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Brent Tetherson woke to his alarm, sitting up abruptly in his bed and causing him to nearly drop his laptop on the floor. He managed to catch it before it fell, gritting his teeth at the close call before setting it back on his bed. He let out a breath and looked at the time on his clock. He felt groggy like he had only just gone to sleep - likely, he had. He'd been up late that night working on new schematics, and like most nights he probably hadn't been watching the time.

"And now I have to go to class," he thought aloud, "Hope the coffee is good this morning..."

Climbing out of bed, the hyena stretched and yawned before heading into his bathroom to take a shower. He scrubbed his hair and fur, brushed his teeth and got out again, where he dried himself off with a towel and put on his clothes. With that, he collected his books and laptop and packed them into his school bag before heading out the door.

Brent stopped at the café for his morning coffee, and then hurried to class; he was cutting it close to the start of class. He approached a door marked "Computer Sciences" and shouldered it open before finding a seat near the front of the class, where he preferred to be. He already had his laptop open and drank half of his coffee before their professor came out and marched to the podium.

"Good morning students," began the male canid. "Now, before we get started, I have a surprise for you all. We have a special guest here today - a true expert in the field of computer science. He will be taking over the first half of the class on my behalf, so treat him with the same respect and attention as you all treat me. Is that understood?" With that, he cleared his throat. "Allow me to welcome, Mr. Avogadro Lo'Raven!" He said, stepping off the podium and gesturing to someone out of sight.

Wait, what?! Brent thought, alarmed.

From the edge of the classroom, previously hidden spoke up as he walked into view, dressed in a smart white jacket over a red tee and blue denim trousers. He was young; the youngest in the room, and yet still the one taking center stage.

"Thank you, Professor Lupin. It is a great honour to be here at the prestigious University of Alberta, so thank you for inviting me here today, even though some of the students almost didn't make it," the young raven remarked, smiling at each student he could see in the hall before his gaze settled on Brent. "Computer Science is one of the most important subjects to learn today. Why? Take a look around you. Everything you see here is, or could be improved by computers."

"In fact, let's start with an exercise. Just so I get to know you better; I will pick out one of you, you say your name and what you are hoping to take from your studies with Professor Lupin, and what in this room is either already a computer and how it's been improved, or what can be improved with a computer?" He commented before taking a moment to scan the audience, before picking out a cat in the center of his vision, "Please, may you start?"

"Me? Uh, well... My name is Gerret. I took this class because I want to develop new anti-viral software. Something more dependable for holding back hackers, as so many of those store-bought ones out there, I feel care way more about profit than actual network security. My aim with this class is to fix that, especially with so many things being dependent on computers and more being added to that list every day, like self-driving cars; what's to stop a hacker from taking control of one if it doesn't have good security?"

"That's a very good point! And certainly not part of what I was going to discuss today and didn't ruin my surprise," Avory chuckles and smiles, "but whilst it's not in this room, indeed self-driving cars will have computers built into them; but even then that's forgetting that Satellite Navigation systems, Entertainment Systems, or even the system built into automatic gearboxes are all computers." He explained before turning to the next student, "And you, who might you be?"

"Err..." the bat froze as he was asked, "I'm... Bart... I... want to work for Feather," he paused, looking around the room before noticing the analogue clock on the wall behind Avory, "That could be a computer."

"The clock? Indeed, it already is a computer; a mechanical one though. Takes the input of what time you set it to, adds a second to it every second and outputs the time in a mechanical format. Of course, we could digitize it, but sometimes it's more elegant to keep things simple and mechanical; they have their own beauty."

"How about you?" Avory then points over to someone near the back in the shadows. "I can hardly see you back there."

"Who, me?" A student at the very back asked, standing up from his seat to be more visible. A female cat wearing a striped shirt. "Well, uh... My name is Kim, and for what I hope to get out of this class... Honestly, I haven't decided yet. But for computers, I would say laptops and those derived from them have been extremely useful inventions. Being able to take your work with you is both convenient and practical, and I think a lot of things could be improved by mobile devices."

"Very good, Kim," Avory smiled back before looking back around the audience, "No one has any particular ideas on things that can be improved upon? Whilst standing here, I can see a number of you slouching in your seats; so how about we design a chair that senses how you are sitting in it, and adjusts itself to support you and give you a better posture but changing the height, lumbar support, headrest and so on... That's a free one for you guys; done right you might just be able to pay off your university fees with that." He chuckles to himself before turning to the hyena, "And I think you can be our last one for this exercise..."

Brent swallowed nervously, having a hard time believing that it was the famous Avogadro Lo'Raven he was speaking to... That was speaking to him, asking him for his input. Brent was struggling to formulate words at that moment, but he managed at least to introduce himself.

