Chapter 1: The dangers of running
Chapter Text
Adora glances around her office, nervously pulling the military briefcase from underneath her desk. Even just possessing this hardware could get her in trouble, though as a security expert she did have the license to own one. It just so happened that she wasn’t supposed to own it for her current employment, and most certainly not to use it to run against company software she is supposed to be protecting.
Not to mention the modifications Adora has made to her console. Her mind drifts off as she remembers the last time she ran. Her console back then had maybe a hundredth of the power of this beast and was woefully lacking in safety features. A pang of regret brings her back to the present.
Adora has some concerns about recent activities on the servers, so it is time to perform an unscheduled test. “Privacy mode on.” Her office windows tint dark and her door locks. No one can disturb her now. Attaching the brain-machine wiring to her head takes a bit of effort with her ponytail in the way.
Properly secured, she connects to the company’s internal network. Time to take a look. With a slow exhale, she closes her eyes and dives in.
The server is dark, but Adora’s She-Ra avatar brightens the area around her. Bringing up her Sword of Protection, she pushes deeper in. Is it cheating if you already know the specifications of the ICE before you start a run? Either way, she easily passes the outer defenses using some mocked credentials and an unpatched verification exploit. She should remind Kyle to look at that.
A single flash in her periphery changes everything. In the meatspace, she wouldn’t even care, but on the Net, there are no random leaves or errant newspapers. Every motion has a purpose and cause. And this motion belongs to a Magicat avatar.
Adora barely sees her for more than a second. The feline figure cuts through the Palisade and rushes forward, barely pausing to acknowledge her presence. Adora follows, more out of curiosity than anything else. There’s not supposed to be anyone else here, obviously, but the other runner doesn’t seem concerned with her presence? What is she doing here?
They race each other inside. She-Ra’s sword cuts through the next layer of ICE, but instead of following through the hole Adora made, the feline hacker cuts another path with her claws. Her avatar grins at her and beckons Adora to follow. Challenge accepted, Adora charges to keep pace with her.
They dart past several more ineffective constructs. This other runner is experienced and capable, dealing with industry-leading software without pause or hesitation. Adora only barely manages to keep up with her, and she has insider knowledge of everything being deployed against them.
They pull to a stop near the data vault. This is where the company secrets for this server are stored. According to her notes, there’s only a single piece of ICE left to contend with, but she doesn’t see it. Communication with another runner inside a server is basically impossible, as communication channels are blocked inside the protected server, but some simple gestures work. Adora gestures for the other runner to stop, waiting there.
They take a moment to look at each other's avatars. The feline figure is still sharply dressed, wearing what looks like a tailored suit. The most distinctive trait is the eyes, however: one sharp blue, the other a warm yellow. Adora starts to gesture her name when the ICE activates.
One eye, then another. Countless eyes swarm around. Adora feels her blood go cold. This is killer ICE. This shouldn’t even be allowed on company servers. With a cry of warning, she pushes the other runner out of the way and uses her Sword of Protection to cut away at the floating eyes, tearing through the sentry with little concern for subtlety. She’s seen the damage this kind of defense can do first-hand and she doesn’t want anyone else to suffer like that.
When she’s done, the other runner is still standing there. Adora turns to see the unlocked data vault and realizes that she has no way of stopping this other hacker from stealing what is in there. She just did the exact opposite of her job. But then, the other runner simply steps forward, places a paw print-style note on the data vault, and turns around.
Huh. is this not a foreign intruder? Adora wasn’t aware of any of her colleagues using a feline avatar, but any hacker with ill intent would’ve swiped the data and darted for the exit. Instead, the other runner turns back to her, mimics blowing a kiss, then jacks out.
When Adora opens her eyes, she is still blushing. She has no idea who that was, but she is desperately curious now. Putting away her console, she quickly turns off her privacy mode. Just in time for a notice from her boss. “Miss Gray, Miss Weaver wants you in her office in fifteen minutes.”
That’s okay. Adora had a few words for her boss as well.
