[center][b][u]This post contains Pheonix, then Executioner/Seeder, then Officer Collins at the very end[/u][/b][/center]

[center][b]Pheonix[/b][/center]

He couldn't get [i]her[/i] out of his head, for more than one reason. As Michael Regel stumbled through an alleyway, maddenly gripping a hastily-extracted hard drive that he had no interest before meeting her, he couldn't stop thinking. This woman who had completely and utterly broken his composure, who had broken [i]him[/i]; Pheonix; firebender; bad ass; gangster. And yet, they had tried to kill one another. 

Suddenly his legs gave out from underneath him and he collapsed in another alleyway, watching as a few people passed by. The man crawled to sit against an old brick wall, clutching the hard drive against his chest like he had clutched that insane woman, [i]What the fuck is wrong with me. I let that crazy bitch inside my head! That shit doesn't happen to me![/i] He growled and half-considered throwing the piece of hardware across the alley before quickly deciding to keep it. Right now, it was his only possible link to her. He could ask around the gangsters and the ghettos that she might've frequented, yes, but she had wanted this hard drive. She wanted what was on it, and [i]he[/i] had it. Perhaps he could bring her to him...

Mikey couldn't shut down his mind. Thoughts raced through it, focused on trying to figure out who the hell this stone cold bad ass of a woman was. He relaxed long enough to gaze down the street and spot a computer repair shop, [i]Yes! They can get the data off this![/i] A light bulb went off in his head, causing him to quickly dig out the flash drive he'd completely forgotten about, and examine it, [i]I think these still work... At least when dry, right? Right? I'm so fucked if it doesn't work now...[/i] He had to get the meeting with the Architect. They wanted their prize. Mikey wanted his money. Yet it didn't seem quite so high priority anymore to him as he forced himself to his feet, stumbling towards the repair shop, onlookers casually assuming he was just a crazy ass hobo.

Pheonix burst through the doors of the repair shop, falling onto the floor before regaining his footing and approaching the counter. A middle-aged man looked at him in disbelief, "Are you alright, sir? Can I help you?" Mikey practically slammed down the hard and flash drives onto the counter, "I want you to tell me what's on these, and to put all the data on a separate thing. The flash drive got a little wet too."

The technician took a look at them, "Well, the flash drive is fine, and I probably hook up the hard drive to one of our systems here. The cost-" He was interrupted with a beam of plasma in his face and Pheonix growling, "The price is your life, or the price is free. Understand?" The man's face went even paler than it already was, "Yes, yes, of course. I'll get right on it. It'll take a few minutes. Just hold on. Please, I have a family!" The technician got to work quickly, leaving Pheonix to watch.

Mikey took a few deep breaths, trying to regain some of his balance and energy. His mind went back to that strange moment again, he had her cornered. He'd [i]won[/i]. But then she went and completely changed her fucking attitude. She took him completely off guard. She didn't take him off guard, she [i]ripped[/i] his guard away with her sulty embrace. Rage flooded through his veins as Pheonix felt his energy return. He ripped one of the monitors off the counter and threw it through the window of the store, causing the technician to jump. The man quickly returned to work as Pheonix sank down against the counter.

A few frightened onlookers quickly rushed by the broken glass, no doubt calling the police soon, but Mikey didn't care. The cops wouldn't respond before he got his information, and he'd just put them down if he ultimately had to. The thought made him grimace. She had been afraid of him because of what he'd done. Afraid that he'd kill her just he killed others. Pheonix looked at his gloved hand, balling it into a fist, [i]Maybe Finn was right...[/i] He could see shards on glass embedded in his legs, but the pain didn't register. As if it were a common day-to-day thing, he pulled a shard out and examined it before tossing it into the street.

It was then he noticed he'd been trailing blood the entire time he'd been in the shop, and probably before then. Mikey reached down to touch a small drop next to him, bringing his finger up to his face to look closely at it, [i]Damn... There's too much to hide... Cops are gonna get it... Test it... Point to me... Fuck...[/i] "FUCK!" he roared. [i]She[/i] had fucked him over. [i]She[/i] had done this. She had gotten under his skin, made him feel like there was something between them when he looked in her eyes. He saw fear, yes, and other things, but he could've sworn there was more. His heart had wanted him to pull her facemask off and kiss her then and there, even with the damn water. And yet he here sat, fuming because of her.

