elemental damage effect.

[HJack69]: But would the already available Hyperion guns be able to handle the elemental recoil? R&D nerds are telling me that that’s gonna take more time, and I’m already pouring so much money into them. 

[The Company Man] : Changing bullets only will be more cost-effective. The bullets could be like tiny grenades that get activated by the gun mechanism the R&D developed so far. Think of all the custom bullets you can make! They could also be a collector’s item. 

[HJack69]: Hmm… Yeah, sure why not. I’ll bug them about it in our next meeting.

[The Company Man] : Really? That’s uh… really cool of you.

[HJack69]: At least you have a new idea, and it’s not a boring one. 

[The Company Man] : Thanks for leaving me alone during the afternoons, by the way.

[HJack69]: Eh, I got shit to do in the afternoons anyway.

[The Company Man] : But not in the evenings?

[HJack69]: Pumpkin, being a CEO means I got shit to do all day AND night. The afternoon is usually filled with face-to-face meetings with idiots. That shit sucks and it’s boring as hell. 

[HJack69]: You’d think being in charge means you get to do less work, but it’s mostly cleaning after idiots who can’t do their damn job. 

[The Company Man] : At least you make a lot of money?

[HJack69]: Can’t complain about that. I got enough money to solve world hunger.

[The Company Man] : Do you plan to?

[HJack69]: Nah lol.

[HJack69]: I got more important shit to spend money on. World hunger isn’t my responsibility.

[The Company Man] : Speaking of hunger, I need food.

[HJack69]: That isn’t my responsibility either lol

[The Company Man] :  Wow.

[The Company Man] : Ramen and ice cream it is.

[HJack69]: Seriously? That’s all you’re gonna get? Ice cream isn’t even a meal.

[The Company Man] : As your humble employee, I must eat to survive, sir.

[HJack69]: Screw that. I’ll buy you that gross pineapple pizza.

[The Company Man] : I’m touched and tempted, but that’s probably not a good idea.

[HJack69]: Pineapple pizza and your favorite ice cream.

[The Company Man] : Uugh you’re torturing me.

Jack grabbed for the bag of pretzels he opened a few hours ago. All this food talk got him hungry too. Toned abs would have to wait. 

Swallowing a mouthful of cheap vending machine pretzels, Jack smiled with mischief as a thought came to him.

[HJack69]: Yeah? You like that? Do you like being tortured? You get off on that, pumpkin?

[The Company Man] : Don’t make this weird, Jack. I’m trying to eat here. If your goal is to kill me by making me choke, it’s working.

[The Company Man] : Also, are you implying that you have a BDSM kink? Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.

[HJack69]: What, do I come off as a BDSM maniac to you?

[The Company Man] : Well, maybe not a maniac. But you definitely have a lot of, er.. energy . You’re physically fit, and like strangling and murdering people. There was that sheriff lady too. So you can’t really blame the employees for assuming that you have a thing for tormenting people.

[HJack69]: Well, they’re not completely wrong. You into that kind of thing? 

[The Company Man] : Tormenting people? No. I don’t mind getting a little rough though.

Jack was saving that information for later. 

For science.

[The Company Man] : I really shouldn’t be saying all this stuff to my boss’ boss’ boss.

[HJack69]: I couldn’t give less of a shit. We’ve talked about weirder stuff. Like a few days ago when we talked about which coffee had the ‘biggest dick energy’.

[The Company Man] : I still say frappe. It’s most annoying to make.

[HJack69]: I still say Frappe isn’t a coffee. Espresso for the winz.

[The Company Man] : We’re not having this conversation again unless you’re buying me a frappe.

Jack checked the time. It was 10pm. He should head back to his penthouse and get some sleep since he wasn’t getting any work done tonight anyway.

[HJack69]: Gotta go.

[HJack69]: Hey give me more details about yourself. 

[The Company Man] : What do you want to know? 

[HJack69]: How you look. You short? Tall? Tan? Eye color? Anything.

[The Company Man] : Well I’m definitely not short. And I guess I’m pretty pale. You’re not getting anything more than that from me.

[HJack69]: You’re no fun.

[The Company Man] : It would be less fun for you if I was caught so easily. Right?

Playing coy, huh? The hacker wasn’t wrong. Trying to catch the teasing Company Man kept Jack’s boredom at bay. It was a pretty fun ‘chase’, and he wanted to feel the relish of winning the ‘prize’ all on his own. Plus, he was getting rid of a lot of incompetent workers thanks to the man. 

[HJack69]: If I catch you before the end of the year, you owe me dinner.

[The Company Man] : If you don’t catch me by the end of the year, you owe me that pizza and ice cream you promised.

[HJack69]: It’s a deal, cupcake.

Jack smiled, his confidence rising in his chest. His mind started to brainstorm new ideas for capturing the hacker who was swimming through his company network. The CEO picked up a few things he needed and walked out of his office. He pretty much lived here so there wasn’t much to take besides a few reports and an ECHOcomm. 

