Broken

[Sage]

Sage thought about what Nox asked. "I can do you one better. But yes. I'll get you that software, take a couple of days."


Sage didn't drop the connection when Nox left with his wallet. But the holo folded in on itself and Sage listened to his footsteps. The other man walked with a purpose. Sage didn't bother watching the camera feed, it was pointless and actually rather sickening - the decor he saw was horrid and pair that with the motion of the wallet moving back and forth as Nox walked. Sage cut the connection to the camera.

Sage spoke through the wallet. "If you take your wallet to the security terminal. I might be able to hack in and monitor it for whatever you may want. I assume something bad is happening if you are looking for security holes."

[Nox]

He couldn't believe that a moment alone with the hacker was all it took to relive his entire life and end up in fucking tears. His life was fucking mess and he'd broken down in front of a near stranger. Nox wanted to kick himself. He'd asked for the images he hadn't expected the repercussions.

Nox started down the hall he was in and checked each room. Every room on the floor had multiple rooms. How the rich were the Vegas. Four bedrooms with attached suits. Each window as wired with security. That was good.

It took a second for Nox to hear Sage speaking on his phone. He hadn't really thought about the hacker not going away. He'd never actually spoken to him before. Nox nodded and remembered Sage couldn't see. "Alright. Let me see if I can find it."


Nox walked down stairs to the dining room where Pavlo was cleaning up. "Where is the main security panel? I'd like to take a look at it."


Pavlo looked up and frowned. "Master Dorian wouldn't like that."

Nox grinned. "Master Dorian asked me to look after his son while he isn't here, so I think he'll be okay with it."


Cruz stepped into the room with Rachel on his arm. "It's okay Pavlo. My dad wants him to protect me."

Nox grinned at Cruz and Rachel. Pavlo nodded and waved his hand in the direction of the security panel. "Right this way."

Nox followed Pavlo to the security panel. Nox tried to catch glimpses of things on the main floor but continued to follow after the butler. Pavlo stopped at the box and nodded. "Anything else?"

Nox shook his head. "Not right now. Thank you."


Pavlo left and Nox waited until he was around the corner before he held his wallet up to the security panel. "Do your thing, Sage."



Edited by Nox, Sep 14 2016, 06:11 PM.

[Sage]

Sage halfway listened to the things going on across the ocean. He knew Nox was in some fancy shmancy house with some rich elitist. But beyond that the knew nothing more about the person other than the name on the address. A quick search brought up the name and bits and pieces of information. Dorian Vega owned the mansion. He was a decorated officer of the Madrid police force recently transferred to Moscow to a new division for his exemplary record of the strange and weird. That seemed to jive with what Nox did for a living - whatever the fuck that was.

Nox held the rear facing camera up to the secuirty camera and told Sage to do his thing. He'd been trying to do just that even before Nox showed him the box. It was pretty standard for security systems. They called in and out on wireless signals. It was nothing to hijack the signal and break in.

But it was a little more difficult when he was not anywhere near the signal. Sage needed to make a work around to piggyback on Nox's encrypted wireless signal and capture the other signal. It wasn't quite so easy as it sounded. But Sage managed fine. Cracking the man's keycode was a breeze. Most people used things they could remember - birthdates, phone numbers, things they already had in their head. And with a pile of internet data already on the Vegas Sage was in moments later.

It wasn't much to set to set up an automated program in his own server that would track any and all signals coming from the Vega's home. It would get an alert, and a message would be sent to Nox immediately. If someone sneezed too hard on a sensor - Nox would know.

Sage smiled happily to himself. "I'm monitoring the house full time. You and I will get notices when something goes off. I didn't interrupt it from the police, but I can if that's what you want."


Nox laughed. "Nah man, that's alright, Dorian would want his colleagues here asap I'm sure. He's put his trust in them over us, so don't do anything yet."


Sage nodded. "Alright. I'll go this time. If you need my help, let me know."
Without so much as waiting for a good bye or even for Nox to answer Sage cut the connection. He wasn't feeling well and needed to lie down.

