Preparations

[Ayden]

Twin sister? They looked nothing alike. It was possible sure, but twins? Ayden shrugged. It didn't really matter anyway, she said she would help him.

He put his arm around her and she shivered, not in a good way. She swatted his hand away from her shoulder and she could have sworn he said sorry under his breath. She stopped and stared at him, her fury radiating outward. How dare he... He looked at her with innocence in his eyes. "I wasn't hitting on you. Promise. I'm not that guy Ayden."


Ayden glared at him, "Not what guy?"
She couldn't believe he was anything but a womanizer after the way he treated Emily. He was making her want to leave him to his search. But the girl in her head called out to her. She sighed.

Nox sighed, "I'm not the guy who hits on a woman wearing an engagement ring."
He turned and went inside the next little shop area and approached the stand owner.

Ayden quickly followed him and took his wallet from him. She heard Nox say "Hey."
but she ignored it.

In her most innocent voice she asked, "Excuse me, sir."
She smiled brightly at him. "My friend's, "
Ayden fought back the bile that rose in her throat as she called Nox her friend, but she was playing a role, she could do this. "sister, have you seen her? We've not seen her in several days."


The shop keep shook his head and in a low rumbling Russian accent answered, "No, sorry. Not for a few weeks."

Ayden thanked the man and turned back to Nox, his face was pale and he was not looking like he was getting anywhere with this. Ayden couldn't make herself reassure him. Connor better hurry up and call so she could have some back up with this Atharim boy, he was starting to make her nervous.

[Connor Kent]

The contrast from the heated metro tunnels to the Moscow streets on emphasized how much colder it was here than back home. He was glad for his heavy coat.

Once outside, he checked the road signs confirming his direction and continued on his way. Ayden's text had surprised him. Not because she had texted him. She did that all the time. They both did, typing away with their thumbs like teenagers. Course Ayden was far closer to that in age than he was. Still, the excitement and newness of the relationship was still there, though they had settled down into some sense of normalcy pretty easily.

No, what surprised him was the mention of the kid- Nox. He smiled, remembering. Ayden didn't like him much at all. And he understood why. Kid was always saying the wrong things, leering at the wrong time, completely uncaring of the impression he gave.

And yet for all that Connor had liked him almost immediately. Well, not quite. It had started out with a gun in the kid's side. He was Atharim. And yet he wasn't. Or rather, he was an Atharim who could use magic, like Ayden or Hayden or Jensen. He didn't follow their inhuman policies. Trapped from within, he tried to protect others like him. Like he did with Ayden, assigning himself to Ayden.

It seemed odd that, trapped or no, he could like an Atharim. And yet had been all the same. And there were moments- only moments- when Connor saw something almost familiar: a ghost of a smile; embarrassment masked by forced bravado.

Whatever it was, Connor didn't mind. He came around a corner and saw a shop, the one Ayden said they be in front of. After a moment, he looked inside and saw them talking to someone. He opened the door, the chime dinging for all to hear.

[Nox]

This was not going well. Ayden grabbed his wallet from him and proceeded to ask for him. He was more than capable of doing this, but it was just like all the others even with the fiery red head trying to be sweet and caring, which she failed at miserably. Every time she mentioned him her face screwed up into this expression like she'd just eaten a sour grape. He rolled his eyes, but this vendor like all the others who had seen Aurora had seen her weeks ago.

Where the fuck was she? Nox could feel the fear running through his body, this was not good, not good at all. Nox held the little pup close, it was really the only thing keeping his sanity in check, the shivering puppy that Aurora had obviously saved. He'd save her, he had to, if he could only find her.

They were leaving the last vendor when the door jingled and Ayden's boyfriend stepped through the door. The relief and smile on his companion was palatable, had he been such horrible company. Whatever it didn't matter. Connor was here and maybe he could help, maybe not. Nox didn't want to talk to Borovsky but he was likely going to have to, he had to think up some lie or another about Aria though. That was the hard part.

Nox let the couple have a moment alone before he walked over with a smile. He knew it looked forced, he wasn't exactly in a happy place with the worry over the only two people he could call family, and then there was Bas... What the fuck did he get involved in.