He tried to put the description of The Company Man together into a whole person. Brown hair. Tall. Pale. Tattoos on the legs? Arms? Chest? He wanted to know more. It was only a matter of time. 

---------------

It’s been a month and a half after Rhys became a janitor. He had gotten pretty used to it and, as much as he hated to admit it, he was good at it. The pay wasn’t much compared to what he used to get, but it was enough to occasionally treat his friends out for dinner. And he got to talk with Handsome Jack himself. 

Rhys smiled as he hopped into his favorite pair of socks. He didn’t think it was too presumptuous to think they were friends now. Jack’s weird personal questions and flirting still caught him off at times, but the CEO probably joked like that with everyone. 

That didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy them. 

His earpiece DINGed with a notification. Rhys blinked at the caller ID.  “Hello, Jimmy. It’s been a while. How are you doing?

“ Hey there kid. Today will be my last shift. I’ll be officially retired.” Jim rumbled, still gruff as always. Rhys knew that the man was quite amiable under his stoic facade. 

“ That’s great! Congrats! You should celebrate.”

“ Exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. Let me buy you a drink at the Curious Traveler Hideout tonight before your shift. How does it sound?”

“ Erm. Won’t I get into trouble if I’m drunk during my shift?”

“ Son, you’re the Senior Janitor now. And nobody gives a shit.”

Rhys let out a soft laugh. “ I guess that’s true. People on this station really don’t give a damn about us janitors.”

“ I can confirm based on 15 years of experience. How does 10 sound?”

“ Sounds good. I guess I can grab a few drinks before my shift.”

“ Atta boy. See you then.”

Yeah, it wouldn’t hurt to loosen up before his shift. The young janitor thought to himself as he smoothed back his hair and put on his janitor cap. Curious Traveler Hideout had pretty good cocktails.

---------------

The bar was located in the corner of the commercial district. It was mostly hidden from view, but the interior was pretty cozy. It had a rough Pandoran desert aesthetic, but more sleek and refined in organization. Paintings of the wild Pandoran desert and cacti LED lights decorated the walls, along with the worn-out vehicle number plates. It was a little wild west on Helios. 

The bar was empty save for the bartender and the three men playing a card game by the window. Jimmy sat on one of the stools, waving at Rhys when the cybernetic man entered, wearing his janitor uniform and a thin jacket. The young man waved at his former boss.

“ Hey there son. Come sit here. Let me buy you drinks. The good ones.”

“ Are you sure? Since you’re leaving, I should be the one buying you drinks.”

Jim let out a boisterous laugh and clapped Rhys on the back. The cybernetic man let out an awkward laugh in response. The old man was stronger than he looked. It shouldn’t be surprising considering how his own physical stamina rose from the janitor work. It was a regular workout for sure.

“ It’s alright, I got a generous bonus along with the Hyperion Pension Plan.” Jim gestured to the bartender for two drinks, and the bartender nodded, starting on the drinks right away. Rhys noted that Jim seemed to be a regular at this bar. “It ain’t much, but you’ve been doing a good job and deserve a break, don’t you agree?”

The bartender put down two glasses filled to the brim. It had a pleasing red and yellow hue to it. Jim pushed one glass towards Rhys . “ I’m proud of you, kid. I’ve seen a lot of slackers who either disappear or quit and leave Helios permanently. You’ve been diligent and loyal. Qualities like that are hard to find these days.”

Rhys smiled and took a sip of his drink. He winced a little bit at the bitter aftertaste but didn’t let go of the glass. “I’m not going to lie, Jimmy. I still don’t like being a janitor but I have to admit there are some quirks that I enjoy.”

Jim nodded, taking a big gulp from his glass.

“I know how hard you’ve been working, son. Being The Company Man must be very hard.”

Rhys paused in his mid-sip. His mismatched doe eyes widened at Jim’s grim smile. 

“..What?”

Jim slammed his glass bottle against the side of Rhys’ head. Stunned at the force of the blow, Rhys fell from his stool and crashed to the floor. Looking down at Rhys’ boneless form, Jim reached down and picked up Rhys’ earpiece. “You should learn how to be more careful. You never know who can hear you on Helios.”

Trying to regain his balance and focus, Rhys internally cursed. The earpiece Jimmy gave to Rhys was a bug! He’s been listening in on all of his conversations. How could he be so careless? He looked around to seek any help, but only saw three men in mock Handsome Jack masks and an impassive bartender. 

Okay, wearing Jack’s face like that was too weird even for him. 

Rhys saw one of the masked men flip the Open sign to Closed. As the shades were pulled over the windows, the bar got darker. Dim ceiling lights barely illuminated features of the bar’s occupants. The cybernetic man tried to get up, only to have his vision swimming, his mind hazing over. Instead of standing up, he tilted and fell onto the floor again. 

Hands grabbed his arms and legs. Rhys struggled and tried to use his robot arm to punch his captor’s faces or wrench himself free, but the drug coursing to his veins kept his muscles from reacting besides little twitches. He gritted his teeth in frustration. 