"I-I'm Brent," he began, "I took this course, along with robotics, as part of my pursuit in the field of developing and creating autonomous robots for our use. I think in this classroom," he looked around, seeking an example, "I suppose... Sometimes, the acoustics here fail, and there are those at the back of the class who can't always see or hear the professor when he gives his lectures. I think a good improvement would be there, perhaps adding small screens on these desks which broadcast the professor's image and voice via Webcam, meaning he doesn't have to talk as loud, and that we can all see his face. I think that would boost classroom efficiency and how well students can learn from their teacher."

"That's a good idea" Avogadro started, "Alternatively, one large screen behind the teacher which is visible from the back, that tracks the teacher as they speak and write on the board. Then, speakers at the back, to relay what the teacher has to say from a lapel mic. A simple solution but an effective one; of course, the computer science aspect could come into designing the tracking software for the camera. Good work, Brent"

"Th-Thank you, sir," he replied, forgetting that Avory was younger than himself in the moment of praise.

"Right! I do apologize if I missed you. If you do have anything to ask or say, please hold up your hand and I will come to you as soon as possible; I would love to get to know you lovely young brilliant minds!" He cheered on, "But anyhow... You might be wondering what I'm doing here today? Well, I was invited along to discuss the thrilling topic which is the GDPR. Now, does anyone know what that is?"

There was silence about the room for a few moments.

"Anyone?" Avory asked again, "Put your hand up if you want to answer?"

There was no movement from the audience, so the young raven cleared his throat and began to explain, "The General Data Protection Regulation. Now, as of a couple of weeks ago, this was adopted by the European Union, and the United Kingdom, to protect people's personal data and will come into force within the next couple of years. Now, you might be asking, 'why does it affect me as I'm not from Europe?' well, it will affect you and how you handle customer data if your customers are from Europe or the UK, but also allows you to become less vulnerable to cyber attacks and more efficient in your practices."

The talk seemed to go on forever; it was incredibly detailed but perhaps more than it needed to be, becoming long and drawn out, but the Raven never seemed to stop smiling as he went on and on and on and on. Brent listened attentively for as long as possible, a mix of awe and fear still filling his mind as he started to consider why else Avogadro Lo'Raven was there; when the star worship gave way to reason, he started to wonder...

'Of all schools in the world, he comes to the one I'm attending... Does he know about the tech I've been making?' He thought to himself. Around this point, he started to lose focus on the conversation, and the minutes seemed to tick by much slower...

"Any more questions?" Avogadro then asked.

Brent clammed up, afraid to say anything and hoped someone else in the class spoke up instead. A few did voice questions, though he barely listened, fighting to keep acting normal when he wanted to be elsewhere.

"Ok then," Avory smiled more, "I think we did well for time; I was worried I would run over, and no, I don't like the sound of my own voice," he chuckled to himself, "But if you do have any questions, then you might see me around the campus for a little while longer, so don't be afraid to come up to me and ask." He gave a final thank you before stepping away from the podium and gesturing back to Professor Lupin.

"Thank you very much for your time, Mr. Lo'Raven," the professor said as he retool his spot at the podium, clearing his throat before addressing the class. "All right. We're down to half-time, so for the remainder of this class I'll have you all review yesterday's lesson for the upcoming test this Friday and we'll pick up where we left off tomorrow."

Later on, the end of class came, and Brent had some time before his second class of the day - Autonomous Robotics, that afternoon. He went to the café for a second cup of coffee and decided to wait in his dorm until the next class, needing some time to clear his head. Having the famous technical genius, Avogadro Lo'Raven, in his classroom had been equally awe-inspiring, and terrifying...

Brent hoped that Avogadro would not be staying long. He might faint if he saw him again... so he turned the key in his dormitory room and stepped inside to where he was safe and sound; where no eighteen-year-old billionaire tech geniuses can get him...

Or so he thought.

"Cappuccino today? Someone is splashing out and treating themselves - although, in Italy you're not really supposed to have it past the morning, but seeing as how late you got up I suppose you're not even halfway through the day yet." The raven spoke to him from the hyena's office chair, "Either way, all that caffeine in you probably makes you jittery, almost like a huge bundle of nerves, don't you think?"

Brent gawked and had to consciously resist the urge to drop his coffee as he stared in utter disbelief at the raven sitting in his chair, his mouth hanging agape as he tried to formulate the first words that came to his mind. "H-h-how did... How d-did you get in here?" He asked. "I locked the door!"

"Oh, come on, Brent Tetherson; you of all people know that security isn't about making something impregnable, only a means of deterring people who don't want to waste so much time on it," Avory stated, kicking himself back on the office chair away from the desk, resting his head back and gently making it spin on the spot.

"W-Why are you here?" Brent asked - even though, he was fairly sure, he knew the answer...

