The Houston Squadron

|| Volume 1, Chapter 1 || ''Happy Mistakes, Part 1''

Aurora finally arrived to the apartment building, dusting herself off. "Ah, perfect landing! And now, for the main event." She said to herself, most confidently.

Hold up, THAT'S the introduction? I got this. Hi! The girl this book's talking about? Yeah, that's me. My name's Aurora Brown, and for the past three years, I've been a special-ops FBI agent, tasked with protecting this city with my life. And, to be honest? I've got this hero thing almost perfected! I saved the city from some villains way back, put them right behind bars. Stopped some regular baddies, too. Helped the local market get business up when it got slow. And I even established a public garden! Okay, that last one's probably super boring in comparison... But you get it, right? I'm the city's hero, the one-woman army! There's nothing I can't beat. And this mission here? Yawn! Might be my easiest yet. Some hacker guy is stealing people's private information, and probably using it to buy himself a few gizmos. So, it's my job to stop him. If I saved the city from a nationwide fallout, what's some hacker got on me? Nothing, that's what! Anyway, now that I've brought you up to speed on who I am and what I do, let's get right back to beating this hacker, and then! Maybe getting some grub. I'm thinking Brooklyn-style pizza? Ooo... Oh, man, that sounds good. Oh, sorry, making myself hungry. Back to the mission! 

Aurora entered the building, taking her guns out of their holsters. Turning on the safeties, she put the guns back. The interior was... old. Dusty, rundown. It definitely wasn't kept up to date, and the perfect place for a certain someone to live in unnoticed. She approached the front desk, who's clerk was typing on a computer. He stopped and looked up at her. "Hi! How can I help you? Looking to stay the night, miss..." he glanced at her badge, attached to her uniform, "... Aurora Brown?" 
"Oh, heh," Aurora scoffed, "trust me, I don't need this place. But I could use your help. Could you tell me about some of the residents here?" Aurora got straight to the point, completely unaware that asking a question like that was kind of... weird. 
"I'm sorry, Miss Brown, but we can't very well just give out information about our residents! That'd be illegal, a breach of privacy, and bad for business!" the clerk said with a smile. Aurora rolled her eyes and took out her wallet, sliding a $100 bill towards him. 
"Maybe this will change your mind? Do a girl a favor?" 
"Oh... Well, I..." he took the money and stuffed it in his pocket. "I suppose my boss won't mind too much! Let's see, we have Misses Hackleback! She makes the BEST cookies! Oh, you should try them. Sometimes she donates them to the deli here." The clerk started rambling, and had already lost Aurora, "And then there's Bob, who's a resident but also our mechanic! If something needs fixing, he'll fix it! And also Leo, who's-"
"ALRIGHT," Aurora stopped him, finally losing her patience, "I get it, you've got some nice people here. I'm talking about anyone who may seem a little, off? Suspicious?" She asked, the clerk thinking.
"Hmm... Well, not really. There is one guy, on the second floor in room 3B. He requested our staff to help him carry loads of equipment into his area, but wouldn't tell us what it was. It was real heavy, too, gave Bob a real workout!" The clerk chuckled, Aurora looked down the hall.
"Room 3B, huh? That might be a good place to check out. Thanks, mister, uh..." Aurora looked at his nametag, "... Johnny." She bid him farewell and headed for the staircase down the hall. 

Walking down the hall, Aurora couldn't help but notice some pictures on the wall. The apartment seemed to be family owned, there were countless pictures of this man and his two children, it seemed like. "Hm." Aurora thought it was neat, but didn't think anything of it. She arrived at the elevator and selected the second floor. One very shaky elevator ride later, she arrived on the second floor, and started walking down the hall, counting down the numbers. "6B... 5B... 4B... Aha! 3B, this is it. Hopefully, anyway." Aurora thought to herself, reaching for the doorknob and slowly opening the door, trying to avoid creaking. "Hold up, didn't Thomas say something about doing this...?" Aurora thought to herself.

Hey, me again. Thomas Kennedy, the dude I'm thinking about, is my boss. The main man of the operation! He's a pretty cool boss. Heroics for me, means paperwork for him. Any property damages that might come from my endeavors, he figures out! He's NEVER been upset or frustrated to learn that I took out like five buildings trying to stop a baddie. Hah, totally. He's always super chill... 