"Uh, sir? I got your data..." Pheonix clumsily got to his feet and leaned over the counter, his anger still evident in his eyes, "Tell me what it is."

"Well... I'm not entirely sure. The flash drive, it's got a bunch of times listed on it, military times, called 'Phase One,' other than that, there's a 'Phase Two,' but it's passworded. You'd need the password or something who knew how to hack really, really well to get in that one," replied the technician. Pheonix nodded his approval to continue, so the man did, "And the hard drive, well, it's got a shit ton of info on it. Stuff about guards and their contact info, employment contracts, something about the Tower and 'Beacon Research and Development,' something about a masquerade carnival... There's something else here too, an address, with a name next to it. The Executioner."

Michael's eyes widened at that one. An address for The Executioner? Wisp had said he'd killed her father, though he honestly didn't believe that. She clearly had the capacity to manipulate him and other people, "Good. Transfer the data onto another flash drive or something." The man nodded, leaving Pheonix to once more gaze outside. He felt conflicted about everything. About this job, his brother, his goals, and most of all, this damn woman.

"Here you go, sir. Please don't come back." The family man placed two flash drives, one with much more memory than the other, and the hard drive on the counter. Mikey scooped up them and hid them away in his clothing, "I know you're gonna talk when the police show up. It doesn't matter to me." With that, he half-walked, half-stumbled out of the computer store, his mind still unable to calm down, [i]I'm going to find you, Wisp, one way, or another...[/i]

[center][b]The Executioner and s33d#r[/b][/center]

A soft, purple glow of a computer screen provided the only illumination to the room, black as pitch in the dead of night. The sound of steel rending flesh could be heard loudly booming from the computer speakers, almost drowned out by the hum of a CPU. The tiny room was filthy, almost uninhabitable by most people's standards. Pizza boxes piled high, empty two liters of Vault, more Monster cans than there was floor, and it all stank of sweat and gas station take-away. A pale, bearded red-head sat in front of the monitor, his eyes transfixed on the virtual avatars before him, fingers dancing across the keys on the metal desk before him.

[i]"So what's so bad about Loche Security?"[/i] came a female voice from the headset perched upon his shaggy mane. "They like to hire people with criminal backgrounds. Not as in they accept applications from ex-cons, but it looks like they actually prefer to take on employees with checkered pasts. Definitely not a good sign if six of them were transporting something in that car. Whatever it is, it's probably not legal." A sci-fi tune chimed in from the screen casting the pale man's face in an multicolored hue. [b]Incoming Call: Victor Newman.[/b] 

"Hang on, Wisp, I've gotta take this," he transitioned. Signing out of the chat in his MMO and running a bot, the ginger hovered his mouse over the call for a moment. Specifically over the large X in the corner. It stayed there for a second or two before he clicked once. [b]Accept Call.[/b] Whoever it was, they better be good.

"Hello?"

A nervous man answered s33D#r, "Uh... Is this that hacker guy Jimmy told me about?" His voice cracked for a moment as another, much louder voice barked, "Well?!" 

Seeder wasn't quite used to calls this time of night. Or at all. The vast majority of his friends were online, and why the hell would you need to call someone online? Chat and video were already right at your fingertips. Only people that called this time of night were telemarketers that hated their job or collections agencies. Seeds wasn't about to give up the ghost so easy, though. The 'Jimmy' this guy was talking about must have been Jim Calhun, a script kiddie going by the handle 'Phallangst'. Good League of Legends player, shitty sense of humor. [i]Loved[/i] to share IRL information. Dumbass. So he decided to act sly and smooth...

"Maybe. Who's asking?" he attempted to state smoothly. Although it came out more stale than week old saltines.

