The Two Sided Coin: Log 8: Sneaky sneaky sneaking

[x-invisiblegirl.livejournal.com]

Sue and Julian pay a certain thief a midnight visit for a little chat.

The blonde squatted down in front of the door, her hands pushing up her mask so that she could take a better look at the doorframe. "This doesn't look too tough," she commented idly drawing a pattern in the air as she traced the security system on the roof door. "You'd think they'd invest in something that would take more than a paperclip and a bit of gum to hack." she noted to Julian.

Her masked partner (wearing the most ridiculous, skin tight, and disturbingly well-fitting suit that Sue had just happened to have on hand- he'd asked if she'd had it tailored to him) waited, as patiently as he could given how exposed they were in the hallway. His senses were in overdrive, the lines of force leading away from, and around him as he felt the people puttering around their apartments behind closed doors. Sue's words brought him back to the present, "Hmm?"

"Apartments in New York," Sue explained, "Way too many landlords just go for the cheapest possible security system. More for the look of it that actually keeping anyone out." She told him as she stepped back and pulled out a pair of lock picks. "Why would they bother with an advanced security system for each apartment when they're gonna stop a burglar breaking in from the outside. Or at least that's their plan."

"To be fair," he spoke softly, but did not whisper- whispering was more likely to get you caught in situations like this since the sound actually traveled better than a low voice. "There's not a lot of likelihood that the land-lord thought that his tenants would need to defend themselves against gifted home invaders." He motioned up and down the hallway, "Most of these people probably don't have much worth stealing...well, not much to you and I anyway." Watching Sue work her magic with the lock-picks, Julian started to feel out the apartment on the other-side of the door, looking for anything they'd missed in the building's plans.

"It's always those things you think will never happen that get you," Sue agreed sagely as the door sprang open under her experienced hands, "all those years of a misspent youth coming in useful." the blonde gestured Julian to precede her into the room, "Welcome to Casa de Hacker."

With the door now open, Julian felt more comfortable extending his reach throughout the visible apartment, disabling three- what he thought could be- cameras before Sue walked inside. He followed closely, shutting the door behind himself with his telekinesis. "So what should we be looking for?"

Sue turned slowly through the apartment, "Anything that looks interesting, someone like this is bound to have something to work on in their apartment, plans, a list of jobs they've done hidden in a safe place. Just in case a client tries to blackmail you you always keep a record somewhere no-one will ever see. Only I'll bet you he never planned to deal with an angry telekinetic."

Julian huffed a laugh as he moved into the kitchen, looking over dirty dishes in the sink. He opened the fridge using his TeeKay and peered inside, the light blinding him for a moment. The scant offerings included a half-finished six-pack, and leftovers from what appeared to be a Chinese place. "I'm thinking this wasn't the hacker's permanent home...seems too sparse...though, maybe that's just hackers?"

"On behalf of hackers everywhere I feel like I should take offense at that...but yeah this is pretty much what most hacker's places look like. And you don't even want to think about what our clubs look like either. Makes this look tame...although, I expected I dunno something more criminal like. His places looks so ordinary."

"Your place doesn't look like this," Julian returned, moving toward an adjacent hallway. There were three doors toward the end of the hallway. One was open to reveal a linen closet, which sported shelves of spare computer parts. Extending a light telekinetic pulse beneath the other two doors, he discovered a bathroom and a bedroom...the later of which had someone standing a bit back from the door. "Ah," he motioned to Sue to come closer and spoke softly, "door on the left, standing a bit back from the entrance...could be armed."

"Looks like we found our host," Sue whispered as she gave Julian a mischievous grin, "What do you say we go say hello to him?" As she spoke Sue pulled her hood over her head, activating the glow from her goggles to obscure her eyes and add to the look before she faded out of sight reached for the door.