They were around the corner from Lucas' shop might as well get that done and over with. Nox held out his hand to Connor, "Connor. Pleasure to see you again. I have one more place I need to check, we can talk in there, the keep won't mind as long as we don't stand around too long."


Nox walked around the corner, something felt wrong...

He opened the shop door and the familiar jingle was heard, but the guns were silent, there was no shiver of fear. Sergei walked out from behind the beaded curtain and frowned. "I'm sorry we are closed right now."


Nox nodded. "Okay, but, is Lucas around? I need to ask him something. It's about Aria."


Sergei paled at the mention of Lucas' name. "You haven't heard,"
he said quietly. After a moment, he continued. "I found him here this morning. He was..."
he trailed off as if he had forgotten what he was going to say, his eyes drifting off to the side, lost. He came to himself after a moment and grimaced and took a breath. "I found him. Dead."


Nox's heart sank. His stomach churned. Nox could feel the bile rising inside. He fought back the reaction. He fought with himself. Nox sat down with his head in his hands, the little puppy curled up underneath him licking his hands. He looked up at Sergei, "How?"


Sergei seemed lost. He looked at Nox confused for a moment and then seemed to realize what he was asking. "Honestly, I don't know. They said it was a heart attack."
Sergi shrugged and Nox really was at a loss for words, there was no way a guy like Lucas died of a heart attack at 23. No fucking way!

"Thanks, man. You need anything just give me a call."
Shit always happens in groups. First Aria is taken, Aurora went missing, Bas is being hunted and now Lucas was dead...What other fucking shit could happen.

Nox looked up at the two who came with him. "I need to go home. You can come with or we can talk later. But I need to be home right now."
Everything in his body seared with pain and he wanted to let it go, and he couldn't do that in public, he needed the safety of the warehouse.

[Ayden]

Connor walked into the shop as Nox snatched his phone back. Nox didn't look like himself, it almost made Ayden feel for him - almost.

But Connor was here, she didn't have to deal with the boy anymore. Ayden walked over to her soon-to-be husband and kissed him softly, "Hi, thanks for coming."


Nox came over and offered Connor his hand, he was being polite, Ayden supposed anything was possible. He wanted to go somewhere else, they walked around the corner Ayden wrapped her hand in the love of her life's hand and followed Nox into a tattoo parlor, surely this is not someplace that his beautiful sister hung out.

A man walked out from the back and Ayden sighed, he looked like shit too. And after their brief conversation she understood why, his partner was dead. Nox looked like he was taking the news pretty badly. She wondered who this guy was. Why he mattered to Nox. The kid seemed to be having some shit luck right now. Ayden would let Connor decide if he wanted to be friends with the kid. She could go home and look through her network of things for her. She might have to talk to Connor about that. But ... she could ask forgiveness. This girl needed her help.

Ayden smiled. "Connor, you go with him. I'm going to go home and see if I can use my old resources to help him."

[Connor Kent]

Connor kissed Ayden in greeting and then said hi to Nox. The kid looked frazzled, not an easy going laid back person who just happened to have a gun pressed in his side. Something had to be wrong. He waited to see what this was about.

Almost at one they headed out the store and too a tattoo shop nearby. More confusing. Connor whispered to Ayden "Uh....you thinkin' of getting something?
On the main, he wasn't really into them, but he had seen a few that had been more than sexy. Ayden would look good in one. Before any answer could be given a guy came out from the back and told them were closed.

Nox didn't seem to mind and was instead looking for someone here. Someone who happened to be dead. All feeling of joking and relaxation fled. This only seemed to worsen Nox's mood.

Ayden looked up at him, asking him to stay while she went off and checked on something. He looked at her for a moment. Old sources. Her other life. Still, he trusted her. If she was using her...contacts or whatever, she had to have a reason. He remembered how much he wanted her to find a purpose, something to do that gave her life meaning.

He'd even contacted Vellas to see if Ayden could help with his work. He smiled at her. "No worries, love. I'll keep an eye on the kid."