Chapter 2: Fully Operational
Summary:
Adora and Catra meet in the meatspace, but Weaver is none too pleased with either of them.
Chapter Text
The waiting room outside Weaver’s office was colloquially known as the torture chamber, and as Adora sits down she remembers why. Weaver isn’t summoning her to praise her recent performance, she knows that much. The silence doesn’t help her tension until another person joins her.
Adora finds herself blushing slightly as she takes in the stranger’s appearance. The brunette is wearing a sharp business jacket and short heels, her hair done up in a messy bun. As she sits down across from Adora, their eyes meet. One bright blue, the other a warm yellow. Adora gasps in surprise loud enough for the other woman to notice.
“Hey princess.” Her voice is sultry smooth and far too teasing for an office context. “Fancy seeing you here.”
Adora does her best to find her composure, but it suddenly got warm here. “Hey. Who are you? Why were you running against our servers?”
Handing her a business card, the woman introduces herself. “Catra Horde, freelance penetration tester and white hat hacker. I should be asking you the same thing.”
Adora chances a glance at the door. “Adora Gray. Chief of Digital Security for WeaverCorp. I was performing an unscheduled test.” She wrings her hands together and hopes Catra doesn’t realize how unscheduled she means. When she looks back up into those bright eyes, she knows she is screwed.
“You’re a bad liar.” Catra has the audacity to laugh. “Why don’t you let me take the lead here, princess?”
Adora doesn’t get a chance to ask her what she means before the door opens up and they are standing in Weaver’s office.
As always, the woman is in a terrible mood. “Chief Gray. I see you’ve met Miss Horde? She just informed me she was able to penetrate our servers. Please explain how this happened.”
Adora barely manages to find a seat before Weaver is tearing her a new one. She tries to defend herself, but Weaver isn’t interested in solutions, only blame. Finally, when she’s withstood a few minutes of verbal abuse, she’s able to get in a question edgewise. “The server Miss Horde was testing had modifications done without my approval. Who signed off on these modifications?”
Weaver dismisses her question with a wave of her hand. “Irrelevant, these modifications are necessary for our new project. Chief Gray, your duty is to ensure our projects are safe from hackers. I believe you understand this reflects poorly on your performance?”
Catra finally speaks up. “If I may? I should point out that the security systems I faced here are all on the cutting edge, properly installed, and operational. As this is a newer server, it was vulnerable to some basic architecture flaws, but nothing that can’t is beyond the scope of solving.” She pauses before adding. “And I share Chief Gray’s concerns about unauthorized changes to a server’s defenses. I faced Black ICE during my run, Miss Weaver. That was not part of the contract.”
That gets the woman’s attention. “Your contract was to test the server for security flaws. I trust you to be careful.” The answer is insultingly dismissive.
Adora speaks up, to get the conversation over with if nothing else. “I’ll have a review with Miss Horde to see what options are available for us, and I’ll have Kyle, Lonnie and Rogelio patch whatever outstanding bugs we have before the end of the week.” She sighs. “Will there be anything else?”
Weaver mercifully dismisses them. “No, that will be all.”
She makes it out of the hall before Catra catches up with her. Her head feels a thousand times as heavy as normal and she can’t think straight. Black ICE. ICE with potentially fatal consequences for the runner. Saisentan.
The hand on her shoulder pulls her out of her thoughts. “Hey, you okay?” The voice is suddenly so calming and caring. “Your boss is an ass, sorry for saying it.”
Adora takes a deep breath to ground herself. “Yeah, she is. I’m sorry, this is unprofessional. I just,” she pauses. This is technically not information she should divulge, but everything she’s learned about Catra so far is that the woman might understand her better than anyone else in the building. “I promised myself that I’d do anything in my power to stop them from using Black ICE. I take a two-week vacation, the first in five years, and they just install it while I’m not there.”
Catra pats her on the shoulder, glancing around the hallway before nodding. “Hey, are you free for lunch? I know a place downtown. I’ve got some things I’d like to discuss.”