The reply was quick, "Uh, it's, uh... What's your name again?" A growl was heard and then a high-pitched squeal as the phone was ripped away from the nerd. Almost immediately, a deep voice roared, "Don't. Fuck. With. Me! Are you or are you not a hacker?!" Seeds knew right away who the guttural growls belonged to. Of course, he'd just spent all day listening to them... something he'd wish that Wisp would've at least done once. The Executioner. Although he was at least four states away and behind enough proxies and firewalls to make the FBI's federal databases look like Melrose Park up against Guantanomo Bay, the dork's blood started pumping. He nearly sprang out of his desk chair. So this was what Wisp did on a daily?

...That was pretty [i]bitchin'![/i] Just the reason he wanted to help. She did it for the good and the glory, and he helped out anyway he could for a slice of the action, to be a part of that super team that actually made a difference. Like S.H.I.E.L.D.!

"Alright, alright! Just chill out, man. I'm a hacker. Unless this is the cops, in which case I'm an IT specialist. What's the problem?" Initially, his voice was a little jumpy, but he quickly picked up confidence. "Listen up you sexless geek, I've got something I need you to look at, understand?! And I need it done now, and done quietly. I've got this flash drive that has some kind of password on it, and I want to know what's behind it." The Executioner motioned for Fat Bastard to get ready, assuming the hacker would ask for a copy.

Enter GeekSquad mode. Walking tank must not be good with computers if he's asking someone else for help just grabbing something from a flash drive. So many people like that, he mused. Does getting superpowers make you technologically retarded, like One Piece withsidering the fruit and swimming? Or was it that dumber people were more susceptible to turning into X-Men? Either way, he began to walk through the steps with the mammoth gun on legs.

"Okay, so I'm going to need your IP address, host name, DNS, and gateway. If you don't know what any of those means, just ask one of the guys around you cowering in fear." The one thing he and Wisp had in common, a smartass sense of humor.

"What in the he- Fat ass, you listen to him and do what he says, understand?" Seeds heard some shuffling as the fat man took the phone, "Ok, he has it on speaker phone for some reason, so I heard everything. I'll tell you what you need..." The neckbeard repeated what the hacker needed, awaiting his fellow's reply. Seeder arched his back and cracked his fingers, like a conductor before his symphony of electronics and data. Time to get to work.

"Okay, hold on. This'll take a few minutes, but it'll be obvious when I'm in. I'm going to break into this guy's computer, alright?" With all the information given to him, finding the comic book geek was a snap. He already had everything he needed, something that took hours of work on its own. Once he probed out the machine in question, he began running scripts. Cane and Able began to cycle through his rainbow table of password cracks, and the laptop's screen could be seen failing multiple log-ins.
"I'm right at the edge, see? You should be seeing the screen cycling through the admin account right now..." he explained. What a breeze. Seeds happened to do this for fun on the weekend, nothing do this for fun on the weekend, nothing new. It took about another seven minutes after that, but he was in. SSH enabled, admin password disabled. While he began working, Seeder pulled up a static screen, a custom little number he had a friend on a forum design for him. It was yellow and black construction lines with an exclamation mark sign, stating "WARNING: YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS".

"So I'm in. Just give me more time to work my magiiiiic..." Seeds trailed off.

The Executioner ripped the phone from the fat bastard's grasp and brought his desert eagle next to the speaker, firing into the wall, "Son, if you don't stop fucking around, I will hunt you down and the last sound you hear will be what you just heard, only in person. If you don't think I can find you, try me." The hulk returned the phone to the fat man, the speaker mode still on. Seeds winced at the gunshot, nearly having a heart attack at the ring of firing pin on bullet. Oh shit, did he just kill someone...? He didn't hear anyone freaking the hell out, so he could only hope not, but he decided to voice his weak argument anyway.

"Shit! Alright just... just don't kill anyone, okay? Ask anyone here, hacking isn't like the movies. It's not pressing a couple buttons, it takes a lot of time, and a lot of skill. Just... just be patient, okay?" His tone was desperate, yet calm. Maybe he happened to share Wisp's nerves of steel as well. Well, hers was more of a borderline death wish adrenaline addiction, but whatever. As he had promised, Seeder began working through the mechanics. It was a PKI system, requiring the other key. Nearly impossible to crack, especially because both keys were private instead of a private and a public. It became increasingly obvious that this wouldn't end well, but try as he might this could be beneficial. The techie began downloading the contents of the flash drive, as well as a snapshot of the system for good measure. And as he worked, he set up a rootkit/logic bomb combo in the kernel to hide his tracks. Once the comic geek tried to restart his computer, it would begin to format the drive halfway through the POST sequence. No tracks, no way to be found. But it would take more time. And he didn't think the Executioner's patience was that long.

