Wrench didn't disappoint, and rolled up in a sedan—different car, yet again; one of these days she'd have to ask—within ten minutes of them talking. Riley had been pacing the sidewalk around the bench listening to her music, until he stopped in front of her. She leaned down and peeked into the open window, recognizing the Xs flashing on his mask.
"You know this isn't the best part of San Fransisco to be running through alone at night, right?" He questioned, gesturing to the area around them. Riley shrugged, opening the door and sliding into the passenger seat nest to him.
"It wasn't my first concern when I left, to be honest." She said, shutting the door a bit rougher than she intended. Wrench gave a little tilt of his head while putting the car into drive, and Riley wondered if this was in fact his own personal car. No need to do it any damage. "Uh, sorry."
"Eh." He said with an uncaring shrug, starting the car forward down the road Riley had been running along. Ok, maybe it wasn't his car. "The Bratvas control the territory here is all, so, just a heads up!" He said helpfully, keeping his attention on the road in front of them.
The brunette sighed, leaning her elbow on the door and holding her head in her palm. "Today has been the worst Saturday ever."
"Aww, don't say that yet. You've still got a few hours." Wrench's mask displayed a happy expression. "Maybe this'll turn things around?"
Riley raised her head and watched where they were traveling. She still wasn't familiar with this area of the city, though. There was still a lack of large and numerous buildings around. "Where are we going anyway?"
"You'll see." He said with a chuckle and quick wink in her direction.
Unable to help the smile that spread over her lips, she rolled her eyes. Everything DedSec did was so secretive. Or, maybe it was Wrench specifically. Even inadvertently, everything sounded so murder-esque.
Riley wasn't sure how to start a conversation while she was still this angry, and the silence only distracted her further as she thought about this fucked up situation. She closed her eyes and took a long breath. She didn't want to take out her frustration on Wrench by accident. He hadn't done anything wrong.
He must have noticed her distress. "I guess I forgot to ask if you even like surprises."
"They're ok. As long as it's a good surprise." She said neutrally, glancing in his direction. He turned them down a street which brought them closer to the bay. "I mean, getting axe-murdered is a surprise. Not exactly pleasant."
Wrench's mask changed into two asterisks, and turned to stare at her. "That's what you think I'm gonna do?" Riley shrugged with a pout, and he scoffed, shaking his head. "Riiiight, because that's so practical…Axes are too slow, ineffective. I would probably use a chainsaw."
"Wow, that's really reassuring." The journalist looked sharply back towards him, but Wrench intentionally kept his eyes on the road. She felt her smile slowly falling, and after several seconds, he looked over towards her. "You're fucking with me, right?" She asked, and he gave a silent wink. Riley grinned despite herself, and lightly punched him in the arm. "Bastard."
"Nothing more relaxing than death, right?" He said jovially, and Riley shook her head.
"Not for anyone normal."
"Hey, fuck being normal." He said passionately. "Being strange is so much more interesting. And fun."
"I'll take your word for it." She said, chuckling under her breath. The next light was about to turn red, and Riley noticed that they drove right through it, not caring to even try stopping. She supposed there wasn't anyone around for it to do any harm.
"What, you think you're normal?" Wrench shook his head in amusement, laughing at her claim. "You're helping a rogue hacker group take down corrupt business. And you're an undercover agent. Well…" Wrench seemed to have realized he said the wrong thing, because Riley looked away, "…you were…but…uh, anyway…You think any of that is normal?"
"I guess not…" She said, knowing Wrench hadn't meant to bring up the source of her aggravation. It just slipped.
Wrench sighed, his shoulders slumping a little. "You're supposed to be letting me cheer you up. Not making this easy, Riley."
She huffed out a breath, reluctantly smiling and gesturing to the road. "Well, it wouldn't be so hard if I knew where you were taking me."
His eyes turned into two circles. "Patience you must have, my young Padawan."
"No fair. Yoda quotes are top tier and have no defense." She said smiling again, settling herself further into the seat.
Wrench gave a sort of half-bow at the waist to acknowledge his own genius and brilliance. "Well, it's a good thing we're here, then. Saved by the bell." His happy expression returned as he slowed the car to a slop on the curb.
She looked around at where they'd stopped; the road ran right up against the bay, a little nook close to the forest, and the outskirts of the city on the opposite side. It was obviously an older part of the city, because the buildings were dilapidated and rusted, crumbling, and old.