[Nox]

Nox was surprised it had taken such a short period of time for Sage to complete his hack. The security system was not very secure for a hacker it seemed. Nox wondered if this was a problem with the Atharim. He'd never employed a hacker to get into a system. He'd never had to before. But maybe that would change now.

Whatever Aria was doing was going to get them fried. He didn't know what she was doing, but it had to do with her mission to kill Ascendancy. And she'd already made some sort of deal with him. Now Dorian was taking the side opposite of the Atharim for the sake of his son and he was getting involved with him now too. So either which way you looked at it, Nox was on the steadily climbing traitor list for the Atharim, they just didn't know it yet. But he was certain they would. And Dorian's house was just as good a place as any to make that last stand.

Nox found Cruz and Rachel in the room they'd been in earlier. "I'm gonna take a look at the perimeter of your grounds see what's what."
The security on the house would alert them if there was a break in, but Nox didn't like that idea really. That was too close. He wanted something earlier - when they crossed into their yard would be best. But Dorian's yard was huge. So where to begin.

Nox opened up the front door and took in the circular driveway and the cars parked in front of the house. A woman in a bright red dress stepped out of a car and Nox stood stunned. Who was she?

Edited by Nox, Sep 15 2016, 05:18 PM.

[Nox]

The woman walked up the steps towards him peering over a pair of dark sunglasses. A man followed her up a few descrete paces behind her. She looked him up and down certainly appraising him. Nox grinned at her.

She frowned. "You must be the new pool boy."

Nox laughed. "Actually I'm a friend of Dorians. He asked me to look after Cruz."


She lifted her sunglasses from her eyes revealing beautifully done up eyes that sparkled as she looked at him . Nox saw the smile peek out at the edges. "Dorian doesn't usually bring his friends home. You can't be that type of friend. And you are much too young to be protecting anyone. You can't be off your mother's apron strings for more than a year or two."

Nox had no idea what she was talking about until she insulted him. Calling him a baby pretty much. Nox smiled at her. "I have been on my own since I was 16 Ma'am. I'm more than capable of taking care of your son. You must be Mrs. Vega."
Nox offered his hand but he didn't get a chance to introduce himself as Cruz stepped out of the door.

"Mother. This is Nox. He's here at father's request. He has been helping me. He works with Dad."

Mrs. Vega looked at Nox again with that appraising look. "He's barely older than you. He can't be an officer."

Nox interrupted. "I'm not. I'm something else. Dorian asked me to protect Cruz. That's what I'm going to do. I need to look around. Is that going to be alright with you Mrs. Vega?"


She looked at him still appraising him. "Christian will go with you."

"Yes, ma'am." The man behind her nodded. He must be Christian.


Edited by Nox, Sep 15 2016, 06:13 PM.

[Nox]

Mrs. Vega walked passed Nox and greeted her son with a big hug and pulled him into the house. Nox took the steps down to the drive way and smiled at the man waiting for him. He was wearing jeans and a polo shirt - nothing fancy. Nox smiled. "You must be her favorite."


Christian followed Nox as he moved to the end of the drive way and squatted down to look at things from a different perspective. Nox could feel Christian behind him. "Pardon me?

Nox stood up and faced Christian. "You are clearly more than a servant."


"How do you figure?"

"You aren't wearing fancy clothes. You went with her where ever she just got back from. You aren't a bodyguard. And you deferred to her with a yes ma'am. All that says to me you are hers to command. But the way you look at her says there is more to it than that."


"You are observant. It usually takes people a little while longer to catch the undercurrents in the Vega household."

Nox grinned and walked down the inside of the fence line that barred the street from Dorian's front lawn. It was nothing more than a black iron rod fence with gaping holes. It wasn't meant to keep anyone out - just honest. "So I'm going to make a stab at things. You and Mrs. Vega are more than just employee employer. From the comment she made about me I'm going to guess - Dorian likes men. And you are diddling his wife."


Christian laughed. "Diddling? I do not think Dorian nor Ana would appreciate that terminology. But you are correct."

Nox nodded. "So what other of Dorian's secrets do you know?"


