Alice came to visit me today, but only to pass on a message. "Our first V.M.A.S.K. meeting is today at nine pm in your quarters. Katie's on your shift in the Hospital Wing, so be sure to tell her."

"We're meeting today? Isn't it a little too soon to be planning anything?" I asked.

"Maybe, but the sooner we figure things out, the better. I have to go," Alice said as she rushed out. Sure enough, Katie came by a few hours later with my lunch.

"Alice told me this morning that our first V.M.A.S.K. meeting is today at nine pm in my quarters," I said.

"Perfect! I'm totally excited for this whole like, hero thing, aren't you?" Katie exclaimed.

"Even though I still can't do much, I guess you could say I'm at least looking forward to it," I said.

"Coolio! I'll sneak out to tell Alex when I can," Katie said happily.

"Ok, Alice came to me, I told Katie who's going to tell Alex, so who's left?" I thought. "I gotta find a way to get to Vidia! This will be a little difficult."

"Uh, NURSE!" I called, "I need to check in with my Commander and it's very important that I talk to her within the next three hours," I explained urgently.

"I'll get her down here right away," the nurse reassured me. Thirty minutes later, Vidia came rushing in out of breath.

"What's the problem?" she asked.

"We're having our first V.M.A.S.K. meeting today at nine pm in my quarters," I said for what felt like the thousandth time today.

"It's too soon for that! You're not even healed up enough yet!"

"I know, I said the same thing!"

"Alright, I'll be there. Do I need to tell anyone else?" she asked.

"Nope."

"What about Howlett?" Vidia asked.

"What about him?"

"Isn't he an 'unofficial' member?"

"I think it's best to keep him in the dark about this one," I said.

Nine o'clock rolled around and Katie came with everyone else to give me a break from the Hospital Wing. None of us really knew what we were doing or what to expect. "So...like, how do we do this kind of stuff?" Katie asked.

"Don't look at me! I'm just the engineer," Max said.

"We need to figure everything  out," Alice exaggerated.

"Obviously," Vidia commented as she playfully rolled her eyes.

"I think we should start with electing a team leader," I suggested.

"And who should that be?" Katie asked. I shrugged my shoulders.

"Who do you guys think it should be?" I asked.

"I'm more of a follower," Max said sheepishly.

"Same, I'm totally not  the bossy type," Katie said.

"I may be a Commander, but I'm not good with small groups," Vidia pointed out. They all looked at me expectantly. 

"It should be you Sarah," Alice said.

"You choose the crippled member to be team leader?" I asked.

"It's going to take some time to plan it all out and your not afraid to open your mouth or when it comes to doing hard things," Max explained.

"People respect you," Katie said.

"You have a way of bonding with people and getting to know who they are as a person," Vidia stated.

"When you put it that way, I can't refuse can I?" I said with a smile.

"Where do we begin, leader ?" Alice asked.

"We need to get maps, schedules, and find where the information we need is stored on the database," I started, "We can do this by dividing work amongst ourselves."

"I got Computers," Alice jumped up.

"Engineering uses supplies from all sorts of Storage Rooms, so I can get us some gear," Max said.

"I've got maps and schedules!" Katie volunteered.

"That leaves me with finding out what exactly is going on around here. I can take good notes in my meetings and probably persuade some of them for information," Vidia said.

"We can meet back here in two days time to plan the schematics," I concluded our meeting.

2 DAYS LATER...

"Let's take turns on our findings," I said as I started V.M.A.S.K. meeting number 2.

"I'll go first," Katie said excitedly, "I seriously got maps printed out for each Wing and we can totally just make whatever marks we want on them."

"I rummaged through the Office Supply Room and got notebooks, pens, highlighters, staplers, and clipboards for all of us," Max bragged as he emptied his backpack on my table.

"I was able to find where all of the information is and wrote down the URL codes. Unfortunately, I'll need to hack into some of the files to see what's hidden," Alice said unhappily.

"How long will it take to hack into them?" I asked.

"I don't know, some will be easier than others," Alice replied.

"I was able to steal a few things from the Top Gear Room," Vidia said as she casually pushed aside Max's backpack and heaved a huge duffle bag onto the table.

"Whoa there girl, whatcha got in there?" Katie asked thrilled. Vidia unzipped the bag and started laying things out for us to look at.

