Hanna is sitting in the classroom not long after the winter break in quiet discontent. Not because of school, that she has resigned herself to its torture until she's old enough to leave, but from some aspect of herself. She knew being a child again sucks, but not having stamina or the endurance is quite annoying. It's not usual for her to miss her past life, but the ability to just add the capabilities to her body when needed is something she long for. The thought of having to exercise to improve herself feels like a chore, and she needs to find a way to make it more enjoyable.

The sound of the school bell interrupts Hanna's thoughts. An idea came to her mind as she was about to stand up. She saw an interesting institution in one of her adventures with Sam not too long ago. Just as she was about to leave the class to meet Sam, a voice called out from behind her. "Hey Hanna, do you want to join us in the arcade?" Looking back, she saw it was Sara that interrupted her precious time. "Yeah Hanna, it's going to be awesome they just added Donkey Kong 3!" Will, the always hyper child, practically screams at her face as he tries to convince her to join them.

"Sorry guys, I have plans to go somewhere with Sam right now." Sam said in her most remorseful voice as she could manage for these vermin. "You're always hanging out with Groves and barely with us anymore." Will said woefully. She doubts the three times she spent times with these gremlins in the past year count as hanging out. "Yeah, I don't know why you spend so much time with her. She's very odd." It seems like the pest is trying to be as nice with her wording. That made Hanna consider making the girl cry, or maybe causing her to trip into a pen. As much as that would be a nice thing to see, she needs to keep up appearance.

"I'm sorry. I do wish I could go with you, but I already promised Sam. Could we do it next time? See you folks on Monday." Han forced a smile at the gremlins. They protested somewhat to that but acquiesce to her and said their goodbyes. As she walks towards the bike racks, she wonders if Sam would even agree to the idea. It unquestionably doesn't suit her style, well as much a seven-year-old could. Might be smart to keep her in the dark until we reach that place, but she'll be annoyed if she finds out.

She spots Sam waiting for her by the bikes as usual, utterly ignorant of what she plans to do. "Hey Sam, come, we're going on an adventure!" Sam seems stunned by enthusiasm and narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Hi Han, weren't we planning to hang out at your home and then have a sleepover?" Sam's suspicion only makes which only made her smile more. "We're still doing that, but first we need to stop at Kingsville. Let's go!" Hanna said as she got on her bike and rides away, leaving behind bewildered Sam.

"So… Are you going to tell me what we're doing or are you still going to act suspicious?" Said Sam as she finally caught up with her. "Where's the fun in that?" She said with a smirk, as they continue their ride towards Kingsville in silent. Hanna decides to plant some seeds for her idea. "Don't you ever feel yourself constraint by your physical abilities?" Sam gave her a look as if she's trying to figure out what is her angle which continues to amuse her. "Never gave it any thought. Seems fine to me." Said Sam with a shrug. "Come on, have you never imagined your body better, stronger, faster, or more coordinated or flexible?" Sam gave a thoughtful hum as they approach Kingsville. "Like adding more ram or adding a math coprocessor into a computer? Not really, can't see why I would need that."

Hanna let out an amused gasp at the analogy. "I wish it would be so easy as to add an artificial augmenting into ourselves. Alas, for such things are far into the future at the current rate of technological advances. Don't you ever think if only you were stronger enough or fast enough, you could have done something you wanted to but cannot?" Sam gave a sheepish expression. "Being a bit taller would be nice, would be so much easier to grab things from the top shelf." Hanna let out a laugh at that. Of course, it would be her height, as she's on the shorter side in her year. "We could only go so far with the body we have. Sadly, any improvement we want requires exercise." Sam gave her a deadpan stare and said. "You're 7, Han. I don't know what you expect."

They quickly reach her desired destination and Sam slowly grasp what Hanna wanted to do. "We're not going to in there to steal some stuff, are we?" Sam said in the deadest voice Hanna has ever heard of, so with a thousand-watt smile she said. "Ta-da! We are going to join the ballet classes!" Hanna proceeds to make wild gestures towards to dancing studio in an attempt to convince the still dead eyes looking Sam.