Jim threw the earpiece to the ground and crushed it under his heavy boots. “You should have kept your mouth shut and let Ken do his job, son.” Rhys could only furrow his brows in confusion. There was only one Ken he knew. Ken Hynkel, the Senior Hardware Systems Manager? “We had a deal going on, you see. Me and my buddies here were promised a big sum of money for helping him fudge his data and clean up his mess.”

The old man crouched down and took the young janitor’s hat. Loose locks of brown hair spilled over Rhys’ forehead, but they didn’t manage to hide his port. Jim tapped the port harshly with his greasy, thick index finger. The cybernetic man winced at the contact. “But all that went down the drain when our buddy Ken got exposed. It wasn’t hard for me to connect the dots and learn that it was you, the infamous Company Man.” Jim snorted.

Rhys’ eyes widened in alarm when Jim took out a knife. It ripped through the right sleeve of his janitor uniform, revealing his prosthetic arm. Jim whistled. “So this is how you did it. Those are some fancy techs you got there, kid. What damn good luck. You were set out to move up, weren’t ya?” He held up his outdated robot hand solemnly. “ Mine is 10 years old. I would love to get a better one and get a better life. I had my chance, we all did.” Jim gestured to the other men in the room.

Rhys’ skin prickled as his body broke into a cold sweat. “Couldn’t you have uh… kindly let me know so we could work something out?” He nervously glanced around. The masked men didn’t say anything. God, those lifeless masks were so creepy.

“ My boy, it’s all about knowing your own place.” The ex-senior janitor stood up.

Rhys groaned internally. Not this conversation again. His thought must have shown through his face because a boot-clad foot slammed into Rhys’ side, making the young man wheeze and curl into himself from pain.

“ And since you don’t seem to know yours, we’re gonna do everyone a favor and teach yours.”

One of the men held Rhys down from above, locking Rhys’ upper body and left arm. 

Another grabbed Rhys’ legs. The third man held down Rhys’ robot arm with his entire body weight.

Jimmy calmly accepted a metal pipe from the bartender, who avoided eye contact with Rhys. Somehow that infuriated Rhys the most.  

“ Loyalty means shit in this place. It’s not that unusual for people to go missing on Helios, you know. And Handsome Jack wouldn’t give a shit about a janitor disappearing overnight.” 

As Rhys was about to protest, Jim shoved a piece of heavy cloth into Rhys’ mouth, nearly choking him.

“ Especially the ones without an arm.”

Jim gripped the metal pipe tightly in his mechanical hand, veins bulging under his withered skin with contained anger. The old man swung the pipe back in a wide arc and smashed down on the forearm of Rhys’ robot arm.

Rhys screamed as the damaged wires sent sparks and flashes of hot pain shot up his arm and to the rest of his nervous system. His body jerked from the shock. A red warning message appeared in front of his Echo Eye, alerting him that his subsystem was at risk of being compromised.

Without hesitation, Jim delivered blow after blow at Rhys’ robot arm until it finally snapped at the elbow joint.

Rhys thrashed and trembled under the tight grips of the masked men. He tried to stop himself from screaming and bit down on the cloth inside his mouth as hard as he can. Sweat formed on his forehead traveled down his chin and his neck. 

By the time Jim was done, only the upper arm portion of Rhys’ mechanic arm was left. Pieces of arm plates and silicone fragments scattered across the polished bar floor, wires strewn among them, carelessly torn apart and bent.

The cybernetic man tried to see through his blurry vision but the attempt made him feel more nauseous. The pinprick pain assaulting his body made his muscles contract, causing his breathing to become erratic. Drool spilled at the corner of his stuffed mouth, wheezing and huffing, trying to breathe properly through the fog.

Jim wiped his own sweat on his forehead and exhaled, looking much calmer. “It was nice knowing ya, kid. Good luck on Pandora. I have a pretty generous buyer on that stinkhole who’s willing to buy a pretty Hyperion boy like you. Consider this… a promotion. ”

The metal pipe rose again, this time angled towards Rhys’ head.

Chapter Text

Jack jumped from his desk when a loud BING interrupted his sleep. With an annoyed grunt, his back straightened from its previously slumped position. The CEO looked at his monitor to see the “Sender Identified” message blocking his other windows. Tired eyes snapped open, hovering over the message trying to make sure it was real. Realizing that his boredom and desperation-- uh, his zeal -- didn’t imagine the message, Jack kicked his chair back, excitement spreading through his nerves. 

Rough fingers typed furiously on the keyboard, his computer pulling up information on the employees on Helios. All the systems information of The Company Man quickly narrowed down the list to one person in a blink. An employee profile popped up, the one with a photo of Rhys taken during his intern days. Awkwardly gelled hair, his curly strands spilling over to the sides and framing his face greeted Jack. Jack’s shark grin was a stark contrast to the soft-- yet touched with a hint of vanity--smile Rhys held in the photo.