"I got four sets of walkie-talkies, six headsets, a flash drive for each of us, a camera jammer, two lock picks, a bag full of ear pieces, and blank ID badges, just in case."

"You got all that from one room?" Max asked impressed.

"Yep, you'd be surprised what the Commandos have access to," Vidia said with a yawn.

"We can store everything here in the drawers under my bed so nobody can find it and I think we should call it a night, we all look tired," I said as I too started to yawn.

Over the rest of the week, our maps were highlighted, fake ID's were made, files were hacked, and things were meticulously planned out. By the end of the week, I was pretty much all better and could head back to Training. I hadn't seen very much of Commander Howlett or Vidia, but Vidia always found a way to show up to our secret meetings.

"Ok, here we are at meeting four and it's time for us to make our move. Tomorrow, we're all going to meet here at ten am wearing our standard uniforms for each of our Divisions and bring your gadgets and stun guns. I'm going to let Katie explain the plan," I stepped aside so Katie could roll out the maps we needed.

"Sarah is going to sneak into Storage Room E over here by the Training Room. While she's doing that, Max will need to pull the emergency alarm in the hallway closest to Storage Room C," Katie pointed to all of the highlighted locations on the maps.

"Vidia, your going to pretend that we're under a soft lockdown and make sure that nobody leaves," I reminded her.

"There'll be a laptop in Storage Room E for you to use," Max gestured to me and continued, "this way, Alice can hack into the database and Sarah can download what we need onto our flash drives."

"Makes sense to everyone?" I asked.

"Here's all your ear pieces and Sarah, let me know when your inside so I can walk you through what needs to be done," Alice said as she packed her headpiece into her handbag.

"I'm really nervous cuz like, I've never done anything like this before," Katie admitted.

"It'll be ok, just remember to stick to the plan," I said as we headed out to our stations.

I tried not to make eye contact with anyone as I walked through the halls and I double checked that nobody saw me before I went in Storage Room E. "Alice, where's the alarm? I need the alarm to make sure no one will come in here," I asked.

"Oh, right! I'm a little slow still, sorry," Alice apologized. Two minutes later, the alarms blared and with it came a painful shock to my ear.

"OWWW! I wasn't expecting that!" I yelled.

"I know, none of us were, sorry again!" Alice said, "Give Vidia a few minutes, she needs to make sure everyone is there."

"Tell her to hurry up, I'm already here and I need to know I won't be discovered!" I said impatiently.

"Calm down everyone! This isn't exactly a state-of-the-art headset," Alice urged, "Max isn't responding, something's wrong," she said worried.

"We can deal with him later, right now I need to know if Vidia is done so I can do my part of the mission," I said impatiently,

"Yes, yes she said everyone is there," Alice reassured me.

"Good, now how do I hack into this thing?" I asked.

"Ok, you see the icon that looks like an eagle?" Alice asked.

"Yeah," I said as I opened it up, "what's the password?"

"Hero in all lower case letters," Alice told me.

"What do I do once I'm inside?"

"You need to type in the search bar 'alien enemies' and I think it's the third file."

"You think or you know?"

"I think, I couldn't get into it from the computer I was using," Alice admitted.

"I'm in! Now what?" I asked.

"Download everything from that file and get back to training as soon as possible." It was only 20% downloaded when the alarms went off. I looked up confused. That shouldn't have happened.

"Alice, what's going on? Why did the alarms turn off?" I asked.

"I'm not sure, I can't get through to Max. I'm not even getting static from him!" Alice informed me. "How much longer until the file is completely downloaded?"

"It's at sixty percent, why?" I asked.

"You need to hurry," Alice said nervously.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Then, Alice's static went out to. "Hello, Alice? Are you still there?" The files weren't downloaded yet when the progress bar disappeared. "Alice, the bar thingy disappeared, what happened? Can hear me? Alice!" The progress bar came back up and was now at 84%. I thought I could faintly hear footsteps outside, but I didn't know for sure. I wanted to turn the dim lights off, but I knew that would make it obvious I was in here. "Come on, almost there," I thought. The door opened and I gasped, completely startled because in walked Commander Howlett.

"My Office, NOW!" he barked as he pointed out the door. I awkwardly walked into the hallway and waited as Commander Howlett grabbed the laptop and flash drive. I knew I had done it this time.