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The Rebel: Window of Opportunity
Posted By: Elfster<briane@teleport.com>
Date: 13 October 2003, 12:54 AM


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After a long silence, watching his dark greenish-blue eyes stare into her's, he spoke.

"Uhh... Well, then.... 'night."

She was a little surprised at such a subtle response, and although she wouldn't admit it to herself, a little bit dissapointed.

"Yeah... you too." She whispered. It seemed like her words were carried by the moonlight and echoed in an endless ocean of time.

She heard footsteps as he walked away, and they quickly turned into two pairs of footsteps, and two quiet voices, whispering and laughing like an eerie wind in the night.

"Dude," The second pair of footsteps started. "theres this little thing called the "window of opportunity" and you just missed it... By a few miles."

"Shut up, what was I supposed to do, french her right there on the spot?"

"Hell YES!" The noises got fainter.

Keys being punched in on a pad could be heared, a soft beep, then hydrualics, and finally a cold wind wipped through the barracks for a moment.

"Hey, where'd you learn that?"

"Ohh... Few bribes here and there..." The other voice said as if starting a list. Laughs could be heard, then more hydrualics as everything went silent, the warmth returned, and sleep pulled her mind into another world...

____________________________________________________________


"Seriously... How did you learn it?"

"Theres only 9 keys. Its not that hard to make a list of all the possible combonations and then try them..." Colt replied as the cool night air whipped his sweat-soaked hair around.

Rob paused, casually leaning against the wall.

"You know... They have ODSTs all over out here." He said, a hint of worry in his voice.

"Don't worry about it, as long as we don't go anywhere they aren't gonna see us."

"Maybe, and I'm not up for any more fighting today."

"Look," Colt started, beginning to get irritated, "if you have a bad feeling about it, go inside."

"But I don't know the key-code." Rob responded.

"Alright then... Just a second.." He murmered the last part as he began working on the code.

Beep Beep Beep - EEEERRRNT

"What the..." He tried it a again.

Beep beep beep - EEEERRRNT

"Dude, it's not working..." He turned around slowly as he thought.

"What? What do you mean it's not working!?" Rob whispered harshly.

"Incase you're mentally impaired, it means the keycode isn't opening the door."

"Well MAKE it open the door."

"Im trying..." He trailed off as he went back to work again.

A few seconds later, there was a familiar:

Beep Beep Beep - EEEERRRNT

"I guess they changed the keycode." He said with a puzzled tone.

"Oh, so you're saying we're stuck out here!?"

"Wow, mentally impaired AND deaf now?" He retorted.

"Shut up." Rob turned on his heel, but, without anywhere to go, turned back. "Ok... So how do we get in then?"

He said nothing, but a devilish grin crept across his face, half illuminated by a spooky moonlight.

____________________________________________________________


"I knew this was a stupid idea.." Rob grunted as he pulled himself onto the roof of the barracks, thankful for his augmentations.

"Would you rather be down there with the guards?" Colt sarcastically asked as he made his way to the skylight on the roof.

"If we have to break the glass it's not gonna make any difference where the hell we are." Rob said even though he kept going.

"Just trust me.." He sighed out, getting tired of argueing.

He looked around the seems of the window, thinking if there was anyway to get it off.

"Hmm... Any ideas?" He questioned, looking up.

"Hey, it was you're idea to come up here in the first place, why are you asking me?" Rob asked, sitting down, puting his arms out behind him and leaning back. After a few seconds he noticed his left hand seemed to be sliding.

Must be sweaty hands, he thought to himself. So he wiped his hands on his pants and put them back. After a few seconds his hand was sliding again.

A little bit irritated, he looked behind him, and was surprised to see his hand wasn't slipping, the roof panel it was on was sliding. It slid a little bit more, and then he heard a:

Beep Beep Beep - BEEEEP

Then hydrualics were heard and the skylight slid back, creating an open space into the barracks.

"Whoa, what the hell did you do?"

"I didn't do anything, I was just leaning on this panel and it slid back!"

Examining it, he saw that a bunch of circuitry and wiring was underneath where the panel was. This place was wired, and this probably wasn't the only secret switch around here.

"Damn... Must be some sort of switch.. Ohwell, lets get inside and check it out later."

"Can't say no to that." Rob muttered as he waited for Colt to go in.

Thinking of a good way to get in, he was now grateful he had a top bunk next to a fan.

Grabbing the edges of the hole, he let himself down, hanging there, he looked around. He began to wiggle and then got enough momentum to swing back and forth in the air, and then he swung forward and let go. He flew for a yard and a half and then plopped down on his bunk. The springs made an obnocious noise, but luckily, nobody was awake to hear it.

He then crawled down and nodded to Rob.