“Ohoho ho , I got you now, Company Man… or should I say Rhys . Man, look at this guy! What a baby nerd . And he’s a… janitor who used to be a middle manager? What a friggin’ waste.” Jack tsked. 

The man in the photo looked familiar, however, and Jack stood there for a few seconds trying to figure out where he had seen that face and that name. Riss, Reese? A janitor… A young janitor… working at night… the name tag on the uniform… Rhys...

“No friggin’ way. He’s that janitor that ran into me months ago!” Jack let out a cackle. “Oh, this makes things so much easier.” 

His computer located Rhys on the World of Shopping section of the Hub of Heroism, blue dot blinking over the shop called Curious Traveler Hideout . A triumphant grin stretched across Jack’s face. 

“ I knew I would get through your walls at some point.” Jack grabbed his jacket that was previously hung over his chair, secured his gun holster, and briefly checked himself in the mirror before turning towards the office door. If he was going to finally catch this guy with his own hands, he wanted to look good while he ambushed the squealing janitor.

After a moment of thought, he double-checked himself in the mirror to make sure his hair and the mask looked like they jumped straight out of the promotional posters.

Meg, Jack’s secretary, raised her brows at the peculiar display of genuine glee her boss’ face displayed as he rushed by her. She shook her head, remembering to mind her own business, and went back to work. 

-------------------

Jim tsked as he threw away his gloves into the nearby decorative fire pit. The blue flame ate away at the synthetic fabric, turning it into ashes.

Rhys lay on the floor barely conscious. All the bruises littered across his upper body was the least of his worries. Pieces of his robot arm were scattered across the floor. The static feedback from ripped off wires and crushed charger continuously sent jolts of shock to Rhys’ nervous system. The young janitor’s lungs fluttered at each stab of pain. His left leg lay at an odd angle.

Rhys glared at Jimmy, sweat dripping down his face from the pain. 

“You have an oddly high pain tolerance. Most would be pissing themselves and ballin’ their eyes out right now. Dogged piece of shit you are.” The es-senior janitor kicked Rhys’ broken leg, making Rhys whimper and turn paler. Jim smirked. “Alright, put him inside the cart in the back of the store. I’ll take care of this garbage and the mess. It’ll be my last janitor duty before I leave this station.”

The entrance door rattled.

Jim jerked his face towards the door. His men started to lift and drag Rhys towards the back, heedless of the minor background noise. The old man looked at the bartender, who shrugged. “Could be one of the customers. We regularly get assholes who try to come in before we open.” He spoke through his thick beard, placing the cleaned glass on the nearby shelf and picking up another one.

The door rattled again before going quiet-

Only to be shot open with a loud BANG by Handsome Jack, the biggest asshole on the station. 

Jack busted in, grinning ear to ear, expecting to see a very surprised Company Man drinking cheap alcohol. Only to come face to face with a stout old man with fraying gray hair and three grunts wearing… poor copies of his own mask? That sent unadulterated dismay pinprick up the CEO’s spine. Ugh, he enjoyed the worship but the actual ‘fans’ of his were frigging creepy. They were carrying some poor bastard towards the back. 

The bartender dropped the glass he was cleaning.

Jack ignored the sound of glass shattering held up his gun, the barrel pointing towards the ceiling-- for now. “What in the fresh hell is going on here?”

Nobody dared to move or respond.

The CEO looked down at his pocket watch. The yellow arrow on the screen was pointing towards the three creeps and their tied-up victim. Thick caramel brown hair, tattoos peeking out through the tattered janitor clothes, and cybernetic implants… Yep, that was the idiot he’s been looking for.

He took a step forward, meeting eyes with every occupant in the room.

“Aaalright. None of you look smart enough to even do basic Html, so I’m gonna guess that dumdum is the guy I’ve been hunting down. Looks like you wrapped him all nicely for me.”

Jim stepped forward, his expression tight from unease. Jack’s presence was too big, too heavy, and too suffocating. He didn’t think that Handsome Jack himself would give a damn about Rhys enough to come down from his office. Like a fox whose prey is about to get stolen by a wolf, he tried to distract the bigger predator in front of him. 

“Mr. Handsome Jack, sir! I’m terribly sorry that you had to see this. There has been an… unfinished business, you see. And since we got the message across, we’re just taking this fellow to the medbay. You know how it is on Hyperion.”

Jack’s left eye twitched in annoyance. The tendon on his neck straining with both adrenaline and anger. His gun didn’t waver.

“You’re right, er, what’s your name?”

“Jim.”

“Alright, Jim, here’s the thing: You’re right. I couldn’t give less of a skag’s piss what my employees do in their own time. As long as they make those sweet, sweet money for Hyperion and don’t cause too much trouble I let them do whatever the hell they want.”

Jack scratched the back of the head with his gun, his blue and green eyes lazily coming to a stop on The Company Man still held up by the three wannabes. Color had drained from the brunet’s face, making the blood trickling down from his port stand out against the pale skin, the lower half of his body still on the floor.

