Age of the Dragons (HTTYD Fanfiction)

Chapter 28

Tyler walked grinning between his parents, the center of a large armada of siblings. His return had been a joyous occasion, and surprising, as Tyler saw that a set of twins had been born in his absence. Despite being the eleventh-born of a family of twenty four, now twenty six, no sibling ever felt unloved. 

Of course, their parents could not spend much one on one time with any of the children, but the siblings themselves functioned like a family, the older taking care of the younger, all cooking, cleaning and maintaining the functions of their large house while both parents could go to work in peace.

It was unusual for all the siblings to be out at once, but here they all were, a crowd of their own, happily taking up the entire sidewalk space and some of the pullover lane. 

Tyler breathed in deeply, soaking up the playful banter and loud chatter of his siblings, while their parents followed behind, smiling.

"So so so!" a younger sibling said from behind Tyler, "where were you?" Tyler searched for an age-appropriate answer. "Well, Patrick, I was taken by some bad people to work for them, but then I escaped!" "Oh!" Patrick said. "Were they drug dealers? Mafia? Illegal traffickers? Murderers? Slavers? Black Market gunmen?"

Tyler looked shocked. "Hey! When did you learn about all those!" "I sneaked under Adam's chair when he was playing games with some friends!" Patrick said proudly. Tyler groaned slightly, making a mental note to talk to Adam about his language. 

As Patrick skipped off, Tyler chuckled lightly. Now that he was back, it was as if he had never been gone. Then, a thought surfaced in his mind.

I can't just forget about New Berk, people are depending on me being a part of this! But he looked uneasy. But how do I choose? Family or New Berk?

Then he grinned.

Of course! That's what Hiccup was saying! I bring my family into it!

~/|\~

Reaper was hardly ever shocked, and he was shocked now. Though shocked would be an understatement. He was positively openmouthed as Sarah finished her story.

"And after the General questioned us on our fight, I ended up here." Sarah lied, sticking to the fake story that had been drilled into all the brains of the Berkians.

Then, Sarah grinned. "But it wasn't all bad! I managed to pilfer some of the tech from the slavers, and make this!" And she pulled out her Neutron Gun glove, pressing the activation button.

And out of the material folded the sleek silver Neutron Gun, much smaller and lighter than any previous version, but deadly accurate. The residents of the cavern gasped in awe. Everyone knew about Sarah's Neutron Gun prototype, but this was a huge leap from where she had been before.

Reaper picked up the gun at Sarah's permission, and admired it, flipping open the circuit panel and gaping at the interior. "This is genius!" he exclaimed, "this wiring eliminates the need for most modern dampeners, while increasing force and chip durability! How did you ever come up with this?" he asked.

Sarah chuckled, thinking back to all the time she had spent with Hiccup and Christopher perfecting the weapon. "Well, I suppose I had a lot of time on my hands..."

All at once, more questions began pouring out, as the gun was passed from hand to hand, and everyone inspecting the incredible flagship design that Sarah seemed to have created, despite being enslaved. And Sarah smiled. It did feel good to be home.

~/|\~

Christopher typed faster, fingers flying over the holographic keyboard at speeds he had never known before. On the screen before him, the last lines of code of his program were falling into the place, the final pieces in a puzzle that had taken so long to complete.

Of course, it really hadn't been that long. He had spent a long week programming, but the code was finally done. The code that could stop the government from tracking their revolution.

And suddenly, his fingers stopped.

There was a moment of blankness until Christopher's brain caught up.

He had finished.

Christopher opened the applications menu, in a frenzy of excitement. He opened the Operating System Kernel Core Modules, and was met with the standard error message.

"FAIL. THE OPERATING SYSTEM OF THIS DEVICE IS GOVERNMENT PROPERTY. IT REQUIRES EXPRESSED AUTHORIZATION TO EDIT."

Christopher smirked. "Think again." he muttered.

He popped up a system window labeled "EXTERNAL DATA" and opened a box labeled "Code Plugin"  He quickly set all the necessary settings, and then pasted in the first quarter of his program. Then, he pressed the "CONFIRM" button.

The device scanned through the code, identifying the executable and running it. Then, the screen glitched and sputtered. Multiple bug notices popped up, and the screen turned red. But even as hundreds of anti-virus programs were deployed, the windows vanished, and the screen blanked out for a moment.

Then, it was back. And instead of the error message on the Core Modules, there was a green checkmark. Christopher smiled. He was in.

Knowing that the hourly government device checks would come soon, Christopher hurriedly scanned through the core code of the device, looking for the spot where he could replace the device's code with his. And finally, he found the line.

Quickly deleting the existing phrase, Christopher copied almost all of the rest of his code, and pasted it in. Then, he pressed the "RUN & REBOOT" button.

The system scanned through the modules, and turned off, fading to black. Christopher glanced at a screen on the wall that displayed the time. "10:23 AM" His breathing quickened. If the government program checked the devices before he was finished, he would be sent to jail immediately. But the next one was 10:30. He had a bit of time.

Suddenly, the device chimed, and the screen switched back on. But this time. the little American flag in the top left corner of every device was gone. Christopher smiled. Now I have control of the device, but there's one more step. I need it to look normal.

So Christopher opened the Kernel Core Modules window again, and brought up the last of his code. He quickly found the "PRIVATE SECURITY DISPLAY" section, and deleted the current code, which would provide a 100% honest response to the government tracker. And instead, he pasted his code. Then, he rebooted one more time.

Christopher glanced at the screen-clock again. "10:28 AM" He took in a sharp breath. This needed to be quick.

"10:29 AM"

This time, Christopher did gasp. He watched in horror as the seconds counted down.

"10:29:10"

"10:29:20"

"10:29:30"

"10:29:40"

"10:29:50"

Then the device chimed, and the screen lit up. The American Flag reappeared, and the security warnings flashed green, before being deleted by Christopher's code. Then, the flag lit up as the government scan started. And a few seconds later, it flashed green.

Christopher grinned. He had done it! He had successfully created an untraceable device!

And now, he could get started on the real work.