Author's Note: Thanks for continuing with the story! Up next we have...Riley! I love Riley, but for some reason it was really hard to write her, idk why; maybe cuz I'm not a computer genius hacker. But, if you've got comments or suggestions, drop me a review!

Disclaimer: disclaimed.

RILEY

"Riley, can you take a look at this for me?" Peyton asked, pushing her glasses further up her nose.

"What am I looking at?" Riley replied, accepting her friend's laptop, her eyes already scanning the screen in front of her.

"It's the homework from Dr. Page's class," Peyton explained. "I know you dropped out, and I'm sorry to ask you about school stuff, but –"

"Hey, it's no big," Riley said, painting a grin on her face. She spared a glance up at her friend and returned her eyes to the screen. "Just because school wasn't right for me doesn't mean I don't support you sticking it out."

"Really?"

"Yeah, girl, I'm proud of you," Riley said. "Getting a big-girl college education and all."

"Yeah, what are sisters for?" Kai piped up from her spot on their lone armchair, takeout carton of dumplings balanced on one knee, her laptop on the other knee.

"I just feel like such a square compared to you guys," Peyton admitted.

"Hey, none of that," Riley said. She actually stopped studying the screen to fix her glare on her friend. "Family supports each other, no matter what – including one of them being a fancy-educated super-nerd."

"Besides," Kai added, "one of us has to have some legit credentials if we're gonna go into business together." She popped a dumpling in her mouth and returned to her own coding project.

"Thanks, guys," Peyton said, feeling relieved.

Riley smiled and gave her friend a supportive nudge with her knee, and returned to studying Peyton's coding. "Flawless, of course," she said, handing the laptop back when she was finished.

"You're sure?" Peyton asked nervously.

"Come on, girl," Kai said, looking over at her two best friends on the couch, "You're, like, the smartest out of all of us. Of course it's perfect. And you've been going over the same code for days. Just turn it in and get your A already."

"It's just, you know, the final project," Peyton explained. "It's worth 50% of our grade."

"It's perfect, Peyton," Riley assured her.

Riley refocused on her own coding project, which she and Kai had nicknamed N3mesis. It was going to revolutionize the IT industry – if she could work out the last few bugs, that is.

While Riley loved her best friends like sisters, and would do anything for them, the truth was she was a little jealous of Peyton. Being a single parent, Riley's mom had had to work two jobs just to make sure they had food on the table and a roof over their heads – there was no way Riley could afford to go to college, even community college like Peyton was doing now, to get her gen-eds out of the way before transferring to a major institution.

Riley told herself she didn't care, that being part of an institution like that was restrictive and lame anyway. She was proud of her friend for her hard work and dedication.

But still that small part of Riley existed, that whispered it should be her going to a fancy school and getting her computer science degree, going to work for herself, making the big bucks. But she knew that couldn't happen without making a lot of money quickly, and while the side jobs she found on the dark web paid the rent and grocery bill, tuition rates were through the roof and she wasn't prepared to shell out that kind of cash.

So she pushed herself. Just because she wasn't in a classroom didn't mean she couldn't learn. She stayed up late every night, and was up early the next morning, teaching herself as many coding systems as she could, often borrowing Peyton's textbooks before she left for class that day.

And she was good. Riley knew her hard work was paying off, because N3mesis was this close to being online. She rubbed her temples and refocused on her screen. Of course, it wouldn't be ready if she didn't concentrate and figure out what these last few bugs were.

Riley was gonna make N3mesis the greatest computer program the world had ever seen. And she was going to do it herself, and prove that she could. Her sisters had her back, but Riley was going to prove herself, and the world would be at her fingertips.

It had been nothing short of a whirlwind of a day. Sprung from super max (by her mom's ex, of all people), allowed to not only play with tech but use it to stop a deadly virus pandemic, traveling to San Francisco, watching these DXS agents pull off impossible-looking stunts…it was a lot to take in.

Riley wasn't dumb. She knew what DXS was, and how they operated. They paired soldiers and scientists to pull off missions the US government didn't want to admit to being involved with. But what she'd seen today had…well, it had rocked her world a little bit. There was knowing what DXS did, and there was seeing it happen before her very eyes, agents using her technical support to do those impossible things.

The Collective had hired her for her hacking skills, but had wanted her to do something that was going to ultimately hurt a lot of people, and that had been something Riley couldn't live with. But these DXS guys were like real life superheroes, stopping that virus from falling into the wrong hands - hands like those the Collective had.

She thought back to what MacGyver had told his boss on their way out of the super max. "I use the tools around me; this woman just happens to be the one I need to succeed in this mission." He'd called her a tool, which she'd let him know later in no uncertain terms was unacceptable, but she thought about the sentiment behind it. This DXS superhero Boy Scout had needed her to do a small part in order to make the whole operation work. And while it was her "resume" that had gotten the agents' attention, they had asked her to use her existing skillset to help them – not to show off for showing off's sake, but to do something meaningful, effective, real - good.

With Peyton and Kai, Riley always had the lingering sense that she was competing with them to be the best, to stand out, all the time. And she realized – in prison, and on this op – just how tiring it had been, to constantly be so on alert, on edge, anxious that she wasn't good enough.

But these stupid DXS goons – her mother's ex and a Captain America wanna-be – had appreciated her skills in a way that didn't leave her feeling like she was barely scraping by. She'd done her small part for the op, the op had been a success, therefore Riley was good with them. That was enough for them – she was enough for them.

"First of all I just…I wanted to thank you," she said, joining the two men at the fire pit.

The Boy Scout turned to her. "You're welcome." It sounded like a question.

"No, seriously. You said if I did the right thing I'd be thanking you later." She paused. "And this is later. So…thanks," she ended on a whisper. Riley wasn't a shy person, but she liked how it felt to be part of this team already – a hell of a lot – and she didn't want to mess it up.

Riley felt like maybe, if this was how it felt to be on their team, be part of their team, she could get used to it. She watched the men banter back and forth, and their boss join them a few minutes later, and felt at peace, at home. Hell, maybe she already was used to it - and that was a-okay by her.