Andy- 'Birth of a hacker' Pt 1

Who: Andy, Kara
Where: Next to the hole
When: 6:00 AM
Warning: Unfunny, background post ahead
<Snip>
"I'm worried about ya honestly. And I hear it's bad for ya to not talk
about things that bother you. So even though I feel somehow I am gonna
regret this tell me what that was. Cause I really do have a small bit
of worry for ya mostly cause your the only person who is probably
gonna be able to save me anyways. So who was that and why the hell did
you spaz out?" Kara questioned.
<End Snip>
"She... she was beautiful." Andy began completely out of the blue. It
was like he was mumbling out a day dream. "Long dark black hair,
perfect, sky blue eyes... an adorable pouting lip, Sarah was
everything that I ever wanted."
"...Who was she?" Considering that the Janitor had just jammed an
Atari cartage through a laptop screen then threw it at the nearest
hard object. She didn't feel like interrupting him with such abrasive
questions as 'what the f*** are ya talking about?'
"An act; a con-artist. I was 20 at the time. For the past years I'd
been drifting from job to job. At the time I was a miscellaneous
cleaner... at Tri-Optimum. Yeah... that's right, tri-op. I remember it
as if it was yesterday... a Friday, my pay day; I had just finished
cleaning mainframes. She saw me in the street and simply walked over
to me, asking me if I had the time on me. Heh... I was such a wuss, so
I joked out of it saying 'No, it's on my wrist.' The crap joke even
got a laugh out of her... it was short...but it was... perfect. After
a few minutes of small talk I did something I've never done before. I
asked her out." The Janitor took a deep breath before sitting down
next to a twisted, gnarled tree.
"Ya just asked a random girl out?" Kara crocked her brow at him.
"Yeah!" Andy gave a nostalgia-laden chuckle. "I actually asked her
twice, I was so nervous. She laughed again and suggested a coffee shop
across the street. Even still I thought 'What could she possibly want
with me?' I was right to be suspicious."
The hologram plastered her hand to her forrid. "Andy... I understand
that I asked ya what caused ya to freak out. But WHY are we talking
about a hot girl ya once knew?"
The janitor seemingly ignored Kara. "It went on for six months this
habit of meeting out on the front on every Friday. Every time I was
with her I felt something that I've never felt- ever, that *I* was
wanted...*for me*. You can't understand what it feels to someone's
who's lived to seen as a nothing at best and a parasite at worst."
"...From the way you're going about this, I doubt this ended well."
Kara's insight served her well as the Janitor continued.
Andy stared ahead at the dawning sun, his arms locked over his knees.
"You'd be right about that. Sarah, it turned out, was a popular girl.
She had two other friends, Jacquie and Martin. They were nothing like
Sarah was. J&M were rough and hard-bitten to the core. While Sarah was
kind, they were always blunt and rude. In hind-sight, it was just that
they were more honest that her."
"On about the fifth month Sarah started to ask about tri-op. At first
it was simple questions like 'what do you do there?' and 'how is it?'"
"Uh oh." Kara muttered.
"Soon... it became more specific. Like the door codes. At the end of
the fifth month I was sick on Friday so I stayed home. Sarah wasn't
one to miss an appointment."
Andy masked his distraught face with his hand. "While I was out to get
some medicine... she was in my apartment. She was nothing like she was
before. Before my eyes she transformed from a kind, meek, sweet girl
into a cruel, punk-like gangster. Sarah then gave me a very simple
choice. Join her gang and help with the heist of the century, or face
the consequences."
Kara's face twisted in surprise. "Please tell me you got the hell out
of there!"
"You don't understand!!" The janitor yelled, repressed fury in his
eyes. "I *loved* her. Some part of me, a very, very stupid part of me
thought that Sarah, *my* Sarah was still under there. All I had to do
was give her time."
"I can't believe that ya'd be that naïve!" Kara replied, throwing her
arms up in the air.
"Hindsight is 20/20." The janitor countered evenly, staring ahead at
the orange-tinted horizon. "So I spilt everything to her. The layouts,
the guard patrols, the codes- hell, even the maintenance tunnels."
The janitor stopped while his jaw worked on an unknown gristle.
"The worst part was... my love for Sarah wasn't one-sided. Despite who
she was, despite that she'd both tricked and lied to me. Sarah...
love- no- lusted after me. Just thinking about that makes me feel
both... gratified and violated."
"Uhhh... this is kinda getting into weird territory." The hologram
replied cautiously, yet wisely waited for Atari-related projectiles to
come hurdling at her.
Andy gave an meek, apologetic shrug. "Sorry, I'll just get to the big
night, the night I was given the nickname 'Hal'."
Kara's finger tips twisted her hair in thought. "Hey... wait a second;
yore big time hacker aren't ya? Why didn't they know about ya?"
"Just let me finish. Now... where was it...? Oh yeah. By the night
came I was a trusted employee of tri-op. I'd managed sneak in Sarah,
pretending that she was my 'girlfriend'. Once in she did the rest.
Within a few minutes she knocked out the security teams and
manipulated the life-scanners to all humans as fleas. Once she'd got
the skeleton key to the building, she turned to me and said the
sentence that changed the rest of my life. 'You're one of us now,
Andy, one of the damned. My name is not Sarah... my true name is
Glados.' She grinned then took my hand. 'To us and the rest of the
underground, your name is no longer 'Andy'... your name is Hal.'"
"So *that's* how ya got yore name, huh? Seems like a bit of a cop-out
in my opinion."
"Shush. Once out of the security room, we rejoined up with Martin and
Jacquie. There she re-introduced me to them. Wintermute and Leela;
they were remarkably warmer to me afterwards. Within ten minutes we'd
bought ourselves enough time for an entire hour of poking around. We
didn't intend to waste one second of it."
"Sar-...Glados led us to their prize, the control room. Because I
didn't have a clue of what was going on I simply hung back why they
ran around the room like seven year-olds on Christmas morning." Andy
looked down to his left, not quite making it clear if he was acting
out or just letting his eyes wonder.
"Still, something finally caught my eye. In a titanium-weave
plexiglass briefcase was a dark, scorched black laptop."
"Leela saw what I had found and gleefully cracked it open for me using
one of her electro-tools. With a malicious grin she told me that
whatever was inside was 'my pay'. Man she was a bitch." The janitor
began to pick away at a small indent in the floor, as if he wasn't
interested in his own story.
"The Laptop inside was an ugly, bulky thing, looked like it was hit by
lightening. Other than the few basic things ACSII had thought me in my
teens, I didn't know much about computers back then. Tell you what,
that would soon change. When I pressed the 'on' button......"
<To be continued>