Jack’s voice dropped into a deep rumble.

“But you see my dear Jimmy… I really, really don’t like it when some nobody breaks my property.”

With a single swift motion, Jack shot Jimmy’s kneecaps. The old man screamed in pain and crumbled to the floor. Before the rest of the standees could react, he quickly shot each of the grunts’ legs and the bartender’s arm. 

Ignoring their screams, Jack lunged forward to catch his Company Man from the grunts’ spasming hands, barely avoiding the man’s head smacking the hardwood floor. The young janitor lay limply in his arms. He wished he could take a closer look, but Reese-man needed medical attention ASAP. Jack took out the offending roll of cloth from the cybernetic man’s mouth, throwing it aside. The Company Man was still not breathing properly.

In less than 5 minutes, the security and the medical team rushed in. 

“Take these noisy shits to the cell. I’m following this one to the medbay.” He glanced down at the three grunts writhing on the floor, still wearing the cheap copies of his own mask. Jack made a quick call to Meg.

“Hey sweetums, Remind me to make sure my face can’t be legally reproduced without my own permission.”

-------------------

It took Rhys what felt like twenty minutes to wakes up. Instead of the familiar gray ceiling of the company-issued apartment, a white ceiling with recessed lighting came to his view. He couldn’t move much of his body, but he didn’t feel any pain either. The bed was… oh, wow , it was really soft but firm enough to support his weight. This was definitely not his own bed, and this room he was in…

Fighting the dizziness, he slowly pushed himself up, sliding against the bed headboard. The janitor slowly looked around the room he’s occupied. It was minimalistic, but the warm lighting and the soft pastel-colored furniture and decorations gave the space a cozy atmosphere.

Rhys blinked rapidly and rubbed his eyes, only to realize that he couldn’t see through his left eye. His Echo Eye was turned off or gone. When he looked back up, his right eye registered another figure sitting in a hospital bed across him.

There was a teenage girl sitting on the bed set against the opposite wall. Surrounded by soft pillows and cushions, the reading lights placed on either side creating a soft halo around her.

“Oh, an angel.”

Said angel, who was apparently observing him the moment he stirred, blinked in surprise.

Still slightly disoriented, Rhys mumbled. “Shit, I died and came to the wrong place.”

The mysterious angel snorted in amusement, before clasping her nose and mouth with her hands, startled by her own reaction.

Rhys squinted. Her paleness made her look frail, but her eyes were sharp and shone with intelligence. He couldn’t put a finger on it, but she looked familiar. 

The girl opened her mouth. “You’re awake.”

It took a few seconds for Rhys to register that the girl has spoken to him.

“Oh, um, hi. Sorry, but where am I?”

“You’re in the medbay. Don’t worry it’s very secure and no one but my medical team and Jack knows about this particular room.”

“Oh”

“You must be The Company Man.”

Rhys winced, not in pain but from the spark of agitation. “Um, ye-yeah. I guess everyone knows now.”

“Not everyone. Just me, dad and the men who nearly killed you.”

“That’s good because I still need to-- Excuse me, your dad? ”

“The one and only.” Angel replied dryly.

“Oh. I… didn’t know he had a kid.”

“Very few do.”

Awkward silence.

“Not that I don’t enjoy your company, er-”

“Angel”

“Oh. Funny because that’s what I called you the first time- anyway, why would Jack put me in the same room as you?” Rhys tried to brush a few strands of hair hanging over his forehead to the side, only for his left hand to come to a halt in mid-air by a handcuff chained to his bed. Alarmed, he looked to his right. His arm was missing. He pulled his leg, the one not in a cast, to the side, only to realize that his leg was chained to the bed too.

“Why… am I chained to my bed? Is there something that I should know?”

Angel huffed out a laugh. “Relax. I told him to bring you here. I wanted to know more about you, and he needed somewhere where no one can come to hurt you. You’re in one of the most secure medical facilities in Helios. You have to pass three different security rooms with biometric locks to get in. He wasn’t sure about it at first but considering your state you probably can’t do much. And you’re chained to your bed because Jack through you’d try to run away.”

Rhys balked. “Why? Your dad would kill me if I touched a single strand of your hair wrong.”

“Maybe. Then again he’s the reason why I’m stuck here.”

Oh. The cybernetic man finally noticed the various machines attached to the girl’s body. They looked almost alien, and he couldn’t determine what they were supposed to do just by looking at them. 

“Well, I’m sure you’ll, um, get better soon.” Rhys wanted to kick himself.

Angel shrugged.

They listened to the hum of the machines in the room. 

“Where’s Jack?”

“I’unno.” Angel shrugged. “Probably yelling at some poor employee.”

“Heh. Yeah, probably.” Rhys managed a small smile. “How long have I been out?”

“Two weeks. Your implants were pretty damaged. I managed to recover most of your files though.”