Avory stopped spinning when he was finally facing his elder again, "You're smart, so I am sure you know why I'm here. And if you're not, then I've seriously overestimated you." he comments leaning forward, "Why do you think I'm here?"

Brent stood there frozen for a moment, his heartbeat increasing even as he met the accusing amber eyes of the raven. He eventually broke the gaze, taking a sip of his coffee and fighting to find what courage he had, trying not to faint. Eventually, he found enough to let out a sigh, setting his coffee down on a table before sitting on his bed.

"I guess... It was only a matter of time," he said, "Someone as smart and connected as you are... No way you wouldn't notice your tech being used by someone else." He leaned back on his bed and eventually mustered enough courage to look at Avory again. "So... How did you find out?"

"Nuh-uh" Avory shook his head, "I'm the one asking the questions right now. What do you know exactly?"

Brent looked puzzled. "About what?"

"Who were you selling my tech to, and why." Avory narrowed his eyes.

"I wasn't selling _your_tech, per se," he said, "I sold a piece of software I derived _from_your tech, after repurposing it for the intended purpose... Okay, yeah, that's splitting hairs," he admitted. "But really, I only sold it to two guys," He looked pleading. "You have to understand, the student loans for the courses I'm taking; they're atrociously high. I'd never be able to pay them off in-"

Avory cut him off, "So intend to pay off your student loans in blood?" the raven remarked bluntly. "Selling it to a bounty hunter and some vigilante in a robot costume?" He never blinked or averted his gaze from the hyena, "Is that what you wanted?"

"Wait, robot costume?" Brent asked, looking surprised at the raven, "What are you talking about? The bounty hunter and his partner, yes, but I don't know anyone in a robot costume."

Avory leaned back and squinted incredulously, "You didn't sell it to the Lightnings too?"

"Like I could develop something like that!" Brent said, letting out a genuine laugh. "I'm still working on my prototype drone - if I could make software for a fully functional exo-suit, I'd be looking at way bigger fish than-"

"I'm not talking about the whole suit;" Avory interrupted him, "I'm talking about your operating system and hacking software, that backdoor into my tech you somehow cracked and sold on. How did you do it?"

"Well... That... It took me quite a while to crack that," said Brent, rubbing the back of his head before he went on to explain, "I was making a little bit of money unlocking people's phones and devices that they got themselves locked out of; Durian, Kommunikoida... you name it. However, whenever someone came to me with a Feather phone or other device. I couldn't for the life of me get inside and kept having to turn them away and send them to the nearest provider to do it - which, of course, would cost them more than I charged for it."

"But over the last few years, since I've started here at the University, so many people have your phones and laptops and kept coming to me for help - a victim of my own success I guess. so I decided to sit down and just figure it all out. I had to go look at what other people had done... Piece it all together... experiment... I was beginning to think it all fruitless and a waste of time until I found it, almost by accident as I was running out of ideas and just trying anything at that point.

"Once I got in I found there was so much you can do once you're into one device... That husky kept coming to me with different devices to unlock; I had an inkling that they weren't his, but he was paying good money for my services. He found out what I just achieved by cracking your devices- don't ask me how, I really don't know where he found out, but he was willing to pay me a fortune for it."

He leaned back on his bed as he continued. "On that project, I managed a breakthrough. I was able to repurpose the software and processor in one of the phones he left me to create the wrist terminal I built for him, and..." He looked absently at his closet, "Use it to make something else. A prototype drone."

Avory was listening carefully to everything being said, arching a brow at the sheer volume of information the hyena was letting spill forth after a single drip. "So you put my code into your drone? Why? To go hack even more stuff?" Avory continued to look at him incredulously.

"Wha- no! I'm not out to hack the planet!" Brent returned defensively, "I needed a processor capable of handling my drone's onboard computer, and until I cracked the code for Feather Tech, I couldn't find one, and every attempt to develop one myself failed. I tried repurposing other devices; Durian's overpriced tech was too shoddy and crashed over and over, and Kommunikoida was just not up to the task - sturdy phones, but cheap software."

"But your phones have processing power as good as some laptop computers. Plus, they come standard with that voice-activated helper AI. With the programming those AIs use, I was finally able to develop a working prototype - all I needed to do was-" He trailed off and looked over at his closet again. "If... I could show you?"

Avogadro sat in silence for a moment, considering the hyena, before he cocked his head at the closet. Brent stood up, and walked over to the closet, pulling it open before lifting out a large drone, similar in design to typical recreational drones that could be bought in stores, with four rotors attached to its main body. The drone was a little larger than the more common, commercial drones, and had a crude design, with several internal parts still uncovered.

