Post by Fading Dawn on Oct 9, 2013 19:28:44 GMT -5
Prologue
This Toby wasn't a boy. Some didn't even think she was human. A simply dressed girl with slightly frizzled brown hair and a t-shirt was all she was made of. At least, that's how she appeared to others. She'd simply done well enough in school (excelling for science), and she was possessed of incredible computer smarts. She could hack difficult passwords with ease and surprised even herself with the uncanny ability to keep computers running. It was rare to find her without her laptop bag slung over her shoulder. Most knew her by the name Eva.
She had some friends. Not a lot were up to her level of digital knowledge. Katelyn, Mariah, Elena, Kim, Jenna, Maple, and Eva were frequently in each other's company. They often gathered in a rickety old building just outside the neighborhood in which all but Kim lived. Because of the distance, Kim sometimes missed meetings and important information had to be relayed to her. The building was no more than an unfinished house, as the would-be owners had backed out if the deal at the last minute. The exterior had been completed, but was peeling and rotten and faded. The interior housed plywood floors, rooms without electrical wiring, and the shakiest set of stairs in the state. It groaned loudly in the wind and was thought to be haunted. Few dared to go near it, save the seven friends.
The seven had outfitted the entire upstairs with battery packs, loose wires, computers, hard drives, and memory cards. The house was so creepy, so rickety, that no one had thought to come in and nick the supplies. The power was completely off the grid; part solar, part wind. Some days, they would bring in fresh batteries and trade them out to charge at home.
Eva had been working on an invention for quite some time. After much careful thought and planning, Toby revealed her idea to the six others.
"We all know how to hack. We've all got more than enough computer smarts," said she, "and we need to put them to use." A quiet murmur of assent rose from them. "The web's a mess. We can fix that. I say we form a secret group. Spill the beans and you're toast," Toby added casually. "Call it the Night Owlz…with a 'z'. We could lurk on the internet; bust those cybercreeps and make their life living hell," she finished, a slightly manic glint in her eye.
"Sounds good," said Elena, "but how will we do this? We have school…"
"Nighttime, m'dear," said Toby jokingly. "In all seriousness, too. We could pop by at night or code an encrypted com system to relay information and progress if necessary. But I think we're owl-ish enough to pull this off. What do you say?"
"Codenames," Mariah piped up. "We need codenames."
Eva nodded. "Toby," she said with a small smile.
"Quies!" called Katelyn energetically. "Latin for 'silent'," she added with a smirk.
"Ben," said Kim simply.
Elena giggled and claimed 'Nic'.
"The Ninja Flomper," Mariah said, looking both amused and awkward.
Toby laughed. "Human names might work better, though," said she through her giggles.
Mariah blushed. "Right. Erm…Ellie. Yeah, that works."
"Obi," said Maple in the back.
Jenna jumped up and called, "Sylvia!"
"Or Syv," said Ellie simply.
"Right," said Toby, glowing, "Now that's settled. Let's get started!" she said, whipping open her laptop and hammering in the password. "So, where should we start?" she crooned mischievously.
Chapter 1
"We need a com system," said Obi contemplatively.
Quies nodded. "Right on it." She flipped open her laptop and began frantically typing.
Toby smiled slightly as she gazed around the room. Her favorite people in her favorite place, doing their favorite thing all together.
Meanwhile, Quies opened her custom program. She had done a complete overhaul of her laptop, unscrewing the tiniest of screws to correct it to her liking. A black screen popped up. She hammered in a passcode. "Access granted" appeared on the screen. She smirked at her own cleverness and hurriedly typed in complicated coding.
"What should the password be?" she asked.
"For what?" said Ben.
"Encrypted instant message program," said Quies. "I should have it up in about…oh, fifteen minutes tops?"
Nic's eyebrows rose. "Fifteen?"
"Fifteen tops," she corrected. "Anyway, codeword? Something we can type fast in case of emergency, but something tricky so no one hacks in."
"Flomper," said Sylv quietly.
Ellie jumped up. "Yeah! Easy to remember, impossible to guess!"
Quies smiled and entered the password. "VAILD" came up on her laptop screen. "We're good to go!"
"You're done?" gasped Ellie.