Chapter 3: Security Testing
Summary:
Adora and Catra go on a lunchdate and talk about their jobs.
It's more exciting than it sounds, I promise.
Chapter Text
Catra’s car was luxurious but practical. No fancy champagne glasses and stereo installation, just a hardwood table and some comfortable seats. The freelancer sets the autopilot to drive them to a neighborhood twenty minutes away and turns back to Adora. “Hope you like tacos.”
Adora shakes herself out of her sulking. “Huh? Yeah. Love tacos. The best.” Realizing what she just said, she turns bright red. “I mean, tacos for lunch sounds great.”
Catra bursts out laughing. “One-track mind there, princess? At least buy me dinner first.” Adora somehow gets even redder and shuts down. Taking some pity on her, Catra stops laughing. “Hey, you’re fine. I imagine it isn’t an easy day for you so far.”
“I just can’t believe,” Adora’s eyes stare off into the distance, “I can’t believe they’re running Black ICE on my servers. It isn’t right. I’ve seen what a program like that can do to a runner. To anyone. This is wrong.”
Catra waits quietly for Adora to finish her little rant. Then, she nudges the reinforced briefcase on the car’s floor. “Well, guess someone needs to do something about that, then?” Her eyes sparkle with dangerous allure.
Adora stammers, losing her composure. “You’re not suggesting attacking the corp? That’s illegal.”
The other runner laughs. “Princess, sweetheart, if murder is legal and protecting people isn’t, who gives a fuck about the law? I don’t. How do you think I got the car?” Adora looks at the leather seats again. It does look rather fancy for a freelancer's salary.
“But I’m not a criminal.” The defense is soulless, and Adora knows it. Catra is shaking her world upside-down, and the worst part is that she’s right. Weaver has crossed Adora’s line. She’s not worth defending anymore.
Catra’s finger runs across Adora’s cheekbone, sending shivers down her spine. “Well, you’re in good company. If you want to do the right thing, here’s your chance.” The silence that falls is loaded and heavy.
Finally, Adora nods. “Alright. I’ll help. How does this work?”
Catra gestures to slow down. “Lunch first, princess. Then we get back to your office, get your gear, and see how we turn the servers inside-out.” The car slows down, a little light indicating it is parking.
Catra pulls open the door for Adora. “We should do it in her office,” the security expert suddenly exclaims. “On Thursdays, Weaver always has lunch with investors from Germany. If we’re back in the office by one, we have an hour of unrestricted access.”
The freelance hacker smirks. “Not a bad idea. But tacos first, planning second. Need to take care of yourself, Adora.”
Adora feels her shoulders unclench at Catra’s words. She’s right. Somehow, despite the rocky start, she thinks that maybe she and Catra could make quite the team
Chapter 4: The Failsafe
Summary:
Adora and Catra try to bring down Weavercorp's servers. Things don't go as planned.
Chapter Text
Adora sits down in Weaver’s chair, Catra sits on her desk with a devilish smile. They both grab their consoles and plug the wires into the access ports there. Catra’s console boots a lot faster than Adora’s, so she has a chance to look around the room. Finally, her eyes drift back to Adora.
“Would be pretty crazy if this was all just a test for you, princess.” Adora’s breath catches in her throat, and Catra leans forward, hand under the blonde’s chin. “You jack in, and you’re defenseless. It is a lot of trust to place in someone you’ve only met hours ago.”
Adora looks up, her bright eyes meeting Catra’s more subdued ones, and she smiles. “I trust you, Catra.” The freelancer looks shocked but then nods. “Ready when you are.”
They dive in together, thoughts becoming electrical signals and slipping into the central Weavercorp server. Adora’s She-Ra avatar shines bright, while Catra’s Magicat avatar is more subdued. With a quick nod, they slip in.
The outer firewall poses no challenge to experienced hackers. Kyle hasn’t patched the exploit yet either, so Adora points out the flaw in the identification system and lets herself and Catra inside. Here, it gets more complicated.
