Alec Hardison was a hard person to hack. Ok, he was an impossible person to hack; until about 20 minutes ago. He had been harmlessly hacking some security cameras in Canada to find facial recognition on Parker, when he realized he wasn't alone; someone else was looking at the same footage. It was only a few minutes later that someone else had slipped into his system.
Of course, Hardison hacked him right after, leaving them at a stalemate, but it was the initial infacture that messed with him.
The words appeared on Hardison's screen. He quickly moved to another monitor, typing to the mystery hacker:
The hacker started to access his files; Hardison's fourth screen suddenly lit up as he hit his firewalls. Those were his files. His files. Nobody touched those files, not even Nate. (Of course, that thought sent him tumbling into a slew of places he didn't want to be right now, so he got back on track.) He, in turn, broke through his competitor's most recent wall, picking some choice files for himself.
The words appeared on Hardison's first monitor. He very visibly grabbed another file, and more words appeared.
Hardison scoffed, but really, the typer was right. The best move he could make was call a truce.
The cursor blinked, unmoving, for a few seconds. Just as Hardison was starting to relax, a box popped up on his screen. "Skype? Really?" He said aloud. He didn't need to ask how the kid had made the connection. He knew just how he would do it, if it were him initiating the call. He pressed the call button obligingly, however, and was met with an unfamiliar face.
"Hold up, hold up. You were the one who broke in?" The kid – for he was a kid, nineteen tops – frowned at him. The boy's light skin was somewhat lost in the glare of the camera, but as the kid moved back in his seat, he got a clearer view. He really was young, wild hair framing his boyish face. Hardison didn't want to think about his chances when this kid grew up.
"I may be young, but you can't deny that I know my stuff." He said, crossing his arms defensively.
Hardison held up his hands, and said with a quirk of his lips, "No arguments here."
The boy smiled, and Hardison thought it was too honest, too goddamn innocent for the guy who just proved he could trash his entire system. "No, really. I've never met anyone who could get that far into my system; who are you?"
Hardison had to refrain from rolling his eyes. He looked at the kid seriously, "You first."
The other hacker really did roll his eyes, but offered up what Hardison had to believe was an honest reply. "My name is Alec Sadler." He said simply.
Hardison chuckled dryly. "Oh, you're not gonna believe this." He gave himself one more second of grinning at the camera, before replying, "My name is Alec Hardison."
Alec's eyebrows tightened, before a slow smile took over his face.
"I'm gonna chalk this up to coincidence, unless you know something I don't." Hardison said, crossing his arms. The only person who could hack Hardison as well as Hardison could hack him, and he was named Alec? He honestly wasn't sure what it meant, but freaky coincidence seemed like the only option.
Alec mirrored him, folding his arms tightly in front of him consideringly. and Hardison appreciated the show of trust. In the world of computers, the worst thing you can do to slow you down is to have your hands occupied. Especially with someone as good as Sadler, a second's head start could throw him farther behind than he'd like to think about.
It was Alec's turn for his lips to quirk up into a smile. "No arguments here."