Rob walked over to the panel, slid it back into place, and heard a:

Beep Beep Beep - BEEEEP

The glass began sliding back into place, but slowly.

He hastily tried to run over to it, but tripped. He looked up:

It was almost closed.

He crawled as fast as he could and let himself fall into the hole, grabbing the edges. He looked up to see the glass an inch from his fingers, and closing faster.

He took a deep breathe and let go just in time.

Colt caught him, but the weight caused him to fall into the cement floor.

"Well that was refreshing." Rob joked.

"That it was." He made it over to his bunk, climbed up it, and was glad to have the fan blowing in his face.

____________________________________________________________

"Wake up... Wake up... WAKE... UP YOU FRICKING LOG!!!" he heard the scream in his own head, but tried to ignore it.

What time is it? he thought back.

"8:30 , now get UP you're gonna be late" He heard in his head.

He shot up, and looked over at the clock. It read 8:31.

Turning his head he looked at his locker built into the wall by his bunk. He opened the combination while replying:

AIs getting diffective these days, eh?

"Yeah, but think of where you'd be without me." The AI replied inside his own head. With the Spartan IIIs the AIs were interfaced directly with the brain and nueral implants instead of through the MJOLNIR armor.

Asleep, where I want to be. He retorted inside his own head.

You know, he thought, continueing, I can always overpower you and turn you off.

"yeah.." He heard the reply in his own head, as usual. "But, that requires alot of concentrated kinetic energy," The AI said as the locker clicked open and Colt began getting his things ready.

Binder, math homework, language arts homework, science papers, human brain diagrams, social studies study guide... all there. He thought to himself as the AI continued,

"And, it's only temporary."

He grabbed his things, shoved them in his back-pack, and rolled out of bed, landing on his feet, clothes already on, being too tired to have taken them off last night.

Grabbing his backpack and putting it on, he rushed outside.

Hey, Thunder? Colt thought to his AI.

"Yeah?"

What classes do I have today?

"Lets see... Language Arts for first period, P.E. for second, Science for third, Math for fourth, Benchmark Developement for fifth, and Social studies for sixth."

You know I only need to know second period, because its the only one that every changes.

"I know," Thunder replied as Colt dashed down the path to the school/educational building of the training complex. "But I have fun torturing you."

And I'm gonna have fun re-programming you if you don't shut up now.

"Alright, alright, sheesh, don't have to be so snappy."

Then, he arrived at the building and, slowing down and catching his breath, opened the doors, feeling the strain the heavy backpack was putting on his shoulders.

He walked past the lockers on his left and the office on his right, and emerged into the enormous commons area and caffetiria. He looked down the few stairs into the giant area and looked around. He didn't see Rob or Jake anywhere. He kept walking, turned right and went through the right side of the double-double-doors (4).

Hastily walking through the crowd of 7th and 8th graders standing around, he made a left and went into a smaller hall that housed three classrooms and a small ammount of lockers. There he saw Rob and Jake standing outside their homeroom, which was closed, and probably locked at this time. Speaking of time, what time was it?

Time. he ordered quickly.

"8:40" He heard in his head.

He walked over to them.

"Hey guys."

"Hey Colt." Rob greeted him.

"Hey, sup?" Jake said in his normal voice, which was quieter and usually not as hyper as Rob's.

They walked back into the central hall and proceeded the way Colt was coming before he found his two friends. They talked the whole way, and at the end of the hall turned left into another small hall that housed four or five classrooms and some lockers.

He went to the lockers and found his number:

216

He put in his combonation, opened it, took his binder out of his backpack, shoved the backpack in the locker, slammed it shut, and, carrying the binder under his arm, set off again.

They got halfway down the hall, to where Colt's homeroom was, and he stopped.

"Hey, guys, I gotta go put my binder on my desk." He said as he turned to the open door.

"Alright."

" 'K."

Walking in, he set his binder on the desk near the door, where he sat, and left. When he came back out they were a few yards away, at the end of the hall. He went to join them, and, began chatting again as they made their way down the main hall. A few minutes later the bell rang and they went their seperate ways.

Colt got to his homeroom and sat down, and turned around as Kate and Rachel walked in, followed by Jackie.

He watched them sit down and mainly watched Kate, not being able to take his eyes off her until the bell rang.

_____________________________________________________________

My god, this class is so boring. He thought to Thunder.

"Well... Ok then, how many fingers am I hiding behind my back?"

Dude, you don't even HAVE fingers right now.

"Guess anyways, im getting bored too, and I couldn't think as slow as this teacher dude if i tried."

He laughed in his head. Thunder, you couldn't think as slow as any human if you tried.

"Good point."

Okay... 2

"Wrong!"

How many?

"0, you were right, I don't have any fingers." The AI laughed.

How did I see that coming...





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