Short Circuited

[Sune]

The Den was lively as usual. The same rowdy crowd that had been visiting what seemed every night since Dev had joined, was here again tonight. It had grown a customary thing, Dev would show up right before the main crowd would show up; he'd find his own corner with his computer, stick his earbuds in and just.. blend in as best he could to a crowd he barely knew at this point.

A while ago at this point, his mother and father had been thrilled that he'd at least left his room, they hadn't even asked why. He thought his mother was going to have a heart attack when he even mentioned he was going to head out of the house for a while. It had, of course, been to join a pack. They never asked, and he never told them. They were just thrilled he was being social.

Well. Social for him, at least.

His little gadget on the table flicked to life for a moment, waving at Dev as he'd programmed it to do, before the thing sparked and died on the table. Curses spewed from his mouth as he ripped the thing off the cables and tossed it further away from himself on the table. There went several hours of his time, up in smoke, he thought.

 

[Jas]

Since when was surveillance done with fuckin' machines, Xandre fumed as he walked out of the office and back into the main Den area. He normally had a bad attitude, and that was when he was in a good mood. But right now his mood was as sour as it'd ever been.

The dwarf scanned the bar. That little nerd usually came to the den and then secluded himself to a corner to type on that damned laptop he carried around. Bars were for drinking, socializing, and when you played your cards right, picking up women to fuck. Not nerding out on whatever the fuck. The flash of sparks drew he older man's eyes, and what felicity! adjacent to whatever that malfunction was, he inevitably found his target. He sauntered over to the table.

"The magic smoke's s'posed to stay inside the wires, I hear," he teased a bit as he approached, and then sat across from Dev. "Good news! Boss wants us to work together." One look at the dwarf's face would show anyone that he did not, in fact, believe this to be good news. "Seems to think yer..." he gestured at the smoking wreckage the younger man was currently diagnosing "...talents may come in handy. So put yer toys away, time to saddle up."

 

[Sune]

Dev blinked and looked around for a few seconds before looking down. He made a face at Xandre's teasing. "I'm sure. I'll take it under advisement next time." He said, nonplused. He'd learned that despite what people said, it was best not to 'be a smart ass' to certain people. Xandre was one of those people, unfortunately.

But Xandre's news was a surprise, and not the good kind. The younger one blinked at Xandre's announcement, and he had to look around again to see if the short man happened to be speaking to anyone other than him.

"Wait.. Me? Why me? What are we doing?" He packed up his laptop and threw it into the bag he always carried with him, sliding off the bench. "And they aren't toys. I'm trying to make tools that the pack could use to make your lives easier." Dev said with a frown.

 

[Jas]

"Wanna make my life easier? Make a bigger one o'these," the dwarf said, flashing the .50-calibre handcannon that he wore in a shoulder carry holster inside his duster. "Who needs 'puters? One o'these'll take care of someone well enough fer my needs. As fer why..."

Xandre quickly explained the job to Dev. He went over the details, stressing things like "espionage" and "counter surveillance," and how Salem and Baron wanted them to stop them at all costs. Apparently it was a couple of hackers who were digging into things they aught not be digging into. It would probably have been pretty clear to Dev that this was meant to solved in more of a Dev manner than a Xandre manner, but that meaning appeared to elude the dwarf's understanding.

"So, in summary, we scan fer 'em. Apparently Salem thought yeh'd know how to do that. Once we find 'em, we delete 'em." He patted the steel he'd flashed earlier, through the leather of his duster and laughed, apparently far too impressed with his pun.

"My only question is, is this scannin' thing somethin' you can do? And I guess, can you do it while ridin'? Or will yeh need to ride bitch? Or will we have to stop and do that e'ry now'n'then?"

By that point they had been out front of the Den for a couple of minutes, Xandre near his ride. He looked up at the younger man expectantly.

 

[Sune]

Dev gave the shorter man a dead-panned look. "I can't make those. I could potentially make a robot that could fire that though. One that is more.. Uh.. Adjustable." Than you. He thought.

Dev listened as he walked, stopping by Xandre's bike. "Yes. I can scan, and I can back-hack into 'em." His ears tipped red slightly. "I don't have a bike yet. They don't come standard issue with joining the pack. So yes, I'm going to have to catch a ride. Though that would have been true regardless of whether I had one or not. I wouldn't have been able to ride and work on the computer at the same time."

He hitched his backpack up a bit higher. "Once I gain a signal, as long as I remain in the area, I can do what I need to do."

 

[Jas]

Xandre's face narrowed into a scowl. Back-hack? What the fuck does that mean? He had made a habit of disguising confusion with anger, and without even thinking about it, he made that same choice this time.

The dwarf mounted his bike, waiting for Dev to get situated on the back of his bike. He was an asshole, but he needed this mission to go smoothly so he gave the young man time to get situated, both on the back of the bike and with whatever gear he needed to scan. The older man didn't know much about computers, but he knew the kid couldn't use his brain alone to do this. "Salem said a lotta words, most of which ain't fer a guy like me. But he broke it down. Scions gotta be nearby to the computers they're breakin' into. That gives it a couple city blocks, tops. So I'll head there, sweep around real slow-like. I'll reach back and tap yeh on the leg when we're about a mile out, and yeh do whatever it is yeh do. When yeh get somethin' just hit me in the shoulder or somethin' and I'll stop."

He looked over his shoulder when he sensed the kid was not shifting around as much. "Yeh ready? Yeh'll wanna hold on."

 

[Sune]

Dev nodded, seemingly a bit nervous. He'd not ridden with someone else before. Especially not someone else shorter than him before. How was he supposed to hold on?

He mounted behind Xandre, face growing darker as he settled ungraciously behind him and then tried to figure out what he was holding on to. He'd flailed around trying to figure out how to hold on the best he could before full on stooping to reach around Xandre's middle. He hadn't completed the embrace before deciding to abort that mission. For uh.. Many reasons.

Instead he opted to lean back and hold on to the pad he sat on as best he could. It would probably be best this way in the long run, it would give him space to work with his laptop when they got closer. With a silent prayer that he could hold on with his knees, he nodded. "Yeah, think so."

Xandre nodded gruffly, then raced off and, miraculously, Dev held on. He only yelped a little. A tiny bit.

It took a little bit for Dev to get used to how to move with the bike in order to gain confidence in his balance. As they edged near to Lupaix, he felt as if he'd ridden all his life. That may not have been how others may have viewed it though. Xandre started slowing down as they approached the area where Salem had mentioned, and taking it as his queue, Dev pulled out his laptop and another little gizmo that looked like some funky block with some antennas and placed them both between him and Xandre as best he could. It was awkward, and Dev felt on the verge of falling off the bike altogether.

It was about a block in, Dev caught something that interested him. "Hey, think we're close." He said, tapping what he thought was Xandre's shoulder. Instead, it was the man's head. "I got an encrypted signal nearby. It has to be one of these buildings."