They both got out of the car, and Riley expected him to lead her towards the bay, but instead he waved her in the direction of an old junkyard. There weren't a lot of light illuminated the street or the property itself. The sign was sagging on one side, the chain long rusted and broken.
"A junkyard, huh?"
"Yuuup." He said, leading her closer to the back of the property. They forewent the front entrance, which was chained and padlocked shut. They'd need serious bolt cutters before getting in that way.
"Soo…you wanna tell me what we're doing here now?" She inquired, but he only laughed. Well, damn. It was worth a shot anyway. Switching tactics, she inspected looked around for any sign of other people. "Aren't you worried someone will find us?"
He waved her question away, walking along the fence. "Nah, the old guy who owns this place always leaves by like 8. We'll be fine."
"Uh huh." She said, disbelieving him. He turned to her and spread his hands wide.
"What? I know what I'm doing. I'm not an amateur."
She smiled at his offense, and held up her own hands to try placating him. "Alright, alright. Lead on, then."
Nodding that she wouldn't question him further, he walked them a bit further behind the junkyard, until they were somewhere at the very back of the property. Wrench stopped at the place where the barbed wire fencing that ran above the normal chain links was missing.
"Alright, ready?" He bent his knees and cupped his hands down low for her to use like a stepping point. Riley considered what the hell she was doing. They were breaking into a junkyard at night for some damn reason she didn't yet know. So…sure, why the hell not?
Shrugging, she stepped forward and grabbed the fence, placing one of her feet in his hands. He vaulted her up on her nonverbal cue, and she was able to scale the fence without problem. Riley swung her legs over to the other side and dropped to the ground below. It was a bit higher of a drop than she anticipated, and it took a moment to recover from the jarring in her knees.
The fence clinked and shifted as Wrench followed after her, grunting when he pulled himself up by himself over the top. She watched on, impressed by his strength. His physique wasn't what you would boast as muscular, but the guy wasn't weak either, she realized.
Wrench hoisted himself over and landed squarely on his feet when he dropped down. He's obviously done this before, she thought to herself. The masked man brushed down his studded vest to be sure there weren't any tears, and let out a breath.
"Ok, follow me."
He lead her through the sparsely-lit junkyard, weaving around old, rusted cars and various odd-shaped pieces of metal. There were tables and chairs and other ends and odds just lying about. But of course, a clear path still existed through the mess so the old man who owned the place—and also Wrench, apparently—could make their way through it. Every so often there were large open spaces in the path, normally with a shed or something in it. There were also parts of the path where junk stuck out and made it difficult to get around. Wrench helped her through some of the more difficult ones, when the path became so narrow and tight, you had to shift and twist your body to get around it all.
Finally, Wrench stopped them in one of the clearings. It was lit by a single lamp post, and underneath it sat an old, wooden shed. It looked like the wood was beginning to rot away on some parts, and the paint had faded long ago. An old truck was parked to the side. Whatever color it had been had been sun-bleached away and the metal rusted away in some areas.
"Here we are! Beautiful, isn't it?" Wrench said cheerfully, spreading his hands wide to indicate the clearing. Riley looked around a little longer, then raised a brow.
"I…guess?"
His mask flashed a quick irritated expression, no doubt disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm on her part, but it quickly went back to his default Xs. He turned towards the shed and opened the door, stepping inside to shuffle around the contents within.
"So, what are we doing here?" Riley asked, crossing her arms and slowly turning to look around fully. She'd never actually been in a junkyard like this before.
"Well," Wrench said with some effort, no doubt moving something heavy aside, "you seemed like you needed to vent all this anger and when I get pissed off or something, I've found there's only one thing that helps me calm down."
"What's that?"
He seemed to find what he was looking for, and reappeared into the clearing, holding two dented, metal baseball bats. "Fucking shit up." That happy expression was back as he held them up for her to see. "Take your pick."
Riley understood his meaning, and a small smile began to form on her lips. She walked closer and retrieved one of the bats, testing its heft in her hands. Dirt coated it, which meant it got all over her fingers when she held it. It had been painted-on lettering that ran the length of it, but so much time had passed in bad conditions that it was unreadable now.