"Okay, Thomas said I should figure out where the dude lives and report back to him to get a warrant... But, I'm RIGHT HERE! I could take him out now! I'm a hero, since when do heroes ask for permission?? I'm going in." Aurora thought to herself, taking a breath and stepping through the door, officially breaking protocol. The rooms were old, withered. He definitely didn't take care of the place. Aurora pulled her guns out of their holsters and turned the safeties off, just in case he caught her unaware. The air smelled... "Ugh, dude, do your laundry, take a shower, this place STINKS." She thought to herself, putting a military-grade face mask on, covering the smell from her nose. While looking around, she stumbled into the living room, and on the table in front of the couch, she found documents. Bank transactions, credit card information. "Yes! This is exactly what we need to put this sorry sucker away for good." Aurora thought to herself, taking the documents and putting them in her satchel.

And then, she heard typing on a keyboard. "Uh- no, that won't work. But maybe this will." A male voice said, coming from a nearby room. 
"Got'cha." Aurora said softly, slowly approaching the room, holding one of her guns up. She started slowly opening the door. "Please don't creak, please don't creak, please don't creak..." she said to herself, worried that the aged door would creak when opened, but thankfully, it did not. She then saw him, typing on his computer. She drew her gun, "HANDS IN THE AIR, PUNK!!" Startled, the man jumped from his chair,
"HOLY SHI-" he fell onto the floor. Without missing a beat, he screamed, "COMPROMISE PROTOCOL!" Aurora was confused, before robotic arms came out of the ceiling and grabbed onto her, to where she couldn't move.
"UGH, can't you guys EVER just come quietly? I've done this a hundred times, dude. You catch me, do a little speech about being a bad guy, I break out and then beat you up for ten minutes." Aurora said, trying to wiggle out of the arms. "Augh... So! This is the equipment you had hauled in here. Uh, impressive! It'd be cooler if they made coffee instead of restraints, though." Aurora commented, the man laughing.

"Ah, I knew it, I KNEW IT! You fell right into my trap! You see, you always take initiative, even when you're not supposed to. So! I knew you'd eventually try to take me in forcefully. That's why I built a state-of-the-art defense system, to protect me from agents like you." He grinned, sitting back in his seat.
"Yeah, yeah, you caught me. What's your name anyway? I gotta know what I'm putting on your document later today." Aurora asked with a side-eye, the hacker looking up at her. 
"Tch. You can call me... The Hackler..." Hackler said with an (attempted) menacing expression.
"The... HA! The HACKLER??? That's gotta be the dumbest villain name I've ever heard!" Aurora said, bursting with laughter. Hackler stood up, angry.
"Don't you get it?? Hackler! Like heckler?? But instead of heckling, I hack their accounts and use their money???" He explained, Aurora's laughing continues.
"Dude, I'm no villain, but there are definitely better names for you than the HACKLER. Like, the Terror Technician! Or, the Hack Miser. HELL, even the Computer Wiz would have a better effect than HACKLER!" Aurora commented, laughing some more.
"Fine, MAYBE my name needs working on, but look at you. All it took was to install a voice command and you're done. Makes me wonder how you got so far in your career." Hackler said, Aurora rolling her eyes. She glanced over at his computer screen and saw that he was in the process of hacking yet another bank, this time over on Smiling Wood Lane. She also saw that a folder on his desk didn't read The Hackler, it instead reads 'Cowan M. Nevin'. 

"Heh, so. Cowan." Aurora smirks, Cowan realizing she had been glancing at his desk. 
"Oh, c'mon! Haven't you people heard of privacy??" He groaned, taking the documents off of his desk. He put them in the cabinet by his bed and returned to his seat. 
"Seriously? You're getting on my case about privacy? You are HACKING people's BANK ACCOUNTS!" Aurora yelled, Cowan chuckling.
"Yeah, and I'm gonna keep at it, now that you're out of the way." he replied, resuming his typing.

Little does this jerk know, I've been developing a gadget perfect for this very situation. I call it the Electro-Bands! They're these two wrist bands I'm wearing. Basically, once I trigger these bad boys, they'll send out shocks and theoretically deactivate the robotic arms this guy's got holding onto my hands. Heh, yep, ya' girl's a gadget nerd. But what can I say? I think I outdid myself this time.