Christian stepped closer and Nox stopped so they could speak privately - as privately as the huge front yard with large hedges would allow anyone to speak privately. "I know more than Ana or Cruz. I've been with Dorian since he and Ana married. I am trusted."

"What do you know of his tattoos?"


Christian smiled. "Is that why you are here? The tattoo is causing problems?"

Nox nodded. "In a fashion. I believe Dorian has chosen the side opposite of the tattoo for his son - for Cruz. And he asked me to help him."
Nox rolled up the sleeve of his hoodie and showed Christian the mark that would resemble the one on Dorian's left forearm. "His stance will have them come after us all. Anyone here. Mrs. Vega needs to stay inside from here on out. They will kill her and Dorian along with their son. I don't want to see that happen."
Nox pushed the sleeve back down and started walking the perimeter again.

Christian nodded. "What can I do to help?"

[Nox]

Nox smiled. "Keep her inside. No fancy parties, no movers, no shakers, no strangers in the house. Everyone is vetted. Dorian's old colleagues aren't to be trusted. I don't know about the cop friends he has. I suspect that things are okay on that front - but I don't know Dorian. My primary goal is to stay alive."


"Ana won't like this." Christian said as he followed Nox around the perimeter of the estate.

"Until we know the lay of the land, your job is to keep the little miss busy. When Dorian gets home, he can tell me to get the fuck out if he wants to, but he asked me here for one reason and one reason alone. I know the Atharim. I am Atharim. He can't be here, so he sends the next best thing - someone who can teach his son and protect his family all at the same time."


"What can you possibly teach Cruz? He's a straight A student and when he's graduated with his Masters degree he'll graduate first in his class. As Dorian should have done."

Christian sounded almost as proud of Cruz as a father, that made Nox smile. "I didn't come here to tutor Cruz. I came to keep him from blowing himself up."
Nox reached for the power and pulled it close, it came at his will it fought back, but Nox controlled it. He remembered the struggles in the beginning - he remembered where Cruz was now except it was worse he'd had to learn on his own with no one to guide him. Nox held his hand out in front of him and a small flame flickered on the palm of his hand.

The world was much clearer now. He could see things with a new clarity. The problem with the alarms is they only worked when someone got to the house. Nox remembered the trip lines his dad use to lay down when they were out in the woods. They were meant to alert them to anyone out there in the night be they human, critter or monster. It wasn't something to get eaten while you slept. Bad form he'd use to say. Nox smiled at the memory but pushed it away. Last thing he needed was to break down into another pile of weepy tears. Fucking girl!

Nox wove a thin line of air across the ground about ankle night and attached one of his sound weaves to it. Tripping over the wire would break the tie that held the weave together and the sound would release. Hopefully it would work. Nox smiled at Christian with a mischievous grin. "Mind walking over here."


Nox drew an invisible line with his finger in the path that he wanted Christian to take - right over the trip wire.

[Nox]

Christian walked over the trip line and the air broke easily but the bang never went off. Nox knelt down and inspected the weave. He poked it with a jab of air and the weave collapsed in on itself releasing the sound. The concussive force threw Nox back on to his ass and Christian was standing covering his ears in a near by bush. "What the fuck was that?"

Nox grinned. "It's not working is what that is."
Nox stood up and started walking the perimeter again. He had the theory now just to apply it practically. And then there was the whole decay thing. The trap would have to be refreshed every few hours - which meant he had to teach Cruz how to do it too or he'd not have enough strength to do any damage if the Atharim came out after them.

But first he had to get it right.

Nox strung a thread of air through his fingers and attached varying mechanisms to it. The trick was to think mechanically - Nox had never been good at Physics. He'd not been good at any of this science shit. That's what Aurora was for. Nox frowned at his thoughts, he tried to remember things she'd told him back when they were first developing the sound grenades and started the flash bang bombs. He was fairly certain he could get that right now. He just needed some time.

Levers, wheels, pullies, wedges, incline planes and screws - all simple machines. Simple to create with earth and air. Nox played with all the simple machines attached to his trip line as he searched for any glaring holes in fences or things that stood out as a danger. But Dorian's yard was pretty standard, so he was just really walking to walk. Christian followed him and Nox could feel his eyes on the back of his neck. The other man asked. "What exactly are you trying to do?"