"I have been working on this for years," he explained, going back to sit on his bed. "But until now - until I started using repurposed Feather technology... I could never make the onboard computer work, and even then development for it was expensive... On top of my student loans I just couldn't do it. But when that husky came to me, giving me phones to decrypt, and later commissioning me to make some tech for him and his partner... I took it." He held up the drone, gently, as if he were holding a child. "All to perfect my design for this."

By his tone, it was clear to see that what Brent held was important to him. Avory's expression slowly changed, becoming a little more understanding regarding the matter, even if he still did not agree with means. "So this... 'prototype'. What were you going to do with it? Sell it?" he commented as he looked over the device in the hyena's lap.

"Yes. I was trying to develop a new kind of reconnaissance drone, smaller than the military-grade Predator drone, but smaller and able to move completely silently - still working on that second part. It would be able to do reconnaissance in much more confined spaces and at a lower altitude, giving a clear picture of what it saw," he turned the drone prototype over in his hands. "On top of that, it was to operate completely autonomously, not remote controlled, and that was the first hurdle."

"You've bundled a lot of unfinished features into a single prototype; it sounds like you need to just work on them one at a time first, whether they are all part of the same device or separate devices as proof of concept." Avory advised, "You should have multiple prototypes, each one using the features you want to incorporate until you achieve what you are trying to do."

"Good advice, but it's cost me a small fortune just making this one," he said, looking at Avory. "Building other models to test the other features just isn't possible. Everything I've managed, I've done with this guy here," he held up the drone again, "This is all I got. No matter how much money I earn unlocking phones, most of it goes to the student loan and living expenses; I can barely put any aside for this as it is, let alone a second prototype."

"Ok," Avory said as he then looked away from Brent and his drone for a little while, contemplating before turning back to him, "How about this..." be began, "you're smart; I've seen your work both here and in your files when you were out. You've got a lot of potential, and you remind me of myself when I was... Actually, I'm not even your age. What's it, like four or five years between us?"

"I'm twenty-three," Brent clarified.

"Either way, what I'm trying to say is... Perhaps I could sponsor you, or give you some sort of apprenticeship so you can work on your project, but some contractual obligation to the Raven Group. But you are not to, under any circumstances, work with that bounty hunter again and I entrust that you are making sure that when you help people unlock their devices that they are indeed the actual owners." Avory gave a short, intimidating glare at Brent.

"W-Wait... Apprenticeship?" He asked, stunned. "You would hire me, despite what I did? You're not going to sue me?"

"Believe you me, I was this close to forgoing this whole meeting and just going straight to mailing you a cease-and-desist," Avory said holding his finger and thumb together before him, "You're a smart fellow. There's no point wasting talent - it just seems you need to be pointed in the right direction."

"I... I don't know what to say..." Brent said in almost a whisper.

"I don't know if you've noticed already, but I already wrote and deployed new firmware and security definitions last week to our supported devices. So you, that bounty hunter and the Lightnings can no longer hack any more Feather Tech devices for the time being; and I will know about it whenever you do."

"I hadn't noticed yet, no; I don't use a Feather phone myself," he said, reaching into his pocket and lifting out a Kommunikoida phone. "Nobody has brought me a phone to open in a while either. But, agreed - I won't attempt to hack the devices or repurpose their technology, beyond just opening them for people who get locked out. I still could use the income until I graduate."

"Good," Avory commented standing up from the chair and standing in front of Brent with a hand outstretched, "So we have an agreement in principle. I will get something drawn up and mailed over to you to make it official within the coming days."

"Yes sir! Thank you," Brent replied, excitedly, rising to his feet and grasping Avory's hand to shake it. "For what it's worth, it's been an honour meeting you."

"Good to hear." Avory smiled, sharing the hyena's hand in return before pulling it away. "Well it's been emotional, but I need to get going as I have a date tonight," the raven stated as started making his way to the door, only stopping to look back at Brent as he touched the door handle.

"Which reminds me... One, if you don't want people to go looking through your stuff, don't label it 'Do not open' - that only makes them curious. And two. Although it's rather... impressive I must admit, no one is going to appreciate you showing them those pictures." he remarked before giving the hyena a wave and departing, "Au revoir."

Brent sputtered, going red in the face as Avory all but fled out the door. When he collected himself he put his drone prototype on the bed and ran over to the door, intent on shouting after Avory demanding how much of his laptop's drive he had invaded, but by the time he stuck his head out into the hallway the raven was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh God, I knew I should have deleted those pictures..." Brent said, blushing profusely as he shut his door and fell back against it, "Why did I even take them?!"

As he spent the next few minutes collecting himself, taking a few deep breaths, he suddenly realized what this meant for his ongoing work relationships. "Well... Suppose I have to tell that husky I can't work with him anymore," he said. "But... Oh shit, what if he decides to kill me?" As if he needed anything else to keep him up at night...