"Listen, I'm in the middle of downloading the information. It'll work faster on my computer if I'm not running it over the network because I'm not transmitting data back and forth. To give you an example, it's like how you can open up a car to 110 on a rural road in the middle of nowhere no problem, but can't in New York City traffic. But it'll take more time. Promise me you won't kill anyone, alright?"

"I can't promise a damn thing, son." The Executioner looked out at the streets, watching a few people watch past. In the back of his mind, he wondered why the police hadn't arrived. Wouldn't [i]someone[/i] have called the police by now? "Look, I need to know what's behind that passcode. If you can get me info on the locations stored in there, I want that too. I want to find out what the fuck this all means, if any of it is illegal, and if so, whose ass I need to kill." He looked out again, the hairs on the back of his neck raising. Malcolm didn't like this. He'd been in one spot too long.

"Just... another... minute... Okay, I have it," the hacker announced. He began to pour through the information given, readying one last surprise as a parting gift. "There's two organizations here: The Tower, and Carver Industries. I'll have to do some research on the Tower, but Carver Industries is owned by Eudora Carver. They just had a press release demo concerning a robotic home security system this morning. They're well known for donating to charities and the cities infrastructure. I [i]think[/i] they dabble in the medicinal field as well, kind of an umbrella corporation, and I'm seeing research labs and other stuff like that in different locations over the city. I don't know if it's illegal, but it might be worth a look. Do you have a phone or a way I can contact you? You're not going to like this, but... I'm not going to be able to crack the flash drive anytime soon. Now hold on, b-before you blow anyone's head off, I can upload maps, coordinates, street addresses, all that stuff into a phone or laptop, and I can contact you later with what I find." It was a desperate move, but hopefully it would work. As he spoke, Seeder began to apply his script to the flash drive...

"Uh huh... Carver Industries... Robots and city infrastructure... What do these guys not have their hands in I wonder..." Malcolm drifted off for a moment, considering the possibility this corporation could be tracking everyone's movements in the city using cameras installed ostensibly to assist the police or catch speeders. Good thing he moved through the sewers. Seeds heard a bit of struggle on the other end of the line, followed with the Executioner saying, "I have a phone now, and I have your address you fat bastard. You better keep paying this damn bill and if the cops follow the signal, I will find you." Malcolm took the flash drive out of the man's laptop and walked out of the comic book store, repeating his new phone number to Seeds, "You better contact me with this shit. In the meantime, I think I'm going to raid a lab or something..."

[center][b]Officer Collins[/b][/center]

"So you're telling me he was a [i]ninja[/i]?" inquired Officer Collins. She was now on duty and in her police uniform as she took the shop technician's testimony, "Yes, mam. He was really interested in this flash drive and a hard drive... Something about Loche Security, the Tower, Carver Industries. A masquerade ball or something. And an address, for some Executioner guy." Collins's eye's widened, "You're fucking with me." The man shook his head, "I saved a copy of all the info while he wasn't looking." The technician fumbled through something under the counter, pulling out yet another flash drive. He handed it over to Elizabeth, "Mr. Wainwright... You may have just saved the police and I a huge amount of work... I'll see if we can reward you somehow. Maybe get you into the identity protection system or something..."

She strolled out of the repair shop, staring at the trail of blood that led into the darkness. Elizabeth had a team of officers following it to its source. They'd doubtless get a rough idea of what had occurred, but this flash drive, it was far more interesting. The officer looked at it closely before placing it in her pocket. Officer Daniels walked up to her on the sidewalk, "Mam, we got some news from the forensics guys. They found blood on those shards you picked up, as well as blood on a separate shard, near the entrance of the book. They think the two aren't connected."

"Fantastic," Officer Collins was beaming with happiness. Finally, some god damn leads. She could start hunting these bastards for real. Elizabeth was closing in on these fuckers at last. Especially that son of a bitch who murdered her colleagues...