[b][u]X-RAY[/u][/b]

“What do we want?” 
[i]“End to vigilantism!”[/i]
“When do we want it?”
[i]“Now!!!”[/i]
“Companies like I-Tech think they can use CCTV to invade our privacy, super-vigilantes think because they have powers it gives them the right to police us. They're unaccountable and we didn't elect any of them!!!”
[i]“No!!!”[/i]

Dean added his now hoarse voice to the crowd's chanting responses. The downpour of rain had matted his unruly mop of hair down to his forehead and drenched his tattered hoodie through to the skin but none of that registered to the post-graduate student. He gripped his wooden sign ever tighter, shouting along with the protestors and focused on the words delivered through the megaphone...or rather on the girl that was delivering them. The I-Tech HQ buildings loomed above them, a name synonymous with dystopian surveillance and rumoured meta-research.    

An hour later he and Ellie were sat shivering in a small coffee shop attempting to warm up over a pair of hot-chocolates.

“I thought it went well.” Dean exclaimed, trying to lead off with a positive, his smile admittedly feeling a little forced. This had been their lowest attended protest to date, it felt more and more like the corporation and the capes were winning. 

“Bloody weather.” Ellie muttered between sips. Like a lot of bombastic people Dean found Ellie to flip between either hyper enthusiasm or extreme pessimism at the drop of a hat. “We need to do something more than just...protest all the time.” Her frustration was taken out on the fortunately quite durable mug. “I-Tech don't care, everytime the capes beat up some space-squid people think it's acceptable for them to police us.”

“We've started the petition?” Dean offered, setting down his cup. “We can send that straight to the government, they'll have to at least look at it. People are behind us.” He'd joined the New-Word human rights group [i]before[/i] he'd met Ellie, though admittedly she had become a big incentive for his dedication to the group. It seemed like a better use of his gap-year than just travelling the world and getting hammered, plus he felt it was really time he put his liberal beliefs into practise.

“Sod the petition.” Ellie spat dejectedly followed by a pout. Dean gave a sigh of resignation and slumped back into his seat.

“Alright then, what do you think we should do?” He asked. Ellie paused for a moment considering something, hesitation was not very characteristic of her. Suddenly she looked up at him, brown eyes shining, then turned to rummage through her bag. [i]Uh-oh,[/i] Dean felt he had a sixth sense for when a girl was about to get him into trouble, though lacked the ability to avoid it. This 'date' had an ulterior motive.

“Radiology right?” Ellie asked while flicking through a folder of papers she'd produced from her rucksack.

“Huh?”

“The doctorate your doing, it's in radiology?” 

“Yeeeaahh.” Dean answered hesitantly. “It's imaging technology we use it for medical-”

“They're up to something new.” Ellie cut him off. “I don't know what, we're [i]blind[/i] when it comes to inside information. But they've been hiring left and right, whole loads of people across different fields and one such position...” She slid a printed sheet of paper across the small table to him. 

“Intern in radiology, for work with ultrasound and x-ray technologies.” Dean read the title of the job advert aloud. 

“If we have someone on the [i]inside[/i] then we can really hit them, do an expose to the press, show people what they're up too,building mass CCTV networks, funding super-vigilantes.” Well wasn't that just convenient. Looking up Dean saw the clear pleading in her face, she was desperate. Are you just using me? He really couldn't tell. “What do you say? We can bring down I-Tech together.”

[i]Shit.[/i]