- "Okay, we three are Operation Tina Server Room. I'm not great at code names. I'm working on it."
- ―Alex Wilder to Nico Minoru and Gert Yorkes[src]
The Infiltration into Wizard Headquarters was a secret mission planned by the Runaways during a PRIDE gala in order to retrieve video footage of the Rite of Blood which were stored on the servers of Wizard.
Background[]
- "Video is being funneled to your parents' company."
- ―Alex Wilder to Nico Minoru[src]
On Alex Wilder's initiative, the group of teenagers who would later be known as the Runaways gathered in the Wilder Mansion in order to try and rekindle their friendship. There, they accidentally witnessed their parents apparently perpetrating a sacrifice.[4] They decided to investigate to find out what their parents were up to and ultimately discovered that PRIDE had effectively been murdering teenagers for several years.[5]
In an attempt to prevent their parents from sacrificing Andre, a young member of the Crips, the Runaways rushed at the Wilder Mansion's sacrifice room, which was empty. Still, the Runaways managed to retrieve a camera which had apparently recorded all the sacrifices committed by PRIDE. Wilder discovered that the data had been transferred to the servers of Wizard, Tina Minoru's company, which meant that they had to hack into the company to find the video footage.[6]
Infiltration[]
- "These ports must work off an internal interface. I can't plug in."
"That's why there's no security down here."
"Wizard is the security."
"What if we were in my mom's office? Could you get the video from there?" - ―Alex Wilder and Nico Minoru[src]
Nico Minoru with her mother's access card
While the rest of their friends remained in Wizard Headquarters' main hall, Alex Wilder, Nico Minoru and Gert Yorkes went to the elevator in order to access the server room. Yorkes approached Earl, who was providing security, and began discussing with him about the book he was reading, distracting him long enough for Wilder and Minoru to take the elevator. They successfully entered the server room, but Wilder then discovered that he could directly plug his own laptop to the server they were looking for. Therefore, Minoru suggested to directly find the file they were looking for in Tina Minoru's office.
Alex Wilder entering the password to Tina Minoru's office
Wilder and Nico returned to the elevator in order to break into Tina's office. Back in the hall, Earl noticed that the elevator was going up, but before he could alert his colleagues, he noticed Yorkes playing with an arcade video game which was not to be messed with as it had been offered to Tina by her husband Robert Minoru. This new distraction enabled Wilder and Nico to safely make it to the floor where Tina's office was. Nico tried to enter it using the access card she had stolen, but it did not work. Much to her surprise, Alex simply entered a password and managed to open the door on his first trial.
Earl, Kincaid, and Gert Yorkes see Tina Minoru silently walking by them
Wilder and Nico went to Tina's desk, which Nico managed to activate using the same ADN detection mechanism than the Staff of One. As they were downloading the file, Yorkes saw Tina coming to the elevator, as she had just learned about the ongoing affair between Robert and Janet Stein. She texted Nico that her mother was coming upstairs just in time for Alex and Nico to hide behind the desk. As they waited for the file transfer to be completed, Nico noticed that her mother was crying and nearly went out of hiding to comfort her, but Alex prevented her from doing so.
They then waited until Tina finally got out of her office to leave as well. They made it to the main hall and Yorkes took leave of Earl and Kincaid. The Runaways then gathered together and Wilder announced that their mission was successful, with only the file to be decrypted. Chase Stein then told Alex and Nico what they had missed in the party, namely the reveal of Robert and Stein's affair and the fact that Karolina Dean almost fell from the building but was saved by her powers, which allowed her to fly.[7]
Aftermath[]
The encrypted video from Wizard is broken
- "You watched the whole thing?"
"Scrolled through it."
"How bad is it?"
"It's the worst thing I've ever seen, possibly that anyone has ever seen." - ―Nico Minoru and Alex Wilder[src]
It took a long time for Alex Wilder to decrypt the file he and Nico Minoru had retrieved from the Wizard servers. However, he was eventually able to access it. He watched the video displaying all the sacrifices perpetrated by PRIDE over the years before informing his fellow Runaways of his achievement. However, Chase Stein feared that sending their parents in jail could endanger the life of his father Victor Stein, who had been shot by Janet Stein while he was having an anger episode. Therefore, Stein chose to destroy the laptop containing the decrypted file without the others being able to stop him, leading to the loss of the evidence the Runaways had against PRIDE.
In addition to this argument, Minoru highly doubted that Wilder had simply guessed Tina Minoru's password when they had broken into her office. She confronted Wilder about it on several occasions and eventually made him admit that he actually knew Tina's password. This led Wilder to reluctantly confess that he had information regarding the death of Amy Minoru, Nico's sister, prompting Nico to both resume her investigation regarding her sister's death and end her relationship with Wilder for not having disclosed such information earlier.[8]