World of Darkness World of Darkness: Attrition - Hacked (complete)

[SalmonMax]

(Continued from Topanga Tidings)

"Okay, game plan," Ariel says as the silent trip comes an end on the curbside of the Prey. "Adrian, you let us in and let him see your face so he opens his door. Me and Amber will do the rest. And yeah, we're not going to hurt him, though we will probably scare the shit out of him. He needs to know the danger he's in."

Adrian gets out from the passenger side door and walks to the front door of the dormitory building at an unhurried pace. As he goes, the shadows seem to get thicker around him until he's vanished from sight altogether.

"Amber," Ariel says when he's gone, "We're going to do some good werewolf, bad werewolf here. Keep him scared and off balance while I talk to him. You can shake him around, slap him around, but don't actually hurt him."

She gets out then and walks around towards the front entrance. Adrian comes up from within and opens it. How he got in Ariel doesn't know, doesn't care. Though the thought that vampires could walk through solid objects was a bit scary, truth be told.

Two werewolves and a vampire stroll down the pallidly lit hallway, with each of its numbered doors having a little whiteboard beside it for leaving people notes while they're away. Adrian stops at one door, and nods. Ariel gestures at Amber, then points just beside the door. She takes the other side so neither will be visible through the peephole.

Then she nods at Adrian.

[Adrian Moss]

Adrian nods and shakes himself. He puts on his game face, one filled with a whole lot of worry and an over abundance of fear. The Vamp then bangs on the door with the meat of his hand. He stops and bangs again until they hear a voice fom within the dorm room.

"What is it," a bleary voice calls out, followed by a "You? What's up?"

"Dude, somethings wrong with the laptop you gave to me. I gotta talk to you about it."

"I don't know man," the hacker hesitates.

"There's an extra $200 in it for you." Adrian fishes out his wallet and holds up the bills. They can hear the lock click and the door starts to open. Adrian pushes in and holds the door. The guy gives a startled squack. The way in is open.

[SalmonMax]

When the door opens, Ariel gestures with her head, and rushes in, moving past Adrian and cutting off the hacker from the door until Amber can get in and Adrian can close it. Immediately she's talking, not giving him time to interrupt or think.

"Not long ago you decrypted files on a laptop given to you by this man. Look at me." She grabs his chin and forces his face to look her in the eye, not at Amber who had come in right at her heels. "Look at me. First you're going to tell me what you saw when you looked at those files, then you're going to show me the copies you made."

She keeps going, steamrollering him. "We're not going to answer any questions, so don't bother asking. If you don't want to listen to me, you can listen to her." Ariel nods at Amber. "She likes to talk with her hands though, so exercise caution before choosing that option."

"Now. What did you see, and where are the copies?"

[z-Amber Wren]

Amber loomed quietly behind Ariel, letting her try to her first. Grimmly, she popped her knuckles and attempted to project her aura of 'wolf' outward. Patiently, she waited for her turn at the hacker.

[Guest Barry Winton]

"What? This is wacked. Dude," he says looking toward Adrian, but Adrian looks away.

"Oh man ..."

He looks passed Ariel to Amber, but doesn't see any help there. He finally turns to Ariel before she can brain him against the wall.

"Look," he can't look her in the eye, but his aura is full of fear, "I looked at some files. They were Morgue stuff and then I looked up the User's name. She got wacked. Seriously Wacked and that's all I did. Man, you gotta believe me," he blurts out. "I didn't look at anything else. I didn't even read the files, just the headers."

After a second, he goes,

"You guys - girls aren't with Campus Security, are you."

It is likely he doesn't want to know who you really are with and he is oddly right.

[SalmonMax]

Ariel squinted slightly, until she saw the sign of his name swim into view on his forehead, as if carved into his skin and muscle and bone.

It occurred to her that some of these spirit gifts might just have an application in her human line of work too.

"Okay Barry," she said to him soothingly, switching over to the 'good cop.' "That's a good start. What about copies? Did you image the drive? Burn a CD?"