“Thanks, I think.” There were some personal files that he wanted to keep. “You must be really good with tech. Recovering files from damaged neural implants isn’t easy.”

“It’s nothing that I can’t do. I’m used to navigating and manipulating software and codes.” 

It really didn’t surprise Rhys that the daughter of Handsome Jack was smart and gifted. She was pretty too. 

Angel faced the man again, smirking in that oh-so-familiar way. Now Rhys realized that she had the same smile as Jack, only less… murderous.

“I also read your chat log with Jack. The entire thing.”

Rhys’ face went red with embarrassment. He let out a forced, awkward laugh. 

“The whole thing?” He squeaked.

Angel’s eyes twinkled with mischief and amusement. Rhys suddenly felt like he was trapped by what he thought was a small bird. The strength behind her gaze was that of a lioness. Oh God. 

He tried to change the subject. “Er, will I be getting my old arm back?”

“ Jack is getting you a brand new one. He’s been pretty excited about it. It’s weird seeing him excited over making something for someone else , especially since you’re pretty much a nobody.”

“Uh… thanks…?”

Angel burst out laughing. “I’m kidding. You’re too… friendly for a Hyperion. How did you tolerate Jack?”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s an asshole.”

The janitor nodded. “You’re right about that.” He idly traced the tattoos on his left arm with his eyes. “Well, I was terrified at first, but he turned out to be...pretty fun to talk with. I mean, y’know, if you ignore his casual murder talk. It doesn’t make me feel as uncomfortable as it should, I guess. Backstabbing and murder aren’t really uncommon in Hyperion. One of my, uh, rival airlocked our boss to steal my promotion.” 

He could feel Angel’s eyes his arm tattoo. “But yeah. He can be annoying as hell. I knew that he was an asshole even before talking to him as The Company Man. I guess I got used to him? Or I’m an asshole too. Maybe both.”

Angel tapped her chin, pretending to ponder for a while before whispering conspiratorially. “You’re obsessed with him. You have… so many posters…and merchandise...”

Rhys’ entire body became hot with embarrassment.

He did NOT want to talk about this with Handsome Jack’s daughter. 

“ I’m, I’m not, I’m not obsessed with him. Chatting with him pretty much destroyed any delusion I had, thank you very much. Please don’t go through my stuff anymore.”

Angel giggled. “You go through other people’s stuff too. But okay, I won’t. I only did it to make sure you weren’t some creepy guy with criminal tendencies. At least not the murderous, punching baby animals variety. And I was bored.”

“You’re so weird.” Rhys hid his face into his left hand, his lanky body sliding back into the covers in an attempt to hide. What is with the father and the daughter teasing him to no end? It was exasperating… but also kind of endearing if Rhys had to be honest.

“What are you going to do now? Jack knows who you are.”

“I.. I don’t know. It’s really up to him. Ugh, I’m probably going to be stuck as a janitor for the rest of my life. Or get airlocked.”

“I really doubt that. Jack really likes you. And Jack doesn’t like someone easily. Be careful though, he easily hurts people. Even the ones he likes.”

Rhys carefully looked up from his slumped position. He took in Angel’s tired features, how small she looked in the big hospital bed, the huge ports on her head, the alien medical equipment attached to her, and the eerie purple substance dripping through the IV. 

He also noticed how she was using the large unicorn plushie tucked by her side as an armrest cushion. Its rainbow mane carefully combed back into braids and a pair of real sunglasses perched on its face. It was too big to be Angel’s. 

Angel’s breath hitched when Rhys’ gentle eyes met hers.

“I will.”

-------------------

Angel was a cool girl to talk with. And she was really smart too. She had a deep insight into Hyperion’s operation on both Helios and Pandora. She also had more personal knowledge of Handsome Jack himself. But he tried not to talk too much about him since Angel seemed uncomfortable when it went beyond simple mentions. 

It was the third day since Rhys woke up as Angel’s roommate. They were chatting while eating their breakfast when the door to the patient room slid open. The Hyperion CEO strode in, holding a cup tray with three cups of steaming drinks.

“How’s my princess doing?” Jack said, sitting on the chair next to Angel’s bed. He put the cup tray on the small bedside table. His attention was focused solely on his daughter.

“Fine.” was Angel’s only answer.

Jack nodded, and took out one of the cups from the tray, handing it over carefully to Angel. “Marshmallow hot chocolate with almond milk and sprinkles, just like you wanted.” Angel wordlessly accepts the cup and started to sip the hot drink carefully. In Rhys’ opinion, she was trying too hard not to smile at the sweet drink.

Then the CEO turned towards him.

Rhys simply stared back wide-eyed at the CEO, the spoon in his left hand and his breakfast forgotten.

When a shark grin stretched across the CEO’s face, his entire body became hot out of dread and anticipation. Hairs stood on the back of his neck. Oh no, here he comes. Jack was going to strangle him in front of his daughter. This was the end of Rhys and his golden days on Hyperion-

Instead of big hands enclosing around his neck, he found himself staring at a cup being held up in front of him. The janitor looked up to see Jack casually sipping on his black coffee.