A loud metal bang made her jump in place, and she looked up to see Wrench lifting the bat from the tv he'd swung at. It sported a large spiderweb of cracks in the corner where the hit had landed. He swung again, this time puncturing it all the way through. A satisfied sigh escaped his lips, and he turned back towards her.
Riley saw his gesture to around the clearing again. "Come on, Riley. Go wild! That's why we're here."
She gave a grin, loosely holding the bat. "I'm just not used to…destroying stuff like this. I mean, it's this guy's property."
"So what? It's junk anyway."
Riley was having a hard time describing her feelings. She'd always been a bit of a rule follower, when it was appropriate. Breaking a stranger's stuff because she was having a bad day? It didn't seem right. She appreciated what Wrench was doing, and it seemed like a really good idea, but she was having trouble following through. Riley had never let out her aggression this way before.
"Alright, seems like you need a little push to get you going." Wrench sensed her hesitation, and began searching the junk piles for something. He found a ceramic statue. It was dirty and chipped, but still mostly intact. He grunted as he placed it directly in front of her.
"Ok, I want you to imagine this statue is your boss."
"But I don't want to assault my boss." The mask switched to angry slashes, and Riley shrugged. "What? I don't."
"Ok then…imagine it's…I don't know. An ex-boyfriend or something?"
Riley's mind instantly pictured her last boyfriend, Jacob. It wasn't as easy to imagine his face on the statue, but imagining it was something extremely precious to him wasn't all that difficult. They hadn't been together for at least a few years, but she still recalled all the scathing comments about her weight and how much he wanted her to change. Riley would neither forgive, nor forget them.
Wrench noticed her wicked smile that followed, and pointed towards the statue. "Yeah, like that, now…fuck his shit up!"
Gritting her teeth, Riley swung back the bat and hit the ceramic statue as hard as she could manage. It hit with a loud ring, and the top of it shattered into hundreds of smaller ones. Most of it was still relatively intact, however, so she continued to beat the thing over and over until all that was left was a piles of ceramic shards. She stepped back to avoid getting cut by any of the pieces, but seeing the thing all broken and destroyed was…oddly satisfying.
"That felt…really good." She said aloud and slightly out of breath, turning her smile onto Wrench. His mask winked back at her.
"Didn't I tell you? The absolute best stress relief."
Riley turned her attention back to the junkyard, searching for her next target. She felt the prospect of feeling that again growing, and it was exciting. "What else can we break?"
Everything, apparently.
The junkyard guaranteed there was no shortage of things to swing at and destroy, and Riley was beginning to get the hang of this route of destruction as an anger management. How come she hadn't thought of this before? Riley obviously had been missing out for years now.
Wrench's own enthusiasm only served to spur her on, and they were soon full swing into a destructive rampage through the clearing. He wasn't even mad about anything that she was aware of, and yet he still wrecked and whacked things left and right with as much passion as she did. Perhaps this was him in his element, in all the destructive glory.
Riley found herself laughing each time glass exploded in a spray of bits and pieces, or something broke completely off of it's original structure. They cheered and worked up a sweat, and Riley was having the time of her life. This was awesome!
Time flew by, the sun long having set below the horizon. The night was in full swing, with crickets chirping in the darkness. She barely heard them over the sounds of their enjoyment and exertion. Before long, Riley would have trouble even remembering what she'd been upset about, instead just glad that Wrench had offered to do this with her. This time with him was so enlightening, and she felt much closer to him as a person than before.
For all they knew, the outside world didn't exist besides in that clearing.
Unbeknownst to Riley, Wrench was thrilled she was having so much fun. He had no way of knowing if this was even something she'd be interested in doing until they got here, but everything had turned out alright. The sting of rejection from the party the day before was forgotten, trumped by the small worm of hope that she enjoyed spending as much time with him as he did with her.
It boosted his own ego a bit knowing that Nick didn't have her number and Wrench did, but that was unimportant. The main reason being that Riley had chosen to spend her time with only him, and not on a date with Nick. Take that, the smug bastard. Wrench had never liked the guy anyway, glad he was all the way in the Marin. They didn't cross paths too often that way.
Maybe he shouldn't be getting this sentimental. Then he shook his head. He didn't care how sappy it might have been. He liked Riley. The only issue was learning to trust her with the ugly parts of himself. Who knew how she felt about him? Would she still look at him the same way without the mask in the way?