"No." Was the only response she's getting; this requires more direct action. Hanna latches herself onto Sam and said. "Come on, it would be incredibly fun!" Sam doesn't seem deterred by that. "Really does not sound like fun." Hanna pouted at the denial; she quickly thinks of a different tactic. "It's excellent exercise Sam! It will help with our hand eye foot coordination and the stretching might help increase your height." Sam let out a deep sigh and said. "You just want an excuse to wear pink, don't you?"

Guilty as charge, Hanna let out a small giggle and said, "Well, that's just a bonus! But it's also a great way to improve ourselves physically and have fun at the same time. Plus, think of all the cool moves we'll be able to learn!" She gives Sam a hopeful look, waiting for her response. Sam seems to consider for a moment before resigning herself to this and said. "Fine, we'll give it a try. But only for the exercise. I hope they allow black uniforms because I'm not wearing pink tutus." Hanna's face lights up with excitement and she says, "Great! Let's go!" and drags Sam towards the dance studio.

They soon reach the front desk, where a young female is on desk duty. "Excuse me, we would like to enrol in ballet classes please." The female looked up from her ledger and smile at the two of us. "Why aren't you both adorable. My name is Ms. Isabella, and I'm one of the teachers. It's a pleasure to meet you two, may I know your name? Is this your first-time doing ballet and how old are you both?" She brought up some forms for us to fill. "Name's Hanna Frey, and this here grumpy is Samantha Groves. Yes, it's our first-time doing ballet. I'm going to be 8 soon and Sam here is." Ms. Isabella nods at the answers. "Classes for your age group are on Monday and Wednesday, starts at 4.30pm and each class is one hour. But since it's your first time, I would recommend joining a third class each week to catch up with the others who have experience. May I know where your parents are? I require their signature."

Hanna gives her a convincing smile. "My parents are busy at Celanese while Sam's is quite overwhelmed at the diner. Can we bring the forms back for them to sign? How much will it be for one month?" Ms. Isabella smiles in sympathy. "That's completely fine and 2 classes would be 35 dollars a month, but if you want to take 3 classes, it would be 39 dollars." Hanna doesn't even need to consider it replied. "We'll take 3 classes, please."

Sam shoots Hanna a look akin to betrayal and pain. "You would need to get shoes and your dresses. There's a shop in Corpus Christi that sells it, I'll write it down for you. We have a lax dress code here you can wear any color, but it's recommended either pink or black leotards." Sam seems relieve at that notion. They pay their registration fee and say their farewell to the teacher. As they get back to their bike, Sam finally broke her silence. "I can't believe you dragged me into three classes a week." Hanna could only grin at her friend.

She filled the ride home in a one-sided attempt to cheer Sam up, who had chosen to use the silent treatment on Hanna. It was downright easy to convince her parents to allow her to go to ballet classes. Mother looked ecstatic at the idea of Hanna being more outgoing. Sam slowly came around and talking to her again after dinner that night but was still pissed off. The next day, mother brought the both of them to buy their things. Hanna chooses the pinkest dress and shoes she found because she knows it would annoy Sam, who predictably chosen all black. Sam forges her mother's signature rather than asking her and uses her own money to pay for the lesson, despite Hanna's insistence on her to pay for all of it.

Monday quickly came and the two of them were in front of the studio. "Come on, I'm sure you'll enjoy it when you actually tried doing it." Said Hanna while she grabs a brooding Sam to drag her into the building. "Uh-huh." Sam responds in a monotone voice.

Hanna tries to make small talk as they change into their leotards and ballet shoes, but Sam remains mostly silent. The class is full of other girls, all excited to be there and learn new dance moves. Ms. Isabella greets them warmly and starts the class with a series of stretches and warm-up exercises. Hanna can see that Sam is still skeptical, but she is determined to make her enjoy the class. As they move through the class, learning new steps and practicing their form, Hanna can see that Sam is slowly starting to relax and focus on the movements. She even cracks a small smile when they successfully complete a difficult step.

