An Advantage to Some: The Mysterious Life of a Hacker

The room is pitch black. There are no windows, no sound, and no light. It suddenly all changes when a blue power button turns on, and following it, a whole setup of computer screens and buttons. Sitting in front of it was its master.

This was the daily life of a girl who spent hours at a time on her computer. She engaged in online forums and chatrooms; trolling and teasing people in what she considered an ARG. Her skills were so advanced it took a team of detectives with too much freetime on their hands to figure out what her constant cryptic messages and clues were leading up to. She loved all the attention and responses whether they be positive or toxic. She could care less.

"Sombra!" She heard a loud raspy voice call from outside of the room.

The cyberpunk leaned back in her rolling chair and sighed, "Whaaaat?"

"Get over here!"

She rolled her eyes and minimized her current tabs, "Okay! Cálmate!" She trudged her way upstairs and crossed her arms in the presence of her superior, Reaper.

"Why weren't you keep an eye on the targets?" He growled. He was referring to their failed mission at the restaurant.

"What do you mean?"

"Ana and Pharah compromised the mission...if you would have said something, then maybe we would have been successful…"

She giggled, "Sorry...I was too 'enamored' by your mariachi number…"

Reaper clutched his fists and was irritated by this saucy latina's attitude.

"Anything else you want?" Sombra yawned.

"Yes. I have an announcement to make." He turned to lead her to the meeting room. She followed him in a carefree fashion before noticing Widowmaker sitting there with her long shoujo legs on the table. She turned and eyed Sombra silently as the girl took her seat across from her.

Reaper remained standing and stated, "I have been thinking...and hesitant to allow it...but you can come onto the field with us for our next mission."

Sombra had a look of surprise, "You mean...in like actual combat?"

He gave a single nod. Widowmaker shot Reaper a stern look, obviously not liking the idea at all.

"You know how long I've been waiting to finally actually do something besides sit around and stalk people?" She sighed in relief, "I'm ready to fight and show you want I can do, hombre!"

Widowmaker looked over at Reaper and stated, "You saw what happened at the restaurant...she did not do any form of retaliation against the targets even when I was attacked…"

"It's Reyes fault...he told me not to shoot," She pointed at the man.

"We didn't want any unnecessary chip damage…" He defended himself.

The French woman stood and looked down at the girl, "I don't think you have what it takes, fille...you are stronger behind a computer than behind a gun."

Sombra took offense at the comment and she stood as well, "Listen, Pendeja...I don't have to prove ANYTHING to someone who has the luxury of sitting around on buildings while everyone is out on the front line doing the real work…"

Widowmaker raised her hand, ready to strike the girl on the cheek. At the lift, she felt a smokey presence behind her before suddenly feeling someone gripping her wrist. She looked back and saw Reaper's skull mask staring at her.

"Enough...both of you…." He looked over at Sombra, "You can go back to your room…"

"No problema…" Sombra waved her hand in front of herself before flipping off Widowmaker and turning invisible.

They waited a few seconds until they assumed that she finally left the room. Widowmaker yanked her wrist out of Reaper's grip and raised her finger saying, "If she screws up again...We're sending her back to Los Muertos...We do not need her kind in Talon."

"She is of great use to us…" He tried to reason with her, "We've gathered plenty of needed intel from her...imagine what more information we can receive…"

"Her days are numbered, Gabriel…" Widowmaker walked away as her ridiculously long ponytail swung from side to side, "And I'm counting them…"

Sombra had been listening in on them the whole time. She was just around the corner and leaning up against a wall. She quietly made her way back to her room and sat in front of her computer screens. She tried to keep her mind off the conversation by browsing the web. She was great at masking her feelings with sass and snarkiness but in reality, she was quite lonesome.

As she was on the web, she ran across her team's objective, DVa. She was face to face with a poster showing off the gamer sitting on her mech while wearing her zero suit. Sombra stared at the Asian girl for a long time and admired how happy she looked. She leaned forward and rested her cheek against her fist.

"She's so lucky…" Sombra pouted, "She probably has so many friends and fans…" She then opened up DVa's twitter page and looked at her recent posts.

My parents have something big planned for me tomorrow! I wonder what it is...I'll keep you all up to date \ \( ^ 3 ~ )

"Yes...please keep us all up to date," Sombra almost purred, "I love it when people share every aspect of their lives on the internet…" She cracked her knuckles, "Time to begin my work…" She hovered her glow in the dark fingers over the keyboard.

"Sombra!" She heard Reaper yell out once again. It was a rather common occurrence.

"Qué deseas?" She responded in annoyance.

"Did you change my email's password?"

Sombra gritted her teeth and hesitated, "Uhhh...I dunno what you're talking about…"

"Change it back! NOW!

"Fine fine!" She held back a laugh, "I was just tryna protect you from hackers!"