Barry shook his head frantically and backed up a step further only to be blocked by his desk. Not that a pair of cute girls would normally be terribly intimidating...but there was something about how they looked at him, especially the brunette. Like cats watching fish in a bowl. And how the hell had they gotten his name? He didn't give that out.

"No way," he blurted. "It's bad business. This shi...this stuff is all word of mouth. Word gets out that you're screwing your customers over, and you're done!"

Ariel nodded encouragingly at him until he was done, then said, "You need to know something, Winton. Assuming you keep your nose clean, we're not going to meet again. But there will be other people coming. I don't know exactly when, but soon. When they get here, they won't bother asking questions. They'll just kill you and either steal or destroy your gear. My advice is not to be here when they arrive."

Barry's mouth dropped open, and he looked desperately at Adrian but found no quarter there. Even less sympathetic than the vampire's averted eyes was Amber's direct stare.

"Who ARE you guys?!" he tried to demand, but it sounded too thin, too frightened to qualify. It was a plea.

Ariel looked over at Amber, asking a silent question with a raised eyebrow. What do you think? She didn't bother to even acknowledge the question.

(OOC - Know Name on Barry: 8d10 vs 2d10: 4 succ )

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1709902/

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1709904/ (10 pop)

[z-Amber Wren]

Amber shrugged, not taking her cold gray eyes off of the shaking Barry. "I think he's lying," she said. She wasn't sure and didn't care, but maybe if she kept at him, he would piss himself. Always fun.

[SalmonMax]

Somehow Barry paled even more and shook his head wildly.

"I'm not! Seriously!"

Ariel scowled. She didn't think Barry was lying, but could she take that chance? There was one way to be sure. And it would drive the warning home too.

Justifications, her wolf spirit growled in a chuckling sort of way, deep within her hindbrain. You want to prove your strength to Amber. Do it.

She balled a fist and stepped towards the hacker. As he flinched back, she drew on the power of her spirit-half and sent it coursing through her arms. Veins stood out, and the skin seemed to tighten around her muscles as she threw a single devastating blow...

...which staved in the side of the computer and crushed the delicate components inside. There was a CRACK and a spark of light from the power supply, followed by a lazy curl of acrid-smelling smoke.

"You are not safe here anymore," Ariel growled at the boy. "Go!"

Barry Winton had seen enough. He nearly knocked Adrian over in his haste to flee.

Ariel watched him go and looked at the ruined computer, feeling a stab of guilt. What she'd done had been for his own good as well as the upholding of the Oath. She'd managed to find a way to protect her obligations as a werewolf at the same time that she protected a human life. But then why did she feel like nothing more than a bully?

Without saying anything more, she turned and trudged out of the dorm room to head back to the car.

[Adrian Moss]

They hadn't killed the poor guy, and to Adrian that was the tineiest of victories. In the future he would have to be more careful and that meant being more skilled. He couldn't put an innocent's life at risk over his own personal crusades.

The solemn kindred followed Ariel out of this place of loss and defeat, to her car and hopefully another start. Part of that start was to keep his mouth shut.

[z-Amber Wren]

Amber stared at the computer. Damn it, she'd wanted to break it. She rarely got the opportunity to turn one of those necessary, infuriating machines into scrap. Sighing, she followed Adrian out and back to the car.

[SalmonMax]

Ariel drives the crew back in silence. She'd like to talk about what went on, but she doesn't feel free to do so with Adrian there. She's not sure how far the pack trusts him, and the disapproving vibe she gets suggests maybe they shouldn't depend too heavily on him.

She wants to tell him that she'd done it to protect the guy, not just their secrets...but she realized it'd be for her own benefit much more than for her own...so she didn't.

Mercifully, the ride is brief, and they return to Dec's house in short order.

Still wrestling with her conscience, Ariel heads in to rejoin the others, Amber and Adrian just behind.

(Continuing in Topanga Tidings)