by Andrew (Hades)

It was Wednesday night, March 17, 1999. St. Patrick's Day. Jami had just settled into her chair for another night online. She had just broken the ice with a new friend. She had met Andrew on a message board devoted to those mysterious renegade mutants. The "X-Men." Both she and Andrew were somewhat fans of the group. Not much was known about the X-Men, just that they were mutants and that they were involved in a lot of high-cost incidents. Reports were sketchy at best and TV coverage was minimal, mainly due to lack of good footage. They all wore costumes that made it harder to guess their true identities. Maybe that was part of the mystery that made them so intriguing to the two young friends. It was definitely what earned them an underground following.
They had talked several times on AOL. In message boards and in IM's. They talked about some other things, but somehow the conversations always turned back to those hapless mutants. They agreed on some points and disagreed on others, but they agreed about one thing in particular. The man called "Gambit" was their favorite.
The mysterious X-Man wore an ankle-length leather duster, and covered part of his face with a weird sort of black mask. It was a strange mask, that. It covered only the sides of his face and his forehead. It did nothing to conceal the crop of brown hair that flowed perfectly out the top. It didn't mask his eyes, nose, or mouth, the three most prominent features of his face. But, somehow, that mask that concealed nothing actually made the man more mysterious.
"Come on." Jami mumbled impatiently, waiting for the fidgety AOL software to connect her.
"Connecting at 28,800 bytes per second..." The screen read.
"Finally." She told the screen of her computer.
"Your chains are still mine." The beige box greeted her using the voice of Michael Crawford, the infamous Phantom of the Opera.
She immediately checked her buddy list.
"Let's see who's on, Audrey." She said, referring to her dog. The cute little thing raised her small black head from her dirty-white paws at the mention of her name. She had been curled at the foot of the bed, relaxing her head on her paws. She was the epitome of cute.
"Hades!" She said, excited to see that her new friend was on.
His real name was Andrew, but he responded to just about anything. Most people just called him Hades, shortened from his screen name. He was the one she had met on that Message Board, the one abut him. The Cajun thief had captured both of their attention. He was mysterious, secretive, and enigmatic. He was a riddle worth solving to the two young people.
She sent him an IM.
"Hello, handsome." She greeted him, smiling.
"Hey." He answered, half a country away. His face had broken into an ear-to-ear grin. "What's up?"
"The sky. " She said, indicating her sarcasm with an electronic grin.
"lol" He answered, to show that he was laughing at her humor.
Outside her bedroom window, the security floodlight flicked on. Audrey's ears perked up, listening for what was outside. She heard something and charged the window, barking at the top of her little lungs.
"brb" Jami typed and got up to check things out. She walked over to the window to see what the fuss was about. She drew up the blinds and peeked out the window. She saw nothing. She glanced around the heavily foliated yard. A shadow shifted near the woodpile and she gasped quickly, the cold intake of air breaking the silence. There had been strange happenings at this house, and she didn't want trouble.
A small skunk waddled nonchalantly out from between two logs. The small gap between them must have looked inviting to the smelly animal. Jami sighed relief and began to walk back over to the cluttered desk.
"Audrey Rose." She scorned on the way back to the desk. Her dog looked up at her with her dark, puppy's eyes. Jami immediately felt bad. She seated herself again and typed.
"I'm back!" she informed him.
"wb" He responded, the two letters meaning 'welcome back.'
"Skunk flipped on the security lights." She explained.
"Oh, that's ok." He responded, glad to hear all was quiet on the western front.
Outside, a man moved silently over to the ground next to the window. The man wore a leather duster over bright pink body armor. A wave of brown hair curved out from the top of the black mask that covered the sides of his face. The man held a strangely glowing card. With a minute flick of his wrist the card flew upward with uncanny accuracy. The light flicked out as the tiny explosion blew out the light with a muffled "whiff." Neither the minor explosion nor the tinkling glass was easily audible. Jami ignored the change in lighting, the light was supposed to automatically turn off. Audrey, however wasn't fooled, her canine ears perked, and she crept back over to the window. She looked at the closed blinds and the strange, soft noises coming from behind them.
Outside, the strange man pulled a small blade from his pocket. He applied the blade to the screen and pulled down. The screen made small metal clicking sounds against the blade, like a tiny zipper unzipping. On the other side of the window, Audrey cocked her head, trying to decide if she heard anything or not. Outside, he had finished cutting and the screen fell away. He pocketed the small tool and retrieved two others in one fluid movement. He quickly placed a suction cup against the glass and cut a six inch circle above the lock. He tapped the piece of glass with one finger and it fell to the earth in silence. He replaced the glass cutter and the suction cup and reached his hand into the breached window. He moved the tab down and reached his hand out. He slowly applied pressure to the window sill.
"Dammit!" He cursed beneath his breath. The window didn't yield. He had moved the lock into the locked position. He reached back in and moved the lock back to its previous position. This time, the window slid silently open along its track.

To Be Continued....