"I'm trying to devise an early warning system that the Atharim aren't going to see unless they are like me and Cruz."


"And that loud noise you made earlier that's your early warning alarm? Can't be more discrete?"

Nox laughed. "Do I look discrete to you?"


Christian smiled. "No. But the Vega's are. That noise will wake the whole block."

Nox nodded. "And stun and/or knock anyone close to it on their ass. I use a variation of it to stun targets so I can get away or move to a safer distance. It's two fold system. Let us know, and the world too, that someone's attacking."


"Okay, what's not working? I can't see what you are doing. Explain the problem."


Edited by Nox, Sep 16 2016, 12:57 PM.

[Nox]

Nox smiled and drew a thin line of air laced with earth, the thread was visible in his hands. "Simple machines attached to the wire to trip the threads that make the concussive sound."
Nox laced everything with earth so Christian could see. "The idea is to trip this and this collapses."
Nox pushed his hands together and the sound was much smaller this time, though Christian covered his ears anyway. Nox grinned.

Christian walked back towards the house and took a seat at a table with an umbrella over by the pool. He started setting items and took the string from the umbrella and Nox sat down wondering what the man was up to. But it didn't take long to understand Christian was setting up a physical representation of what he'd seen. Strings and blocks and simple machines.

Cruz came out from the sliding glass doors and sat down with them as they worked through the problem. It felt oddly normal to Nox. The three of them sat and discussed simple machines, trip wires and Cruz even managed to put together the sound bomb weave. Nox was proud - Christian was even prouder. It really was like it was a father son relationship. It made Nox wonder how close Cruz and Dorian were. If Cruz and Christian were this close he doubted Dorian was around much. It was a sad thing to consider. Nox listened to their banter and their work together. He had almost forgotten what it was he was trying to do while he listened to them. It was family. Nox found it sad. His memories surged forward. Time with his father, time with his mother. The images of his sister. The things Sage showed him.

Nox sat back in the chair and fought with his feelings and his own self image. Nox never had this connection with his own father. They were close, he'd never known anything else. Now he saw the way he grew up, it wasn't normal. Even what Cruz had wasn't normal. Nox sighed and focused on what was in front of him. The problem at hand - he had a job to do - a family to protect.

[Dorian]

It was a long hard past few days. Dorian knew he really should work do more but he was preoccupied. For two days his son had been without mother or father with only his own mind to keep him company when he found out he was a god. And now another boy was there with him. Dorian had to deal with it. This was his job more so than being a cop, than being an Atharim - he was a father.

Dorian walked into his own house and found Ana and Rachel chatting away in the study. He smiled at his wife. "Where is Cruz?"


Ana stood and placed a kiss on his check with a pleased smile. "He and Nox and Christian are outside playing with toys." Ana sounded amused at the idea and walked back in to join Rachel. Dorian gave Cruz's friend a friendly wave and headed to the back yard.

Dorian stood in the sliding glass doorframe watching the three of them. Christian and Cruz were bouncing ideas back and forth like they did it everyday. It wasn't unusual but Dorian felt a pang of jealousy. He pushed it away, it was his own fault and he wasn't going to take it away from either Cruz or Christian. It was a difficult situation all around.

But it was the other man sitting with them that took most of his attention. He'd met the boy before. Fallen to his knees in hopelessness as he watched his belongings burn. Everything he'd owned had been lost that day except what he had on him.

Dorian had looked him up. He knew his sister was dead now. The case solved and the man responsible was mysteriously dead of a heart attack. He suspected the boy, but he never went into that building not that there had been an investigation.

But he listened and watched the other two like he was lost in his own world. He would throw a word in or two telling them something was impossible or that he had no idea how to do that. He'd tell Cruz maybe he could figure it out.

Dorian stood there and watched and listened to the three of them and he figured out what they were trying to do. He'd asked Nox to come teach his son and answer questions. Then later asked him to watch him. He was taking it rather literally. Dorian wondered what the boy knew, but he'd ask him later right now he watched them plan the defense of his own house against the Atharim.