"Look at that. That is a beautiful sunset," Hacker breathed as he parked the coupe atop Mobius. It was a rare moment of peace after all long day. He was sharing the hour with his friend and colleague, Coop who was slouched in the passenger seat with his feet on the dashboard.
"Passionfruit strawberry," the young Radster said, taking a long slurp out of his plastic cup filled with an orange-red gradient of icy slush.
"What? No, I mean the actual sunset. Six-thirty on the dot," Hacker said, gesturing at the sky outside. From Mobius was a great view of a number of sites from Eureka to Poddlevillie. The young cyborg pointed a finger towards the Southern Frontier and Topsy-Turvy Isle, watching as the last of the sun sank behind the jagged mountains of the site. He picked up his cup of processed sugar and took a sip. "You're right. These are delicious."
"Radopolis has the best cold sugar, man. And you can quote me on that." He reached into their take-out bag and pulled out a burger.
"There it goes," Hacker said, watching at the edge of his seat as the island collapsed in on itself and formed a massive wall of ice in the Southern Sea. "Pretty good work, if I do say so." He gave his nails a shine against his shirt collar, then held them out admiringly. "So? What do you think?"
"I mean... it's nice?" Coop gave his head a scratch under his beanie.
"Nice? Nice?!" Hacker made an aggressive turn towards the skateboarder, his features contorting as if Coop had just insulted him to his face. He looked as if he were about to say something else but instead covered his mouth with his hand and shifted his gaze away in indignity.
"I guess I don't really see the point?"
"It's called being creative, Coop," he blurted out, whirling his head around again. "Something you clearly don't know about." Hacker slunk in his seat, arms cross over his chest. Coop's lack of tact had put him in a mood. "Marbles was impressed," he muttered under his breath.
"Great. Then my opinion doesn't matter."
"Don't give me that," he said, jabbing a finger in the Radster's direction. "That's a cop-out you're using because you know you've been an idiot. All I wanted was a little support. I worked all weekend on the code for that, and otherwise I'd feel invisible! You know no one else pays attention to these things." He buried his face into his hands and let out an exasperated groan.
"I'm sorry, dude. It's honestly dope. How did you get everything on the island to survive when the place freezes over?"
"I don't. It all gets stored in a zip file."
"Right," Coop said, scrambling to think of a more sophisticated question. He knew Hacker liked it when they had conversations about his work. Hacker rolled his eyes, knowing that he knew and was trying to over-compensate.
"It's fine," he said, still in a monotone, but sitting up straight again. "I know you're a simpleton who isn't capable of doing better." Coop laughed, slinging an arm around his friend's shoulder.
"Hey. Don't forget who's GPA was 0.05 higher than yours last semester." Hacker gave a huff of acknowledgment at this. His friend was no dummy. If he was, Hacker wouldn't have valued his opinion so highly in the first place. The two had met while attending intro classes at CyberTech University. They weren't sharing any classes this semester, Hacker majoring in Cybernetics while Coop in Mechanical Engineering, but the two were always neck and neck on the list of highest scoring students at the school.
"We should start heading back," Coop said, glancing down at his watch. "My uncle's going to blow a gasket if I'm not home by eight."
"Agreed. Marbles probably has assignments for me piling up to the ceiling," he sighed, reigniting the coupe's engine and putting in the coordinates for Radopolis. "You know what that borg's problem is? And I say this with love and respect and all those other things," he said, putting a hand over his H-drive. "He has trust issues. It's not as if he can't hire a few more assistants for the more menial tasks. But he just has to keep it in the family. I can't wait to be out of that place."
"Say what?!" the Radster cried, nearly doing a spit take over the wind shield. Hacker piloted the ship down the length of the run away and took off. He was smiling mildly as if what he'd just said wasn't a complete shock.
"I've been working on my stress management in therapy and I've realized most of my problems stem from the job," he explained. "I've been thinking of starting a business. Making a boat load of snelfus. You should think about moving out too. We can go fifty-fifty a start up. A garage, or something."
"W-what?" Coop let out awkward chuckled, still a bit thrown off by his friend's admittance. "Where is all this coming from?" As far as he'd known, Hacker had always been happy in his position. And who wouldn't? Getting to work under the brilliant Doctor Marbles and for Motherboard! Actually being built by Doctor Marbles himself, and with an intellect mirroring that of the great man. And sure his friend had always seemed to struggle with his workload, but that was just the nature of the job. A job he was, after all, designed to perform.
Hacker shrugged. He'd sensed his friend's hesitance and was now holding back more than before. "Just a thought I'd been having. Interested?"
"In making a boat load of snelfus? Who isn't? It's just... sudden coming from you."
Hacker grunted in agreement. There was a lot he thought about that he didn't share. Not even with his best friend. "It's been stirring in my head for a while. I deserve more, Coop." He rubbed his neck, self-consciously and glanced at his colleague for reassurance. "You understand, right?"
"Yeah. Like when you finish a code, you want people to look at it and say, 'the Hacker, a genius'."
"I know you're mocking me, but I'm going to ignore it," the borg muttered stoically, hands gripping a wheel a bit tighter.
"I'm sorry," Coop said offering his friend a reassuring pat on the back. He was a jokester, but he never meant offense. "Hang in there, buddy." As if on cue, a message appeared on the coupe's screen, accompanying a musical cue indicating its urgency.
"What is it?" Hacker asked, already knowing it wouldn't like it. Coop gave the monitor a tap.
"A distress call from Happily Ever After."
Hacker shook his head. "It's never ending with them! One day, that lion and unicorn are tearing up the place. The next, the pigs are building straw houses again."
"Hacker, buddy. You gotta have more patience with these guys."
"That's easy for you to say!" he scoffed. "You've never had to deal with them."
"Then I'll come with you. My folks can wait."
"Really?"
Coop nodded. "Could be fun."
Hacker gave a stunned shake of the head. "Clearly we have very different definitions of the word."