Cat was seated in front of a computer. It buzzed to life of its own accord, and a window came up requesting an ID and a password. Her fingers flew across the keyboard briefly as she stared intently at the computer screen. Catherine O'Brien, it now read. She hit the tab key sharply and continued with her password. "D-a-r--" she murmered to herself, her tongue moving as rapidly as her fingers. She tapped the enter key and waited for the screen to load, dark eyes reflecting the light of the moniter.

The screen turned black. The only thing that graced the screen were three white symbols; A:/

Cat glanced around quickly and reached into her pocket, extracting a pair of copper, wire-framed glasses. She put them on and placed her hands back onto the keyboard, fingers flying once more. Moments later, she struck the enter key twice and brought her hands up, staring as the computer ran through its data and cracking her knuckles loudly.

Some corny music was brought up as the screen read: "Welcome to Team Quixalia!(quiz)" It shifted into a sort of a gameshow environment. "How many languages do you know?"

Catherine raised an eyebrow at it. "The answer to that question depends a great deal on whether you count my own languages. However, for the purpose of this... ah... conversation, I know three."

The game seemed to glower at her. "Well, if you wanna put it that way," it read. "Okay, next question! What is the air speed velocity of an unladen sparrow?"

Cat chuckled at it. "What do you mean? An African or a European swallow?"

It paused. "Neither; Antarctican."

Cat's eyebrows shot up. "I was unaware that there was such a thing, and thus cannot truthfully say that I know the answer to that question."

It seemed to grin. "Which one? the Wright answer, or the Wrong answer?"

"The correct answer," replied Cat, taking a pen out of her pocket and leaning back in her chair to fiddle with it. "I do not know the correct answer, but the Wright answer would probably be some mumbling about the mechanics of flight and animal husbandry."

A bell tolled on the computer. "Dingdingdingdingding! Correct! Next question! How long has it been since you last went to the bathroom?"

"If it ever becomes any of your business, I shall inform you immediately," retorted Cat promptly.

The computer sat there for a moment. "Right. Okay, next question! Who killed Blackbeard? Was it:
a) Homer Simpson,
b)Lt. Robert Laynard,
or c) my best friend Scott?"

"I truly hope," said Cat, furrowing her brow, "that no one has ever gotten this wrong. It was, of course, answer B. Lieutenant Robert Laynard killed Blackbeard, the famed pirate who would put candles in his hair to make himself look more menacing." She paused, considering. "Unless, of course, you're speaking of a different Blackbeard, which doesn't seem likely."

The computer looked annoyed. "I mean what I say when I say it! Next Question: how do you beat Yu Yevon?"

Cat snorted at it. "I haven't the slightest. I don't even know who Yu Yevon is, except that he/she/it is probably a semi-difficult-to-defeat boss in some game or other."

The computer scoffed. "Yu Yevon is the biggest boss in Final Fantasy Ten you can get to! Silly gosling. Anyway, NEXT QUESTION! How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Being a computer," began Cat slowly, "you don't have any fingers, and thus are not holding any up."

"That's not the point, though." The computer thought to itself for a moment. "Wait! I do too have fingers! See?" a picture of a hand with two fingers up appeared. "Ha!"

"Two, then," said Cat, raising an eyebrow.

The computer quickly hid the pictures. "Umm...okay then. BONUS QUESTION! How many strings on a bass?"

"Music is not my area," stated Cat flatly.

The computer spent an uncomfortable moment in silence. "Well.....I guess you're in.....after you show me how to hack into the Pentagon."

Cat grinned maliciously and cracked her knuckles again. "Done," she said. "Just tell me when."

A small timer appeared on the screen. "Aaaand..GO!"

Cat's fingers flew again across the keyboard as the screen flashed from safeguard to safeguard. Mere moments later, Cat hit the enter key with sharp finality and sat back to admire the screen as data flashed up. "Will that be for here or to go?"

The computer sat back. "To go. Email every other 5-year-old in the world this information."

Cat blinks, suprised. "Very well," she says slowly. "Conducting a search on five-year-old email subscribers... and sending file en masse to all of them." She taps the enter key twice and sits back again.

An image of hands applauding appeared on the screen. "Very good! You've won first prize!" The corny music had come back again. "You get to join Team Quixalia! Thanks for playing!" And then the computer shut off.

The door opened and Jennifer walked back in. "Nicely done. Welcome to the Team, Cat."

Cat stood up, hurriedly removing her glasses and stuffing them back in her pocket. "Glad to be here," she said quickly, holding out a hand for shaking.

Jennifer smiled and shook her hand. "The rest of the gang is in there." She jerked a thumb towards the door.

"Are they?" asked Cat absently. She looked around at the room, then back at Jennifer, grinning mischieviously. "I thought you said every little detail of everything I've learned in my entire life would be tested...?"

Jennifer shrugged, grinning. "We're tight on the budget right now. Couldn't afford to."

"That's no excuse," replied Cat, grin broadening. "Anyone could just walk right in here and get hired with all the simple questions I got asked."

Jennifer laughed. "Well, you didn't answer them all, but apparently the computer likes you. Or something." She shrugged again.

Cat sighed with false meloncholy. "Were that I could have answered the one about FFX." She put on an extremely false pout momentarily, then got bored with it and said, "Although I don't see what most of these questions have to do with hacking into the Pentagon."

Jennifer broke into a huge grin. "They had nothing to do with hacking into the Pentagon. That's why CPR asked them."

Cat raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. Instead, she changed the subject. "I understand your team is getting ready to hack into the new X-12-1S system."

Jennifer grinned widely. "Yep. There's a convention coming up, and they're giving out 15 tickets..."

"...And we're going to be there to receive them," provided Cat, grinning maliciously and cracking her knuckles again. "Excellent indeed."

Jennifer grinned. "Glad you're informed."

"Well so," said Catherine, shrugging. "This is going to be fun."

Jennifer grinned. "Come on, I'll show you the rest of the Team." She guestured to her and started walking to the door.

Cat followed, her posture perfect so as to appear taller than she actually was. 

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