By the end of the class, the two of them are out of breath, but Hanna knows it's just the beginning of improving her body. She gave Sam a side look and smirk, "Admit it, you liked it as much as I did, didn't you?" Sam gave her a glare which, but she can tell it's not genuine. "It's okay I guess." Sam says with a shrug. Hanna laughs. "I'll take it as a compliment coming from you."

They change back into their clothes and head out of the studio. As they walk to their bikes, Hanna grins as she says. "We can make this a competition; Let's see who would become the best in class in the shortest amount of time. It would make this way more fun." Sam smirk deviously as she says. "Fine, loser has to do what the winner says and when I win, you can't wear pink for a month." Hanna let out a gasp of betrayal as she replies. "You monster, you wouldn't! Fine. When I win, you must wear pink for a month." Sam smirks, turns to a full-on smile at this point, and she says. "You're on, and you're going to lose."

SAMANTHA GROVES POV

Night has arrived as she sits irritatedly in front of their homemade computer in Han's room. Months have passed since their first ballet lesson. Sam couldn't help but enjoy doing it with Han. Winning the bet was just a bonus, much to Han's chagrin. What she found annoying was that the walkie talkie they used to communicate has limited capabilities, the signal in her house was not good and their conversation was not private, thus required special phrases when talking. The walkie talkies have come in handy in the past with their adventures, but it doesn't feel all of her needs.

"Another way to be where you didn't want yourself to go, And let yourself go."

The sound of soft humming and singing by Hanna interrupted Sam's thoughts. Sam glances over at her friend, who is sitting beside her and programming a worm on her computer. She noticed that Hanna has a tendency to sing strange songs that she has never heard before, when she's completely focused on something. She has asked Hanna about those songs; did she create them? But every time it's always the same queer answer; 'It's a song I've heard in the past.'. Regardless, Sam let go of the puzzle and challenge her problem head on.

"Hey Han, we need to fix our walkie talkie issue." Said Sam. Hanna stops humming but still focuses on her coding asked. "You got a solution?" Sam thought for a few minutes. "We can build our own radio and use morse code." That seems to have gotten Han's interest. "We have to learn morse code but people can still listen in if they understand morse code." Han stops as a grin grew on her; she then continues. "I can make us a cipher so no one can understand us! This will be so fun."

Sam knew Han has always been interested in cryptography. They might kill two birds with one stone on this adventure. "We need a way to instantly encrypt and decrypt our messages. It would be too much of a chore if we do it by hand." Han nods in agreement and was thinking of a solution. Sam looks back to her computer, and an idea sparks in her. "We could somehow make a connection between a transceiver and this computer. We can make a program that encrypts the text and convert it into morse code. It's all just electronic signals anyway." Han lights up with genuine enthusiasm and the intense stare when she's very interested in something. Sam always felt happy whenever she managed to incite this kind of reaction from her friend.

"We need to do some research on radios and transceivers if we are to build one. As well as experiment on linking it to the computer. Creating an algorithm for a stream cipher shouldn't be too difficult, maybe I could add a hash function as well, but I don't think our processor would be able to encrypt or decrypt it fast enough…" Looks like Han has lost herself in her monologues again. "We don't really need a difficult cipher, Han. We just need something to keep our messages private." That seems to have done the trick. "As for experimenting, we can do it with our walkie talkies. They're basically transceivers, we just need a better antenna. I know that the electronic repair shop has a few of them lying around."

Hanna looks downright predatory right now, she snaps her fingers and did finger guns at Sam. "I love the way you think, Sam. Might as well pick some things for building a computer for your home. Come on, let's go repossess those items." That shocked Sam. They haven't done breaking and entering at night before, nor have done one without preparations. "Isn't it too late? Won't your parents notice us gone?" Unlike her friend, she doesn't want to cause Mr. & Mrs. Frey any unnecessary worry, they've been far too good to her. Hanna waves her hand in dismissal, which irks Sam at the callous disregard. "They won't even notice we were gone. If they do, I'm sure I can come up with an excuse. And it's the perfect time to break into the shop, it's a Saturday night no one will be there." Said Han with a shrug. "Bring your bag and please grab the two lights with the red lightbulb by the shelve."

