[attr="class","RANGER3"]

HISTORY

it sucks, growing up in the coldest city ever when you despise the cold. they say you develop a tolerance based on where you live, but as far as anastasia is concerned, it's total bullshit. eighteen years of constant chill and she couldn't wait to get somewhere warm.
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so instead of playing in the snow or whatever else the kids her age did, she stayed indoors. her parents bought her a computer out of pity, got her games for her birthday instead of snowpants and mittens. with all that free time, she fell to the technology -- soaked it up like a sponge, absolutely couldn't get enough. there weren't rules there; online she could be anyone she wanted, do anything she wanted, and she discovered that all it took was some VPNs and proxies for nobody to ever know who you were. it was addicting. while everybody else was out building snowmen, she was breaking down firewalls, sending her feels to see exactly how far she could go and how much she could do. her parents were a generation too early and pleasantly oblivious.
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it started out innocent. forums on the web, dedicated to hacking 101. ana wanted more than just to read everything, she wanted to do, and if she was going to do, then she wanted to be recognized for it. The handle "R3DHAT" started appearing in corners of the web. it was for little things at first: calling cards on business sites, doxxing jobs for the most worthy. when people let her into the higher circles, she discovered that you could hack with a purpose. there were entire agendas ran by hacker groups. of course, nobody had done anything interesting yet, nothing to catch a headline. totally disappointing. she'd just have to be the first.
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ana was a month past nineteen and living in jubilife when there were cops banging at the door. turns out her proxies hadn't been enough this time, and the feds didn't much appreciate someone reprimanding a pokemon center for mishandling a handful of pokemon by crashing its entire server. the redhead was arrested and charged with a load of legal mumbo-jumbo, and landed strict probation and a couple years of strict community service. they confiscated her computer, only left her with her joltik (and only because he was compact enough to slide under the radar). the experience left her embittered, if anything -- ruffled by the sudden restrictions in all the wrong ways, and her pride badly bruised from being caught at all.
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the two-year sentence finally up, ana has moved back into her old apartment in jubilife and immediately rebuild a new computer. she'll be better this time. the only thing she has left to use besides her joltik is her handle, because the cops hadn't been keen enough to connect R3DHAT to the crime. that was something. now, she plans on having a full team at her disposal, better hardware, and mistakes to learn from. joining the rangers not only gives her a shiny 'starting fresh' persona, but something of an insider perspective to keep one step ahead of any threats.

[break][break]it feels good to be back in the game.