“Sup, kiddo. Caramel mocha with whip, just the way you like them.”

Rhys slowly pried the hot cup from Jack’s waiting hand, eyes not leaving Jack’s face out of trepidation. The man himself only looked back with amusement, his eyes crinkling at the corners. Jack wasn’t a big man, but his presence filled the entire space when he spoke, and all of Rhys’ attention was naturally drawn to him. The man’s sharp and defined features, the gray streaks in his hair, the confidence behind his voice, and the amiable danger that lingered in his eyes added to the roguish charm. None of the posters Rhys had in his room could replicate the irresistible enigma that was Handsome Jack. 

It was only when Jack sat on the edge of his bed that Rhys snapped out of his trance. “Uh, thanks. I mean, thank you, sir.”

A hint of annoyance crossed Jack’s face. “I told you to drop the sirs. What are you so nervous about? We’ve talked to each other for nearly three months. Almost every day.”

Rhys blushed out of embarrassment. “Sorry. It’s just. It feels different now that I’m talking to you directly, you know. Like, seeing your face, hearing your voice… And the fact that you’re Handsome Jack.”

“Oh, I know what you mean. That’s exactly how I’m feeling right now, you know? I thought you would be a lot nerdier. Glasses, high-pitched voice, and all that stereotypical Nerd things. But man, look at you!” The CEO’s eyes swept over Rhys’ face and trailed down. “Must have broken a few hearts looking like that, huh?” Jack gulped down the hot coffee like it was a summer refreshment. 

“Uh.” Came the intelligent response.

“And there’s that tattoo!” Jack pointed excitedly at Rhys’ neck and upper chest. “That’s some interesting design you got going there.” He threw a suggestive glance at Rhys, leaning closer so Angel couldn’t hear what he was saying. “How far does the blue one go? Is it just on the pecs? You should totally show me later. I’ve been dying to know how your tattoos looked ever since you mentioned it.” He winked.

Rhys’ face turned a deeper shade of red the more Jack talked. He had to set his cup of mocha down on his breakfast tray so it wouldn’t slip through his sweaty fingers.

Behind Jack, Angel was looking up at the ceiling as if calling for mercy from God. The second-hand embarrassment was tangible.

Jack was oblivious to their discomfort, too excited to finally meet The Company Man. 

The younger man managed to compose himself. “Er, thank you, Jack. You’re, um, your look matches your name.” it took 0.5 Rhys for embarrassment to consume him after saying it out loud. Oh god, why was he like this.

But the older man absolutely beamed at the janitor’s words. The hacker was much more pleasing in real life. His thick, messy brown hair framed his oval face and his mismatching eyes. And unlike most people he had met, he wouldn’t mind listening to Rhys talk all day. 

Rhys took a tentative sip of his drink. “How did you know which coffee I liked?” he asked.

Jack leaned back comfortably. “Oh, I asked your buff nerd friend. The short one with glasses.”

“You talked to Vaughn?”

“Well, yeah. He and the lady in orange and a chic hairdo. Found their contacts in your system.”

Rhys pouted. “I don’t appreciate you or Angel going through my personal files like that. You could have just asked me”

“Well, you’ve been unconscious for a while, and I had to know who I was really dealing with.”

“And your verdict is?” Rhys asked dryly.

“You’re a-okay, cupcake.” Jack leaned in again, dropping his voice. His friendly demeanor completely disappeared in a blink, and his expression turned cold. “Just to make things clear, you got to meet Angel only because she wanted it to happen. If you ever tell anyone about her I won’t hold back breaking that promise that I won’t strangle you on sight. Got it?” Jack hissed next to Rhys’ ear.

Rhys could only look at Jack with wide eyes, nodding up and down slowly. 

Jack smirked. “Glad to have that cleared out.” He patted Rhys’ shoulder.

The janitor shook his head and tried to steady his voice. “Jack, I would never do anything against you, or do anything to harm Angel.” He crossed his arms, er, arm. “I thought it was understood that my intentions are not malicious. At least not towards you or Hyperion.”

“You can’t really blame me for being cautious, pumpkin.” The CEO shrugged. “How’s my hacker feeling?”

“Much better now, thanks. Still can’t feel my left leg, but the doctor said I should be able to walk in a week or more. I would like to have my left vision and my arm back, though.”

Elated, Jack rushed. “Your arm got busted to the point of no return, so the cybernetic department and I have been working on a new arm for ya. Even Angel pitched in with the ideation and design!” Jack and Rhys looked at Angel, who gave him a thumbs-up.

Overwhelmed, Rhys stammered. “Oh wow, um, th-thanks Angel. You too, Jack. I’m very grateful. But why are, why are you doing this? It seems like a bit much to offer to an ex-middle manager-turned janitor.”