Quies shook her head. "I've got the passcode in. Sorry, shoulda clarified." She continued her complex but careful typing. Line after line of code poured out of her fingers. About seven minutes passed.
"Done! Now, if you plug this in…" she said, holding up an SD card, "and extract the code, you'll have a new program. Enter your codename, hold shift, and enter 'flomper', and you'll go online. It's on a low-profile comm system I've been tinkering with for a while. Might be a little glitchy but it should be functional," she said cheerfully. Her blue eyes were filled with excitement. She handed the SD card to Sylv, who was at her left. "Stick it in your SD slot," she said. "There should be seven copies of the code file. Drag it to your file library."
Sylv did so, and a new program called "N1GH7 0WL2" showed up on her desktop. "Cool!" she exclaimed. The SD was passed around the room until everyone had it on their laptops, with an extra copy on the old PC tower that they used for backup.
"Let's test it," said Toby. She entered her codename and the password, and went online.
Chapter 2
Three months later…
"H4CK3D BY TH3 N1GH7 0WLZ"
Sylvia giggled manically as she left this on the latest hack. Being in the Owlz had honed her hacking skills. In fact, she was the best on the team at busting through difficult website codes.
"How's it going?" Obi called from across the room. The Owlz were upstairs in the creaky house, hacking away as usual.
"Fine. Hey Toby, what's this?" Sylv asked.
"What's what?"
"New virus code. I haven't seen this one but it was embedded into this link…"Toby walked over kneeled down by Sylv, peering over her shoulder. "Dunno. Chop it from the link if you can," she said.
Sylv erased the coding. As she did this, a dialogue box popped up.
"Crypt?" murmured Toby. "Be careful. I don't recognize this one."
Sylv leaned closer to her computer. "I'm not on that operating system. It's from an old Windows system. That's not a normal error message. Proxy, I think."
"Don't worry," said Ben, "There's no virus that I haven't defeated yet. Probably just bored some weirdo halfway around the world."Sylv closed the error box. Her laptop flicked to a blank red screen, then returned to normal. Toby glanced at Sylv and saw that she had gotten pale. "It's fine. Probably nothing," said Toby, forcing a smile. Sylv shrugged.
Toby nodded. "Continue as normal."
This Toby wasn't a boy. Some didn't even think she was human. A simply dressed girl with slightly frizzled brown hair and a t-shirt was all she was made of. At least, that's how she appeared to others. She'd simply done well enough in school (excelling for science), and she was possessed of incredible computer smarts. She could hack difficult passwords with ease and surprised even herself with the uncanny ability to keep computers running. It was rare to find her without her laptop bag slung over her shoulder. Most knew her by the name Eva.
She had some friends. Not a lot were up to her level of digital knowledge. Katelyn, Mariah, Elena, Kim, Jenna, Maple, and Eva were frequently in each other's company. They often gathered in a rickety old building just outside the neighborhood in which all but Kim lived. Because of the distance, Kim sometimes missed meetings and important information had to be relayed to her. The building was no more than an unfinished house, as the would-be owners had backed out if the deal at the last minute. The exterior had been completed, but was peeling and rotten and faded. The interior housed plywood floors, rooms without electrical wiring, and the shakiest set of stairs in the state. It groaned loudly in the wind and was thought to be haunted. Few dared to go near it, save the seven friends.
The seven had outfitted the entire upstairs with battery packs, loose wires, computers, hard drives, and memory cards. The house was so creepy, so rickety, that no one had thought to come in and nick the supplies. The power was completely off the grid; part solar, part wind. Some days, they would bring in fresh batteries and trade them out to charge at home.
Eva had been working on an invention for quite some time. After much careful thought and planning, Toby revealed her idea to the six others.
"We all know how to hack. We've all got more than enough computer smarts," said she, "and we need to put them to use." A quiet murmur of assent rose from them. "The web's a mess. We can fix that. I say we form a secret group. Spill the beans and you're toast," Toby added casually. "Call it the Night Owlz…with a 'z'. We could lurk on the internet; bust those cybercreeps and make their life living hell," she finished, a slightly manic glint in her eye.
"Sounds good," said Elena, "but how will we do this? We have school…"
"Nighttime, m'dear," said Toby jokingly. "In all seriousness, too. We could pop by at night or code an encrypted com system to relay information and progress if necessary. But I think we're owl-ish enough to pull this off. What do you say?"