Julian gave the doorknob a push, blowing the assembly apart and swinging the door inward. A cry of surprise came from just out of sight, as did the tell-tale sound of a muffled gun-shot, lucky for them he was using a suppressor. After a moment of silence, Julian started to speak, Sue would need time to get into position. "I'd say I'm just here to talk, but...in all honesty, I'm not against kicking your scrawny, mouse-pad-flat ass. If you want that, keep your gun...if not, kick it into the hallway and get on the damn floor."

"Didn't think so!" He simply took aim and let of another gunshot. "You wuss!"

"Now," the gun was plucked out of his hand and floating in the air it slowly turned around to face him as Sue dropped her invisibility, "That wasn't very nice was it. I think you might have hurt my friend's feelings, and that doesn't make me very happy. And that means you're having a bad bad day."

Hearing Sue's voice, Julian rounded the corner with his glowing green eyes visible beneath his hood. "Very bad," a focused telekinetic push went out, picking the hacker up and slamming him against the wall and holding him there.

"You are muties." He furiously wiggled against the wall as far as Julian's grip would allow him. "What do you want?"

"Incorrect," Sue stepped closer to the pinned hacker, fading out and then back into sight, "I'm The Ghost, perhaps you've heard of me. I go where I want and no-body sees me unless I want them too. And you, I very much want to...for now." she peered at him, the red light eyes staring at him from the darkness under her hood. "You've been busy, busy enough to get my attention, and that's not something you want focused on you for too long."

As Sue talked to the villain, Julian wandered about the messy room. Half of his mind was focused on keeping the jerkwad pinned against his own wall, so he nearly missed the floor safe beneath several unwashed shirts. "Oh ho..." he said to himself, as he brushed away the detritus and glanced back at their target to see his reaction to the discovery.

He very firm looked away, digging out his best poker face. "You'll never find what you are looking for! You dirty, f*cking muties."

Sue's eyes followed Julian before she cocked her head to one side and shook it at the hacker, "Oh no, I think we will. Even if we have to drag it out of your broken mind. We can do that you know, and nothing you're saying makes me feel like sparing you that excruciating pain."

Julian cleared away the filth over the safe and knelt down over it, sending a soft telekinetic pulse into the lock, feeling the tumblers and intricate mechanisms that prevented them from seeing whatever was inside, "What's in the safe?" He sent another pulse through the cracks in the floorboards, causing them to creak ever so slightly, feeling the outside boundaries of the metal cask.

"None of your business."

"Actually, I think you'll find we just made it our business, you better than anyone knows how it goes. If we have the skill, or as in the case the power, there really isn't anything that isn't our business or that we can't do. That's how you live your life isn't it?" Sue asked conversationally as she perched on a table next to the immobilized thief and nodded Julian towards the safe, "I don't know about you, but I find the whole power to do whatever you want to anyone thing a little refreshing, I always have."

Julian continued to focus on the safe, trying to ignore the seriously upsetting thing that his friend was saying. Finally convinced that he'd found the limits of the safe, he gave it a firm tug and pulled it out of the floor in its entirety- it floated onto the bed and strained the box-spring. "We'll be taking that with us."

"You can't do that. You can't!!!!" The man started to struggle fiercely, as much as his restraints allowed him.

"We...can't?" Julian looked to Sue, then back to the computer, "I'd say we should take this too, but you're the expert here, Ghost."

Sue tilted her head to the side and examined the hapless thief, "You know, I really think that we can. Although if you're that attached to your safe we can always leave it for you. After we take a gander at what's inside it that is," hopping off the desk she made her way over to the safe, "you know how this goes I'm sure she commented as she knelt in front of it her hand tapping at the lock to test it. "What do you think, should we let him keep it?"

"I didn't want to force it, might be booby-trapped," Julian tried his best not to grin at having just said 'booby' in such a serious situation. Her 'side-kick' moved back over to the hacker, reinforcing the field pinning him against the wall. "Do your thing, Ghost."