It must have been over an hour or two before they began getting tired of all the swinging and hitting and jarring vibrations up their arms from the metal hitting metal. Riley felt beads of sweat on her forehead, and she had to wipe it away with her arm. Her breathing was labored, but so was Wrench's. Maybe they should take a break?
"I think I need a minute." She laughed out of breath, closing her eyes from the effort. Wrench nodded, and set the bat on the ground.
"Yeah, I do too. But sit tight, I'll be right back." He said holding up a finger, before leaving the way they'd come. Riley wandered over to the truck that was parked on the edge of the clearing, opening the tailgate with a loud creak and shrill of protest. She tested the durability with her hands, pressing down to make sure it wouldn't fall away beneath her, before hopping up and letting her legs dangle down.
The night air brought with it a small chill in the wind, which felt amazing against her skin. Head tilted up towards the sky, eyes closed, Riley felt at peace. It didn't matter that she was alone in a semi-creepy junkyard in the middle of the night, the brunette couldn't have felt more in tune with herself.
Several minutes passed, giving her time to catch her breath, and she heard rustling of metal towards the pathway. Wrench emerged from the darkness after a minute, holding up a six pack of beer and some soda. "Bud or Coke. Take your pick!"
"Uh, I'll have a beer, yeah." She said, knowing she had better take it easy with the drinking. She could wash it all down with a soda after. Wrench kindly offered her one and sat beside her on the tailgate. "Thank you."
"You bet." He said, popping open his own bottle. Riley wondered if he'd take the mask off to drink. Riley realized it would be rude if she tried side-eyeing him to figure it out, and decided just to leave it be. If he wanted her to see his face, he'd take it off for himself. Riley could guess it had something to do with his self-esteem. She was the last person who would ask him to do something that might make him uncomfortable.
So Riley sipped at her beer in silence, allowing the comfortable atmosphere between them settle. She was halfway through her beer before she felt like speaking again. "That was the most fun I've had in a long time."
"What about the party?" He asked, peeking at her from the corner of his mask. He'd noticed she hadn't looked his way since he opened his beer. He wondered why.
She shrugged, giggling a little. "That was fun too, but this was just…I don't know…so much more fun."
"See? Not such a terrible Saturday after all." He said proudly. Riley hummed her agreement.
He watched her out of the corner of his mask for a moment. It was crazy how comfortable he felt around her. It compelled him to talk a bit more about himself, wanting her to get to know him.
"I like to come here and destress when I don't have any shit at my garage to take apart." He started, looking back up at the stars above. They were weak and dim, given the light pollution from the city, but still visible. Just barely. "It's my own little spot that nobody knows about. A nice place to get away from everyone else."
He finished his beer in a long swig and replaced the mask over his face. Riley still didn't look at him. Huh. He wheeled his arm back and chucked the empty bottle at the shed, watching it shatter into pieces against the wood. The shards scattered all over the piles of junk.
"What would you need to escape from?" Only then did she turn her head in his direction and look at him. It clicked then that she didn't want to intrude on him and his mask. He felt a pang of gratefulness for her.
In response, he shrugged. "Just…everything."
"Even DedSec?"
Riley noticed his mask went blank for several seconds, before returning to the default Xs and staring straight ahead. "Sometimes."
"Why?"
"Don't get me wrong, they're family to me. The only one I've really had." He said hastily, not wanting her to get the wrong idea. "There are just times I can't stand them, you know?"
Riley nodded her understanding. Wrench already knew her tragic backstory, if you could call it that, so she knew he understood as well.
He gestured to the surrounding junk, 'at' symbols on his mask. "And destroying things just makes me feel like I have something I can control. It's…comforting."
"Any reason why?"
The symbols switched to being blank again, and she instantly knew she was asking too many personal questions. Wrench was a secretive person, and she had known that. Curse the alcohol for making her nosy. A thick silence persisted, and Riley shifted in her seat on the truck bed. "Sorry, you don't have to answer that."
"It's fine…just not something I wanna talk about." He said quietly, but not in an angry way. She smiled slightly, glad she hadn't ruined the mood. Another few sips of her beer and she had finished it, and her bottle joined Wrench's on the ground in pieces.
"Want another one?" He asked, and despite her better judgement, she said yes.
Riley sped through her second, and just like every time she drank more than her lightweight self could handle, her body started feeling tingly and she became talkative.