“Well, for the arm, I was bored. Plus, consider it as my thank-you gift for literally busting yourself while working for me. Your new Echo Eye will be given to you in a couple of days. The nutty bunch at the bar pretty much fried 80% of your cybernetic implants inside your body. You’re gonna have to get them replaced through surgery.”

Rhys remembered Jim and his men at jack’s mention. “What happened to Jim and the rest?”

“Oh, them? I interrogated them. Sent good ol’ Jim down to Pandora near the bandit camp after interrogation. Sounded fair since he planned to sell you off to a black market dealer” Jack’s face twisted in disgust. “Airlocked the three creeps who were following orders, and made sure the bartender was forever banned from serving alcohol.”

“Wow.”

“Don’t worry our pretty head, pumpkin. I got you covered.” Jack said proudly.

“Thanks Ja-”

“If”

“If?”

“If you take my job offer. Become my chief software engineer. The official title is President of Information Management of Security blablabla. The point is, I need someone who can protect Hyperion. Secure our firewalls and make sure no classified information goes out. And steal other companies’ classified information but that should be given.” The CEO explained excitedly.

“If not?”

“You really gonna say no? Well if you refuse my offer, you can keep being a janitor and The Company Man. You’re not leaving Helios though. What you can do is too precious, kiddo.”

Rhys pretended to contemplate Jack’s offer. 

“I will accept under only one condition.” Rhys asserted with a sly, playful gleam in his eyes. 

Jack perked up. “Money? A new house? New tech? Promotion for your friends? Just say it baby, Handsome Jack’s got you. As long as you don’t push it, of course.”

“Don’t call me kiddo.” the cybernetic man said.

The older man burst out laughing. “Really? That’s it? Sure, whatever works for you.” He put an arm around Rhys, the physical contact making the ex-janitor’s heart flutter with warmth. Jack wiped a fake tear off his eye. “Oh, you and I are going to be a great team. I can feel it.”

Rhys let out a chuckle, joining in Jack’s mirth.

The feeling was mutual.

-------------

Jack visited us regularly from then on. The CEO checked up on both her and Rhys more frequently after the man’s neural implant surgery. 

Both of them made a steady recovery over the next few weeks. 

Most days, Jack visited them during the evening and quietly worked next to them. Angel read her books and Rhys caught up with news and current event updates from the ECHOnet. Sometimes they talked, played video games (that Vaughn left when he dropped by the reception desk), and watched movies if Jack wasn’t too busy.

It wasn’t just her and Rhys that made a steady recovery, Angel noticed with her keen eyes. Jack started to relax back to his old self, but in better ways. Until Rhys joined her as a roommate, he looked lost and worn out. His nerves frazzled after his losses. She could tell that her father struggled to face the truth in front of him. What he had actually done to his loved ones in the name of ‘greater good’. It made her bittersweet that the near-death experience of her was what triggered such turmoil inside the twisted, troubled man.

Rhys was different from Jack’s usual companions. Or who used to be his companions. His records and activity logs told her that he was not afraid to dirty his hands, was cunning, ambitious, and a jerk. But he was also… loyal, goofy, and empathetic. He listened to Jack without judgment. He was obviously enamored of her dad, but he didn’t shy away from calling Jack out on dubious things the older man had done. Rhys gave Jack the space he needed to make his own choices, suggested less destructive possibilities on the side, but never imposed his opinions on the CEO. 

Rhys became Jack’s friend in the best ways.

Having him as a company made Jack’s visits less awkward and uncomfortable. She still had mixed feelings and resentment towards Jack, but hanging out with him with Rhys on the side, having fun and laughing, also reminded her of when she was young. When Jack was John. When he held her hand and hugged her goodnight.

It wasn’t Rhys’ job or duty to change Jack or help the older man becomes better, but he was doing it just by being himself.

Honestly, it weirded her out how fondly Jack looked at Rhys as time went. His casual touches lingered longer and happened much more often. What surprised her was that Rhys didn’t seem to mind, and even reciprocated the touches. It was kind of painful to watch them flirt with each other while pretending to be ‘friends.’

She swore to herself that she was going to make sure Jack didn’t screw up whatever was going on between him and Rhys. 

First, she had to get better.

-------------------

After a month Rhys was discharged, fully recovered and equipped with a new arm and an Echo Eye. His recovery took a bit longer than a regular accelerated treatment would take because they had to reinstall the cybernetics implants first and make sure they were compatible with his neural system.

Angel’s healing would take longer and had to be more gradual because there was no official record of medical treatment of sirens in the case of eridium dependency. Nothing was sure yet but the doctors were doing their best.

It was a lot of fun hanging out with Jack and Angel. He’d come to love Jack, the man behind the CEO visage, much more than before. And watching Angel smile more often warmed his heart. He wanted to introduce her to Vaughn and Yvette, with Jack’s permission.

Rhys was having a pizza lunch with Jack when the CEO got a call: Hugo Vasquez was requesting entrance, along with two sisters who claimed to have a deal the Hyperion CEO cannot afford to pass up...

The End