Breakthrough

"Guess who found absolutely nothing!", Cody announced his presence and made a racket as he ran down the stairs and straight into Sabrina.

"Woah, slow down. Speed kills, little guy," she chuckled, flicking away a tuft of hair that landed on his face.

" 'M not that small," he frowned.

"Still smaller than us, bud," Riley said appearing behind the heap of her friends lying on the floor and ruffled his hair. "What's up with you guys and my hair? Envious of my flawless locks," he said smugly. "Sure," Riley said and helped them both up.

They both smiled their thanks. Riley and Cody sat down on the sofas opposite Archer, who selfishly took up all the space on the couch.

"Hey," he said plainly.

They reciprocated his greeting in a more enthusiastic manner. Sabrina watched them from her spot behind the kitchen counter, with a fond look on her face. Archer regarded her carefully from his spot on the couch.

Riley and Cody began talking animatedly with each other and Archer contributed by adding in a few comments before he sat up and became invested in the conversation. Sabrina found her mind slowly slipping away from their chat and started thinking about what they've accomplished and what would be their next step.

To be honest, the most they accomplished was just surviving, breaking a spy drone, discovered new sentries and evaded said sentries and downloading some Intel from a deactivated one and.... Sabrina's eyes widened with excitement.

Wait. We didn't actually do anything with that. That could be our next big break!

"Cody?", she called the younger boy.

He didn't expect to hear her voice seeing as she hadn't spoken much and startled. The other two rebels also turned their attention to her.

"Yeah, Lia?", he answered. "You remember the drive that I gave you? After my first raid with Riley? Did you get anything from it?", she inquired.

He looked at her puzzled and then his eyes shone with recognition. "Oh yeah! I remember that. But yeah, I couldn't get much from it because my laptop was old and wasn't compatible with it. Had that thing from when I was around 6, needed an upgrade," he rambled, scratching his head.

"Oh," Sabrina sighed. She was disappointed. Not in Cody or anyone else for that matter. She just thought it could be a new lead.

What about the-

"What about that tablet Lia got you for your birthday? Wouldn't that work? The tech is recent," Riley suggested like she just read Sabrina's mind.

"Hey, you're right! Why didn't I think of that?", Cody said excitedly. "Lemme get them," he added and ran off to find the two items.

Sabrina walked around the counter and pulled out a chair, set it next to Riley and sat down.

This could be it. The information that I could get would be a great help to defeating that monster. To avenge my parents and my brother. To free the world.

She began to absentmindedly fiddle with her chain, her brows furrowed and her mind deep in thought. Riley looked at her with concern but didn't want to disturb her. She tried once when Sabrina had that very same expression on her face and got snapped at.

She was not at all afraid of Sabrina, she just didn't want to aggravate the girl further. She was probably going through a lot. They all were going through a lot and sometimes they just needed their space to think.

Archer saw her expression too and almost let his guard own. Almost. He switched his focus to the drive. What information could it have stored on it?

Everyone had something on their minds. Even Cody.

The young teen was worried. He was worried that this wouldn't be the opportunity they were looking for. While he enjoyed the feeling of being safe, confined behind these walls, he couldn't help but enjoy that rush of air and adrenaline when they were out and battling for their lives. He absolutely loved the thrill even though he was terrified of it too. Quite paradoxical, but it helped his mind stay focused and not rush into things.

Cody was hoping that this drive would set their course on an action packed mission. The raids were becoming awfully dull. They were stocked up enough on most things. He just wanted to do something that mattered. He wanted to feel like he mattered.

He ruffled through the case under his bed looking for the drive. It wasn't long before he found it. He ran out of the room, waving the drive around victoriously with the tablet tucked under his arm.

"I think we got a good shot at decrypting the drive with this puppy," Cody said patting the tablet. He sat down with his friends, who crowded around him in anticipation. He narrowed his eyes at them when he needed to out his password in and, they all scoffed, but still looked away.

"Do you think that this tablet would actually be able to crack through a military sentry code?", Archer asked raising his eyebrow skeptically.