"Codenames," Mariah piped up. "We need codenames."
Eva nodded. "Toby," she said with a small smile.
"Quies!" called Katelyn energetically. "Latin for 'silent'," she added with a smirk.
"Ben," said Kim simply.
Elena giggled and claimed 'Nic'.
"The Ninja Flomper," Mariah said, looking both amused and awkward.
Toby laughed. "Human names might work better, though," said she through her giggles.
Mariah blushed. "Right. Erm…Ellie. Yeah, that works."
"Obi," said Maple in the back.
Jenna jumped up and called, "Sylvia!"
"Or Syv," said Ellie simply.
"Right," said Toby, glowing, "Now that's settled. Let's get started!" she said, whipping open her laptop and hammering in the password. "So, where should we start?" she crooned mischievously.
Chapter 1
"We need a com system," said Obi contemplatively.
Quies nodded. "Right on it." She flipped open her laptop and began frantically typing.
Toby smiled slightly as she gazed around the room. Her favorite people in her favorite place, doing their favorite thing all together.
Meanwhile, Quies opened her custom program. She had done a complete overhaul of her laptop, unscrewing the tiniest of screws to correct it to her liking. A black screen popped up. She hammered in a passcode. "Access granted" appeared on the screen. She smirked at her own cleverness and hurriedly typed in complicated coding.
"What should the password be?" she asked.
"For what?" said Ben.
"Encrypted instant message program," said Quies. "I should have it up in about…oh, fifteen minutes tops?"
Nic's eyebrows rose. "Fifteen?"
"Fifteen tops," she corrected. "Anyway, codeword? Something we can type fast in case of emergency, but something tricky so no one hacks in."
"Flomper," said Sylv quietly.
Ellie jumped up. "Yeah! Easy to remember, impossible to guess!"
Quies smiled and entered the password. "VAILD" came up on her laptop screen. "We're good to go!"
"You're done?" gasped Ellie.
Quies shook her head. "I've got the passcode in. Sorry, shoulda clarified." She continued her complex but careful typing. Line after line of code poured out of her fingers. About seven minutes passed.
"Done! Now, if you plug this in…" she said, holding up an SD card, "and extract the code, you'll have a new program. Enter your codename, hold shift, and enter 'flomper', and you'll go online. It's on a low-profile comm system I've been tinkering with for a while. Might be a little glitchy but it should be functional," she said cheerfully. Her blue eyes were filled with excitement. She handed the SD card to Sylv, who was at her left. "Stick it in your SD slot," she said. "There should be seven copies of the code file. Drag it to your file library."
Sylv did so, and a new program called "N1GH7 0WL2" showed up on her desktop. "Cool!" she exclaimed. The SD was passed around the room until everyone had it on their laptops, with an extra copy on the old PC tower that they used for backup.
"Let's test it," said Toby. She entered her codename and the password, and went online.
Chapter 2
Three months later…
"H4CK3D BY TH3 N1GH7 0WLZ"
Sylvia giggled manically as she left this on the latest hack. Being in the Owlz had honed her hacking skills. In fact, she was the best on the team at busting through difficult website codes.
"How's it going?" Obi called from across the room. The Owlz were upstairs in the creaky house, hacking away as usual.
"Fine. Hey Toby, what's this?" Sylv asked.
"What's what?"
"New virus code. I haven't seen this one but it was embedded into this link…"Toby walked over kneeled down by Sylv, peering over her shoulder. "Dunno. Chop it from the link if you can," she said.
Sylv erased the coding. As she did this, a dialogue box popped up.
"Crypt?" murmured Toby. "Be careful. I don't recognize this one."
Sylv leaned closer to her computer. "I'm not on that operating system. It's from an old Windows system. That's not a normal error message. Proxy, I think."
"Don't worry," said Ben, "There's no virus that I haven't defeated yet. Probably just bored some weirdo halfway around the world."Sylv closed the error box. Her laptop flicked to a blank red screen, then returned to normal. Toby glanced at Sylv and saw that she had gotten pale. "It's fine. Probably nothing," said Toby, forcing a smile. Sylv shrugged.
Toby nodded. "Continue as normal."