Sue nodded and slipped off the desk she'd been perched on, making her way over to the safe, she looked back at the helpless hacker, covering one of her 'eyes' with a forcefield to make it look as if she had just winked at him she turned her attention to the safe. It was a solid and sturdy little unit, more than enough to keep our treasures safe from a casual passerby, but in the hands of an experienced thief...the blonde span the wheel and pulled down the handle. "Voila, now lets see what we have here.

"You can't... that is mine!!! Mine and mine alone!!!"

Unseen by the hack-hacker, Julian raised an eyebrow and looked to Sue to see if he was actually hearing the guy correctly. With a shrug, he moved to the bed, where Sue was already busy unpacking the contents of the safe. Spying a Keller Industries letter-head, he laughed, "This was never yours. Funny how it ended up in your place though." He turned back to their captive, "So how did classified Keller Industries secrets come to be in a safe in your shitty little apartment?"

"That's a very good question," Sue agreed, "That's very suspicious, I'm sure the police would be interested in that, ooh or these." She pulled a sheaf of paper laying out a series of photos one at a time on the desktop, "Photo's too, you're too kind." She gave the pinned man an almost sympathetic look, "Good idea, there but it's a two edged sword. I wonder what hte police would make of these, or even your old employers. No-one would be happy finding out that someone had been collecting blackmail material on them. And you've got quite a collection, politicians even a CEO or two, not the people you want to have coming after your blood."

"And how'd you want to explain getting your hands on those? You haven't any proof!!!! And if you do, I'll betray you dirty muties. I'll tell them all about you." He spit out.

"Oh yes, tell them all about the two mutants who broke into your house and stole the blackmail material you'd been hoarding, I'm sure they'd love to hear that story as they bury you up to your neck in Driver ants and watch them eat you alive." Sue noted, "You think anyone is going to care about us when they find out what you've been upto? They have much bigger and more enjoyable fish to fry than chasing down two mutants who you can't even identify. Face it, this is the end of the line for you."

It was time for the good-cop to enter, "Let's not be hasty, um, Ghost." Julian set down the papers he'd been reading- copies of Hope's schedule and an activity log of her day-to-day comings and goings. Physically positioning himself between Sue and their prey, he held up a hand to her, "Before you go and turn him over to someone like Keller, let's see if he'll be reasonable."

The masked blonde shook her head despairingly, "Too nice," she commented, "He wasn't even smart enough to keep his stash somewhere safe." she objected, "You really think we can use him it's your funeral. All he's good for is a little entertainment as we watch him try to run from what's coming." Sue stalked off to lean against a wall, leaving Julian the opportunity to deal with what was hopefully a terrified hacker.

Rolling his eyes under his hood, Julian turned to face the hacker, pushing him against the wall a little harder to add to his discomfort. "Okay, she's riled up. Look...I don't think you're a bad guy- from what Ghost said, you're pretty damn good. So here's what I'm proposing. You turn on your employer, go to the cops, and tell them what you did. In exchange, we don't turn you over to Keller and everyone else you've pissed off with deep, deeeep pockets- and a moral flexibility that makes it very, and I mean very easy to make someone insignificant, like you, disappear." He paused, looking through the cleverly hidden mesh of the hood to see if he could read the crook's expression- his captive's pulse was beating against the fields holding him in place, and it had steadied some. "Your choice, but...don't wait too long."

Julian turned to leave the room then stopped, "Oh, and if you think about running..." the safe slammed shut and floated after him, with the computer a few moments later. "You may not have noticed, but my partner put some sort of tracking device inside you when she was invisible...you may have not even felt it." Heading out the room, he shouted back, "Make the right choice!" The door slammed shut, the hacker was released from his hold and tumbled to the floor.

The ground came up very quickly and he rolled, muttering for about the mutants. A table leg suddenly appeared before him and he hit his head, engulfing him in blackness.

Sue reappeared from behind her force-field, looking dispassionately down at the unconscious hacker shaking her head before following Julian out. She wasn't sure this would work, but it was better idea than anything else they could do. And if he didn't come forward they now had enough information to burn the hacker so he wouldn't be bothering anyone else again.