"No," Cody responded. Archer opened his mouth to say something but Cody spoke up again. "Bold of you to assume that I haven't done any other modifications on it," he said smirking mischievously.

"Nice one, dude," Sabrina beamed and high-fived the blonde boy. Cody tapped several spaces on the tablet and it projected a keyboard onto his lap. He got to work quickly, furiously tapping away at it and then inserted the drive in and continued with his typing.

Riley and Archer watched in awe and Sabrina examined every key with detail.

Soon a loading bar popped up on the screen and Cody reclined in his seat with a proud expression.

"Is it done?", Riley asked.

"No, but I created a program that can hack into the sentries' mainframe. It can copy the type of programming while also getting us the information. This way we could reprogram other sentries to work for us. Once the bar is filled, we'll have everything this sentry has to offer," he explained.

"Damn, lil' dude. We'll get 'em in no time with that brain," Archer praised and slowly tapped his head.

Cody chuckled. "Stop it, guys," he said shyly.  

Sabrina just smiled at him, her mind elsewhere.

We're actually doing this. We're so close.

"I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news, but are you sure that a sentry is going to have vital information?", Archer brought up. They all thought about it. Sabrina bit her lip in contemplation. What if it doesn't have anything at all?

"It should have something," Cody said determinedly.

"Yeah," Riley agreed.

Sabrina appreciated their optimism, but that still didn't stop her from thinking the worst. She was in over head. How could she think that Vision would keep information in his toys? He's not stupid. She was being incredibly naive.

This is pathetic. How desperate can I be?

"I'll be back," Sabrina said and went to the training room. She didn't leave any room for a response. They just acknowledged her and continued waiting for the program to do its job.

Sabrina grabbed a knife from one of the weapon stands and set up a training sequence. She needed to clear her mind. The brunette started up a difficult mode and got ready. An android came into sight and, she got into a fighting stance. It readied its weapon and she lunged at it.

xxx

Archer was getting restless. An hour had passed since Cody started the hack and an hour since Sabrina left. He was concerned about that. Not her well-being, he was worried that she was planning something.

Riley and Cody resorted to playing games in order to keep them distracted. They had invited Archer, but he declined. Riley kept glancing at him. Something was on his mind and, she was sure that it was about the other girl. Ever since they had come back from that raid before Cody's birthday, something had been wrong . Every time she brought it up with either of them, they shrugged it off and somehow managed to shift the conversation to something else.

Those two are stubborn as hell. I'll get them to spill one of these days.

She saw Archer with a book. He always had it on him. She wondered what it entailed. Was it a diary? Was it a story? An album, perhaps?

That probably was a stretch. He wouldn't want to keep memories of his family. His eyes would get dark and angry whenever she mentioned them.

Riley knew what happened. Cody knew too. They hardly spoke about it, but they were sure that memories of his family crept in every single day.

They wanted him to talk about it, they just didn't know how to bring it up so, they didn't attempt to.

She saw him wake up from the couch and go into the room.

He's probably checking in with her.

She turned her attention back to the game.

Archer didn't know what Sabrina was doing and the uncertainty was killing him. He decided that he was going to see what she was up to. He rose from his place on the couch and went into the room. He concealed his book under in between the bunk bed frame and mattress. He knows it's not the best hiding place, but if anyone finds it, he's pretty sure that they'd know better than to touch his stuff.

He scans the room to find that she's not there. The bathroom door is wide open so that's a no as well.

That leaves...

He turns towards the training room door.

As if on cue, he hears the sounds of metal clanging against metal.

He slowly eases the door open and his eyes widen from the scene before him.

Sabrina was mercilessly attacking the training android. He watched as she effortlessly blocked its attacks and the way she majestically maneuvered around it to land her own blows.

Archer had to admit he was impressed. He knew that she was an incredibly skilled fighter. He'd seen her fight before. Usually against the other rebels for training, but she never used this much force.

"She's fighting with emotion," he deduces softly.

She hadn't noticed him yet. He watched her battle the droid. Her attacks were getting sloppy.

Has she been going on like this for the past hour?

