Maeve - Runner3872

## Maeve

As the only child to two computer science professors, Maeve’s ‘siblings’ growing up were computers. She remembers her parents' dinner debates over various programming languages and weekend ‘trips’ to the basement where she would watch her mom tinker with an older machine. When Maeve turned 8, her parents gifted her her first computer, an SPX Z326. Maeve quickly mastered ‘World of Runners’, the most popular game at the time. She won many tournaments and became popular in the gaming world for her unpredictable play - she never stuck to one strategy or style, making it impossible for her opponents to prepare against her.

Her reputation earned her the nickname Maeverick, and she sported an undefeated record until one day, she was challenged by a new gamer with zero history, ID #5628, whose avatar was an alien with some weird facepaint sporting an eye hat. Given Maeve’s skill level, she could only be challenged by gamers of a similar skillset, meaning the only way 5628 could have challenged her was by hacking the battlenet. Maeve was intrigued and accepted the invite, and after a mere 10 minutes, 5628 disposed of her the way she typically disposed of opponents. She immediately challenged them to a rematch, but just as quickly as their gamer profile had been created, 5628’s history had vanished. This moment served as an inflection point in Maeve’s life: she realized that games, while fun, were child’s play compared to the life of a hacker.

Years passed as Maeve immersed herself in the world of hacking, focusing her attention on predatory corporations. Similar to her gaming career, Maeve’s hacking style was incredibly unpredictable, and she developed notoriety as Maeverick, the same nickname she used as a gamer. Defense contractors hired by these corporations could never anticipate her next move, and chills would run down their backs whenever Maeverick hacked into their network.

While Maeve dabbled with joining various hacker groups, she always felt limited by her peers - they were too predictable and could not keep up during the more difficult missions. Maeve had just moved on from yet another guild when she received a notification on her computer from an app called ‘j0x3r’. This app was unknown to her…meaning someone had somehow bypassed years worth of security measures Maeve had built and hacked her machine. Seeing this blinking joker face gave her deja vu to that fateful day on battlenet when she received a challenge from 5628. A mix of fear and excitement ran through Maeve, and after not much deliberation, she opened j0x3r, representing another inflection point in Maeve’s life…

Shortly after Maeve opened the j0x3r app, the hacker known as Maeverick vanished, though a similar hacker who went by m43v3 appeared on the scene. Not much is known about the j0x3rs other than the fact that they are an elite hacking group composed of the world’s 20 best hackers. Rumors have been swirling on hacking forums about their whereabouts, true identities, and next target, but these are largely just conspiracy theories which Maeve and the j0x3rs are happy to let fester - they are busy planning their next mission, the ‘genesis-event’, something that will prove to be much bigger than the predatory corporations Maeve used to hack.