As Sam gathers the stuff, Han opens up her window by the bedside. "Come on, we can easily grab the bikes since they're on this side of the house." They made their way to the shop shrouded by the darkness of the night, with only their memory to guide their path and the faint glow of lights from the houses.

When they reached the back door of the shop, Han gave her lock pick set to Sam. Sam has been proficient in lock-picking ever since Hanna taught her, and she has been practicing it frequently during their adventures to improve her speed. Sam shook her head and said, "We need to be fast, and I've never done it in the dark before." Han gave her a look that says 'You know you can do it' but she shrugs and starts picking the lock. "We should do more night adventures so you can practice it in the dark." Said Han as she finished picking the lock, Sam handed the hand light to Han.

They creep into the shop, being careful to not touch anything they're not taking. "You go grab the antenna; I'll grab the electronics. Don't use your light if you need to go to the front." Said Hanna as she turns on her light to look for her items. Sam quickly found her item at the back of the shop; she then went to find Han.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked as she noticed Hanna seemed on edge. She was standing by the door and looking out. "Nothing, probably just a stray dog making noise," Han replied, shaking her head. "Let's head back home." They quickly left the shop, locking the door behind them, trying to shake off the uneasy feeling that had settled over them.

On the ride back home, Sam couldn't shake off the feeling that something was off about Han's behavior. She decided to wait until they were alone before bringing it up again. Once they were back at home and snuck back into Han's room, thankfully it seems as if Han's parents were oblivious to their escapade. "So, what happened? You're normally not on edge." Asked Sam as she removed the items she took from her bag. "Nothing really, it's more of a gut feeling. Anyway, we should try to avoid going back to that place for a while, just in case." That's really unusual coming from Han, and nodded at that.

As they settled in, they experiment with their walkie talking by taking it apart and learning its internals and how it works. The feeling of unease washed off from them as they were happily working on their project. They also talk about ways to connect the walkie talkie to the home-made computer.

"We should add a voice synthesizer to the computer so it can read our messages out loud if we're not near the computer." Sam hums in contemplation at that suggestion. It would make it more accessible. "I wonder if we can use those Texas Instruments chips that powers speak & spell." Han stops working on the walkie talkie and looks at Sam. "We can do that, shouldn't be too hard, and they're very cheap to get. Great thinking." Han pauses to think.

"Let's split our workload. I'll start developing and coding our cipher. You can do the reverse engineering of the walkie talkie and outlining the specifications for what we need to build." Sam nods in agreement and adds. "We then can build the computer and the transceiver. We should program the messaging software after we build those two things. And please don't make the cipher too complicated. We want instant encryption and decryption." Han rolls her eyes playfully and says. "Okay, fine, you're taking away all my fun." They continue working through late into the night when Sam noticed Han fell asleep on her book. Looking at the book, Sam saw diagrams, matrices, and a variation of XOR function. Shaking her head, she stops trying to understand it in her sleepy state. She wakes Han up to direct her to bed and both slept soundly dreaming of talking computers.

Sam is sitting in her room with the newly built computer and transceiver waiting for Han to message her. She looked back at the past month since they started this adventure/project together and it's been an interesting journey. They later found out that the repair shop owner they stole from reported to the police of a burglary, a first time for her. She was worried at first, but Han assured her that nothing can link them to the crime. True enough, the police found no evidence of a crime, only some missing items they assume the owner misplace. Oddly enough, the owner of the shop was admitted to the hospital due to health complications not long after the police dropped the case.

Han spent a week designing & coding her cipher, barely aware of the outside world, which worried Sam as she noticed Han barely ate or slept during that time. When she completed her cipher, it disappointed her it's not better, Sam reassures her that probably no one will understand the messages without the cryptographic key. Making the computer wasn't difficult, it's basically the same as the one at Han's room but it has more RAM, integrating the synthetic voice was simple enough as well.

