Chapter Text
It takes Marcus maybe thirty seconds to realize he’s left Wrench in the dust. Looking down from the building he has just hoisted himself onto, he sees Wrench stuck on the shorter building below, trying to decide the best route upwards. After probably too much deliberation, Wrench goes for the easiest option: the shoddy-looking metal stairs, barely keeping together.
Marcus can’t help but laugh a little.
“Y’know, you kinda suck at keeping up,” he calls down, being met by Wrench’s mask flashing him grumpy-looking slashes.
“Fuck off, Mr. Acrobat,” Wrench shouts back, flipping Marcus the bird too for good measure, “I’ve got shitty legs and no upper arm strength. Sorry I can’t compete with your cool parkour stuff.”
“Nah, I think you could get around it. Making your own jetpack? A jetpack would be badass… But then I’d want one too.”
“Well, shit, now I have to make one to make you jealous.” Once Wrench— finally— catches up to Marcus, he groans and flops against his side. Though the spikes are digging into his shoulder, the feel of his warmth is comforting, almost.
“It’s alright, though, I’ve just accepted that I will never be as cool as Marcus.” Wrencus pauses the melodramatic to peel himself off Marcus, his mask switching to happy carets. “Lucky for me, though, ‘Marcus Doing Badass Shit’ is pretty high up on my list of turn-ons.”
Marcus smirks, probably from how blunt Wrench is about it. Not that anything between them had been established or anything, but there were enough prolonged glances and enough late-night deep talks to amount to something more than just friends. But maybe he was looking too deep into it.
“As much as I appreciate it, I did not bring you along just so I could be your eye candy,” he replies. “Find me a quiet way in and out. Emphasis on the quiet part. Don’t know about you, but I’m really not feeling having another !nViTE situation tonight.”
Wrench shrugs. “Ah, don’t worry about it. I’m excellent at multitasking.”
“Uh-huh. If I get shot, I’m forwarding my medical bills to you.” Chuckling, Marcus finds a comfortable spot on the floor and pulls out his laptop and breaks into the server farm across the street like it’s nothing.
They’re on humanitarian work tonight— they’re out cleaning out the remnants of ransomware from the Bratva’s most recent attack on Bay Area hospitals. Marcus knew it was just busywork, something Sitara delegated out to him just because he could get it done more quickly and efficiently than anybody else. He asked Wrench to tag along… just because. He honestly didn’t want to be doing something boring alone.
No, it wasn’t that. Though the stakes were low, it didn’t mean it was boring. It was just that any time spent fucking up the Bratva’s plans was one of Wrench’s favorite activities— and throwing Wrench into the mix was always bound to be a good time.
And thankfully for them, tonight was going to be an even easier night. The cameras were mostly clear, only a handful of night guards patrolling the empty server farm. Easy enough to avoid— or take out, depending on how bad it went.
On the topic of things going wrong, Wrench was busy surveying the exterior of the building.
“Honestly… I mean, you could just waltz in and out of the place, dude. Half of their security alarms aren’t even programmed.” He snorts, looking back to Marcus. “It’s like they were begging to be hacked.”
“Well, I’ll be sure to tighten things up on my way out. A gift from DedSec.”
“Ohh man, you’re good. Sitara will be all over that. So I’m gonna scan through whatever scripts you can find to see if anything would be usable for Josh. We wanna break all their shit.”
“Well, try not to miss me too much while I’m gone. I’ll be fast.”
Wrench dramatically places a hand over his chest, mask flashing lamenting semicolons. “Oh, no, my dear Marcus, I ache at the thought of you leaving me here, in the cold, on my—”
“Yeah, okay, bye Wrench,” Marcus says, pulling his bandana over his face. But he’s totally grinning to himself as he descends the shitty stairs Wrench had took.
Yeah, he could have easily gone by himself, finished the job in less than a half-hour, and be on his way. He was used to it being that way. But DedSec showed him that there was safety in numbers... or some bullshit like that. Working in a group of hackers meant never having to work alone.
Whatever the reason, didn’t matter. He could probably rope Wrench into pulling another horror marathon with him after this, and deciding what to watch was far more important.