Adora knows that there are extra security features on Weaver’s personal servers, but she’s still surprised to see a Hagen blocking further access. These German investors Weaver is meeting with must’ve provided her with one. While a fascinating tool for blocking a wide range of unconventional tactics, both Adora and Catra are using conventional breakers and get through with no problem.
Only one more ICE to go. Adora pauses as she sees the Saisantan hover over her again. The unblinking eyes send shivers down her spine. Catra takes the lead, spinning a bolas between her fingers before tossing it to wrap around the eyes floating towards them. The feline avatar darts forward, and Adora follows in her wake. They almost slip through, but the bola isn’t enough to completely disable the ICE, and a little zap hits them both. Catra slips past.
Adora does not.
The damage dealt by Saisentan is more than simple electrical feedback directly to a runner’s brain. Such agony would be terrifying enough for most, but Saisentan layers into this attack the runner’s thoughts and memories of pain and fear. It relies on knowledge of the runner’s personality or blind luck to access these memories. For someone like Catra, who is completely unknown to the system and more than a little lucky, the memories are nothing more than an aching distraction.
For Adora, that memory is a name. Mara.
“Alright kiddo, remember why you run?” Mara looks down at a little Adora, both holding their consoles. Adora can’t be more than 15 years old in her memory.
“We run to help people!” Adora gives the woman a warm smile. Mara is like a sister to her, and even though they aren’t related, Mara has looked out for her for the last decade. Finding a concealed position in the alleyway they both jack in.
Catra sees the other runner collapse in the middle of the Saisentan. This is bad. Really, really bad. Running back in is going to get them both in trouble, but if she doesn’t do anything Adora could die . Thinking fast, she rushes over to the nearest access port and uses some borrowed codes to set off the alarm on herself. At once, the entire server grows darker and more hostile, but hopefully, power will be diverted from the Saisentan and to keeping Catra out.
She just made this job ten times more difficult. Looking back at Adora’s prone form, she knows she needs to get further away to make this work. With a heavy hard and a deep sigh, she dives deeper.
“Adora!” Mara is screaming. Floating, unblinking eyes zapping the runner. “Adora, jack out!” Mara is being torn apart by neural feedback. One last zap and she collapses. Adora sees Mara’s body going limp. She feels the cold rain on the back of her neck. Mara’s eyes are closed and Adora knows they will never open again.
Adora knows that Mara is dead. And she would spend her entire career advocating against Black ICE so that no one would have to lose as she had. And today, looking at a swarm of uncaring eyes, she knows that they never cared. They never understood that two kids just trying to get their neighbor some prescription medicine jacked in, and only one jacked out.
The Failsafe activates. On Weaver’s desk, Adora’s console begins beeping as her neural overload reaches critical numbers. It is too late to jack out, but her console isn’t stopping the signals. It redirects them.
Catra sees the entire server glow gold. Turning back, she sees Adora’s She-Ra avatar rise into the air, her entire body glowing against the oppressive darkness of the server. The Saisentan had pushed her as far as she would go, and now she was pushing back.
Her sword cleaves through the Saisentan. Turning to the central server access point, she waits for Catra to upload any relevant data to her datastack before bringing the sword down. The entire server shudders and begins to fall apart. Adora takes a deep breath and jacks out.
The room smells faintly like burned flesh. Catra looks at her with concern. Letting her shoulders slouch, Adora nods to her. “It is over. We better get out of here before they kick down the door.”
Catra’s concern lingers, but she nods and packs up her briefcase. They both make it out the front door before anyone can stop them. Getting back into Catra’s limo, the freelancer smiles.
“Half the secrets already sold, I’m holding the other half for more. How do you feel about a trip to Portugal, princess?” Her gaze grows more worried as Adora doesn’t answer right away. “Adora? You still in there?”
The blonde finally nods. “Sorry. I owe you an explanation of what just happened, but,” she scratched the back of her head. “Later? And I’ve never been to Portugal, so I’ll trust you?”
Catra just nods. “All good. Just making sure my partner is doing okay.”
Adora’s cheeks blush. “Alright then, partner.”