She locked blades with the droid. Her eyes burning into its featureless face as if she was picturing somebody else. She finally notices Archer by the doorway and their eyes lock on to each other.

That was all the droid needed to disarm her. Her knife flew across the room and, she watched it go. The droid's leg swept under her  and she fell back and hit her head hard. It charged at her.

Archer ran in and pushed it aside as it closed in on her.

"Disable training android!", he yelled out.

The android fell to the floor.

Archer helped her and she sat up shakily. She put her hand to the back of her head and winced when it throbbed. He sat down next to her.

"Are you okay?", Archer asked her.

"Yeah," she replied out of breath.

"You know that it wouldn't have killed me, right?", she questioned.

Realisation dawned on him.

Yeah. Why did I do that? I know that it's just a simulation. So why?

She laughed softly. "Thanks anyways. I wouldn't have known when to stop."

He nodded back.

It was quiet for a few moments before he spoke up.

"Came to clear your mind?", he inquired.

"Guess you could say that."

"Cool. If you ever need a duel partner, you could always ask me. It'd be nice to beat you," he teased.

She scoffed half-heartedly and he chuckled lowly.

"It'd be nice to clear my head," he finally said.

She hummed in approval.

Why am I being nice to her?

"We should head back," the two said at the same time. They both stood up. A wave of fatigue washed over her, and she found herself being steadied by Archer.

The frenemies walked up to the door and were luckily not in front of it when Cody bolted through screaming, "It's finished!", over and over, until they calmed him down and followed him to the tablet. Riley was waiting for them with a big grin on her face.

Sabrina and Archer sat down on the same couch and Riley looked at them suggestively. They saw that there was very little space between them and started to slowly increase it. They saw Riley face-palm and were extremely confused.

"Nice work, Cody," Sabrina praised.

"Is there anything good in there?", Riley asked Cody. "I'll tell you in a bit," Cody said, his eyes on the screen, drinking in every last detail written in code and then translating it.

They all stared at him, itching to know what was contained in their only link to Vision. Sabrina crossed her fingers and prayed to every God there was, for some important details.

"Can you guys stop staring at me like that? It's distracting," Cody commented. They all quickly looked away and busied themselves with something else, sneaking glances at the blue-eyed boy every once in a while.

After about ten seconds, Cody disabled the keyboard with a sigh. They all looked at him alarmed. He brightened again.

"What was there?", Sabrina asked impatiently.

"Well, nothing life-changing, I guess-" "What do you mean? Was this all for nothing? We're so screwed," Sabrina started freaking out and Cody looked at Riley, panicked. "Yo, Lia. Chill. He didn't finish," Riley soothed.

Sabrina breathed in an out and then gestured for Cody to continue.

"So, there wasn't much there. The only thing I managed to find was the location of a communication's hub. After the sentries do their jobs, they go back to dock at these places. Vision supposedly has these outposts scattered across the country. There's around two or three outposts in each city," Cody reported to the rebels.

Oh. We can work with this.

Sabrina was about to comment, but Archer was already on it.

"Where's the nearest base?", he inquired leaning forward.

"According to this, it's the Solomon district. About a day from here on foot. It's where these sentries came from," he explained.

"So, the communication hub?", Riley queried.

Cody nodded.

"If it's a communication hub, then that's where most of the juicy details will be," Riley pointed out.

"Yeah. We could find out where command is. The thing is that Victor won't leave his bases vulnerable. He keeps a lid on every single thing to ensure the operation runs smoothly. We're gonna have to find out how much security he has and their patrol patterns," Sabrina proposed.

"Right. Stealth would be the best option. A prep mission will be needed before we go in. We need to take into account the alarm systems as well," Archer agreed.

"I could try to whip up a drone that could scan the building through the ventilation system. But that might take a while. We could always just find one and modify it," Cody suggested.

Sabrina was about to volunteer to help but a yawn interrupted her, and they all laughed.

"How about we sleep on it and think of more things tomorrow?", Riley laughed.

Sabrina laughed and nodded. They all retired to their sleeping quarters and slept lighter, knowing that they made some progress.