Building the transceiver, on the other hand, took a bit of work. Typical of Han, she wanted to make it stronger and better than what the specifications she wrote from reverse engineering the walkie talkie. Said that we should make it strong enough to send a signal to Dallas, with that in mind they had to make multiple trips to Kingsville outside of their usual ballet lessons to gather the parts to build the transceiver. Making sure to plan and scope out their targets so there won't be a repeat of their previous incident.

Creating the link between the transceiver and computer required some custom-made boards and electronics, but it wasn't too much of a challenge for both of them. Same goes with creating the messaging program. In the end, it's all just ones and zeros. All she has to do now is wait.

Sounds of beeping coming out from the headset connected to the transceiver stops her train of thought and she pays attention to the screen waiting for their program decodes Han's message for her.

Can you read me?

The sound of the synthetic voice echoed in her room, a feeling of elation and achievement gush out of her. She typed a reply as fast as her finger can, unable to contain her excitement.

Hell Yes! I can read you and hear you!

No swearing Sam.

Oh please, you insult everyone you meet, but a little swearing is too much?

Yes.

Sam rolls her eyes at the response and saw Han continue to send a message.

I wonder if we can increase the frequency of the transmission so we can receive and send messages faster.

Sam let out a groan at the message. Of course, the first thing she thinks of is doing something illegal.

No Han, we can't do that. The second we go away from the citizen band, the FCC or some ham radio operator will find us, especially with NAS so close to us.

:(

Sam let out a chortle at Han's reply.

Fine, what if use a high gain directional antenna for point-to-point communication? That way, those nasty snitches have less chance finding us.

Sam let out a sigh as she knows her friend won't let this go easily

Ok, we can look into it.

I've been thinking about ways to improve our program.

Let's hear it.

HANNA FREY POV

Hanna's hair is being tossed around wildly by the wind as she sits beside an open car window with her hand outside, while Sam sits beside her in the back seat of the car. They're on the way to her father's friend's farm where there's a shooting range available for us to use. Father, in his ever-infinite wisdom, had agreed to Hanna's request of 'teaching' her how to shoot. Eight plus years have been far too long for her to be separated from guns, oh how she misses the smell of gunpowder.

Of course, she has to bring Sam with her; she does need to learn how to shoot if she is to stick with Hanna me in the long run. Persuading father took a while, but he relented. He wanted Sam's mother's permission to bring her with us, the look of uncomfortableness on Sam when father suggested that caused her to almost stab him with the fork she had on hand. Thankfully, her mother agreed easily without a second thought, much to Sam's relief.

The car soon enters the farm property, Hanna can already see the excitement in Sam's eyes. She knows her friend has never held a gun before and is curious about the experience. As the car makes its stop in front of the farmhouse, she saw a man on the porch who she assumes to be father's friend, waving in their direction.

"Hey there Jorge, how's your morning?" Father said as he shook his friend's hand. "Hello Brian, morning been good for me. So, these are your kids? I thought you and Ruth only had one daughter." Said Jorge as he has a kindly smile while looking at Sam, then at Hanna who put on a smile in return. She wonders if she can get away with accidentally shooting this creep. "Oh no, still only got the one daughter. This here is Sam, she's Hanna's best friend." The creep nodded. "That's nice of you to bring her along as well. Anyway, I got some equipment needing fixing. I'm sure you remember where the range at."

Father went back to the car to grab the bag of guns and ammo. He then guided us towards the range, which wasn't far, as she saw the shooting range. The set up impressed her shooting plates every 100 yards until 500 yards, then it intervals every 200 yards until it reached 1100 yards with an elevated shooting platform for long range shooting. There are reactive shooting plates for short range shooting. Looking below the shooting platform, she sees some wooden frame for paper targets, a clay pigeon machine, and some color spray cans.