"I can't believe what Bill did." She said out of the blue with venom, by that time laying back on the truck bed and looking upwards. Wrench was in the same position beside her, and turned to see her face.
"What?"
"Bill. My boss. I can't believe he dropped my assignment. He knew how much it meant to me. He knew all about my dad and my mom, and he still fucking dropped it. What a dick." She took a sip of the soda that Wrench had offered her after she finished her second beer. "I've wasted a year of my time working for him and his stupid company. And for what? They just abandon everything I've done, without much of an apology. And now I'm supposed to just pack up and start on something else? Are they gonna stop funding that one a year down the line too?"
"I'm serious. You want them hacked, we can hack them." Wrench offered with a happy expression. Riley shook her head, eyes still focused on the sky.
"It just doesn't make any sense! Why would they take all the time to hire me specifically for this job, then abandon it? They put a lot of money into getting me here, and into ProviBlue. That wasn't easy, I'm telling you." Riley pointed at Wrench accusingly, as if he was denying her claims.
"They said they wanted you on another assignment though, right? Maybe that's why."
Riley squinted, thinking over something before responding. "There are plenty of investigators who aren't currently out on assignment. They should have sent one of them. It doesn't. Fucking. Make. Sense." She emphasized bitterly.
Wrench shrugged. "Well, big companies are known to be asshats pretty frequently. I'm not all that surprised. It still sucks, though."
"Hmm." She said, suddenly too tired to talk further on the subject. Another silence lapsed, this one comfortable and easy. Something possessed her to lift her arm up towards the sky, as though she could actually touch the stars. Riley felt the corner of her mouth twitch into a smile. "It's so pretty." She finally said, referring to the view.
Wrench was still looking at her, and he couldn't help the heart icons that popped up for a brief moment, replaced the next instant by two wide circles. "Yeah." He agreed to her statement, not bothering to look anywhere else.
Riley tilted her head his way, and stared at him for a few seconds. "Why do you wear the mask?" She asked quietly, almost reverently.
Wrench swallowed, panicked that she'd ask him to take it off. He didn't want to deny her, but knew it was much too soon for him to be doing anything of the sort. Instead, he shrugged, trying to play it cool. "It's more comfortable on than off."
Nodding, Riley looked back upwards, processing the answer. Wrench was dreading her next question, knowing she had to be wondering what he looked like without it on. It had happened countless times before, both at DedSec parties with intrigued women, and regular dates. It's why he had decided to abandon any further attempt until…well, until he'd met Riley apparently.
Still, it was terrifying how fucking scared she made him feel when it came to this.
"You do what makes you comfortable, even if other people find it strange. I like that."
Wrench's mask turned into two hashtags. No one had said that to him. But he supposed it was true. Suddenly, she smiled wider and turned her head to look at him with a quiet laugh. "I bet you're pretty attractive under all those spikes, Wrench."
Wrench was taken aback, and two exclamation points rapidly appeared on his mask, blinking from surprise. He was glad he was wearing the mask in that moment to hide the fact that his face was turning a very visible shade of red. Unable to keep her gaze, he looked back up towards the sky and laughed nervously.
"And I think you're just drunk."
Riley took a moment to think on that before nodding with a mischievous grin. "You may be right." She propped herself up into a sitting position again, and held her head when the blood rushed down.
"Getting tired?" He questioned, seeing her yawn deeply. She mutely nodded, rubbing at her eyes to try keeping them open a bit longer. "Let's get you home, then."
"Ok."
Wrench jumped off the truck bed and guided her back the way they'd come. She followed behind him obediently, doing an excellent job of not falling even in her slightly drunk state. He was thankful to be in front, though. So Riley couldn't see the heart icons crossing his mask occasionally.
The things he did for this job, he swore. The two were in a junkyard of all places. Who knew what kind of filthy bugs and bacteria were festering in there? At least he could enjoy the relative cleanliness of the nearby roof. It may be dirty, but it wasn't as bad as the junk down there. He shook his head, trying to realign the camera to fit both people into the frame.
Thankfully, he'd thought to bug the car before setting up his spying post here. He should get lots of audio on their way back to dropping her off.
Before he could think further on it, they both hopped off the truck and wandered towards the way they'd come. He snapped one last fleeting picture, before packing up his equipment and disappearing into the night.
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