The creep must be quite wealthy to be able to afford such a setup, she should find a way to defraud him. Looking at Sam, she looks at the range with a sense of wonder. Hanna wishes she could experience shooting a gun for the first time again, though she doesn't even remember her first time anymore. Father unpacks the guns he brought with him on the table by the base of the platform just beside of the stairs leading up the shooting platform.

"Okay girls, before we shoot, I'll need to tell you some ground rules and gun safety…." She tunes her father out as he continues to talk about things she knows by heart. She plays the dutiful daughter and pretends to pay attention and nods when he seems to want to emphasize something. Taking a quick look at Sam, she seems very engage at what father is talking about. Looks like he picked up a rifle for demonstration and continue to blabber. After a while he seems to have finished his spiel.

"Alright Hanna, you can start first. This is a Ruger 10/22, it shoots a .22 LR cartridge. Perfect for your age." He hands her the pathetically small cartridge rifle; she eyes the rifle her father is holding in envy; she wants to shoot that. She nods in acknowledgement and goes towards the shooting area. The gun itself is quite light as she takes up a firing position, father gave her the magazine and said. "Here's 10 rounds, try hitting the steel plates."

Disappointed at the limited capacity of the magazine she might as well make it count. Pressing the safety button, she takes aim & shot at the 6 hanging steel targets that's 50 feet away from her. Then she aims for further and further targets until the 50-yard targets. It went by too fast for her taste her, father let out a whistle and said. "Aren't you a natural pumpkin, all hit squarely at the center mass." He then gave her a head pat, much to her annoyance. "Give the gun to Sam, so she can give it a go."

She gave Sam a thumbs up as encouragement who smiles back as she takes aim. Took Sam longer to take the shots, she only aimed for the targets that are near her. Even though it's her first-time shooting, she didn't flinch. "Nice shooting Sam, you hit all the targets. With more practice you'll be a crack shot." Said father and Hanna gave her friend a pat on the back as congratulation who in turn glow brightly with satisfaction.

Hanna is eyeing the scope rifle on the table with lust. She wonders if she can get to use it, might as well start small. "Dad, can I use your rifle?" She said as she points towards the gun her father is holding. He looks at her with trepidation and replied. "I don't know Hanna, it is a larger cartridge then what you shot." He paused then shook his head. "Oh why not, if you can shoot the 100 yard target with the 22lr, you can use the mini 14."

Sam must have felt the excitement coming out from Hanna, as she grins and handed back the rifle to her. As she took her firing position she let out a breath and aim at the 75 yards target. After hitting all five shots she noted the drop and wind direction. She adjusts her aim for the 100 yards target and fire all the rounds she had left. Sam yell in excitement and left father agape at the targets. "All dead center shots again. I guess I shouldn't have doubted you, come on let's get up on the platform."

Hanna is in a prone position with the mini 14 in hand looking through the iron sights down range, Sam is sitting to her left with a pair of binoculars and father to her right with his scoped rifle. "Alright pumpkin, let's start with 100 yards then onto the next till 500 yards."

Taking the shot on the first target was easy with this rifle, the same goes for the second target. The wind picked up as she shot the third target. "You hit the target but hit bottom left." Said Sam as she observes the shots. Letting out a hum of acknowledgement, she adjusts and hit it dead center. She hits the fourth target dead center as she took more careful aim this time. She let out a tsk as she missed her fifth target. "You were just a little off high to the right." Said father, not allowing herself to lose herself in frustration she let out a breath and adjust for the next shot. A dead center hit, she let out a cheer after pushing the safety back in place, Sam gave her a side hug joining in her excitement.

"A deadeye first time shooter at the age of 8. I'm so proud of you." Said father as he gave her a hug, not wanting to waste an opportunity, she asked. "Can I use your sniper rifle?" Father laughs at the suggestion and answered. "Maybe next time we go shooting again." Hanna smirks at that and said. "Let's continue shooting."

"Sure, let's do some short-range targets again." Sam couldn't help but also ask. "Can I try your pistol Mr. Frey?"