When she left, it was just the two of them standing there. "Let's go outside Nox."
The kid followed, seeming lost. Once out on the street, made private by all the street noise, he asked, "So what's going on, man?"


[Nox modded with permission]


Edited by Connor Kent, Jun 25 2015, 06:43 PM.

[Nox]

Nox followed Connor out the door. He couldn't believe Lucas was dead. Heart attack, that was not possible. Everything was just getting worse and worse.

Connor asked what was going on. "What isn't going on?"


Nox started walking towards Aria's apartment but she wasn't there, he should stop in to check on Ashavari someday soon. But today was not that day. He turned instead for the train station to head home on the metro. He didn't say anything until they were standing on the platform waiting for the train.

"Where do you want me to start?
He really had no idea. "A few weeks ago my sister met a guy, we'd been distant, Aria moving in with us hadn't helped but it was necessary."
It was necessary to keep them away from HQ for long periods of time, he couldn't safely use his ability there. It was not safe.

"She's left several times in a huff, actually used her gift against Aria. This guy threatened me on the phone. I think he has to do with my sister being missing. Her phone goes to voicemail, it's probably dead. But I was thinking maybe you could track the last call from Aurora to his place."
Nox really didn't know how all that worked even if it was possible. "On top of Aurora being missing, Aria's gone, could be dead, I don't know. I doubt it, but could be. And one of my friends is being hunted, and I pray to the fucking heavens he doesn't lead the Atharim to me. And now Lucas is dead. Aria's going to go over the deep end when she finds out. I might have to kill her because of it."
He knew he was rambling, he felt like shit. The train came rumbling in and Nox picked the pup up so it didn't have to jump the crevice between the platform and the car. "It's been a shitty week."

[Connor Kent]

Nox was quiet and Connor didn't press him. He'd talk when he was ready. One thing was obvious. The smirking and cockiness and devil-may-care attitude were nowhere in sight. Suddenly he really looked like a kid trying to be a grownup, trying to be responsible for the people in is life.

Connor let him be, giving him the space and privacy he wanted. He'd ask for help when he was ready. Which was gonna be soon, he was sure, the way the kid moved, like he was pent up with frustration.

Finally, on the train, he spoke, it all spilling out of him in a rush. Connor listened in silence. It helped to just define the problem, to verbalize it. When they compounded like that, they felt so overwhelming.

Indeed, despite not having seen her in a while- and having serious mixed feelings about her- hearing about Aria's situation was concerning. Missing. Boyfriend dead of a heart attack. The unnaturalness of it all. A part of him wondered if Aria was to blame- she could manipulate emotion- but he rejected that part. Nox didn't think she was to blame. If anything, he was afraid of how she would react. He'd have to kill her? God, what was wrong with these people? And his friend?

He pushed it out of his mind. Or at least focused on the more human of the problems. Nox's missing sister. A mysterious man. Nox felt guilty, that much was obvious. Felt like he'd pushed her away and now she was gone.

For some reason that resonated most powerfully within him. Last moments were so very potent. He remembered his last moments with people vividly. It was his own hangup. He'd been told more than once he had control issues. And "controlling goodbyes" was a way to impose order on the the randomness of life. It stemmed from watching his dad leave, being a an insecure teenager too old to do more than barely look up and say a casual "later" to him as he took off- and was never seen alive again. Intellectually, he knew the words were just words. His father knew how he felt.

It didn't keep it from shaping is life from that moment onward. And the idea of a loved one having been lost after a fight, or when they were alone and scared while you were oblivious to it, living your own life...yeah, his shrink had some definite ideas about that.

He looked at Nox. What could he say? He nodded, letting confidence fill his voice and face. "Alright. I'll do what I can. Let's start with your sister's phone."
He would help Nox find his sister. He could do that.

[Nox]

Nox nodded as Connor agreed to help, he let the train take them into the red light district close to home before nodding towards the door. "This is me."
It was a short walk to the warehouse from there. The pup squirmed out of his hands and Nox held on to the leash as the little one relieved himself before he headed into the warehouse.

The place felt empty. He took a deep breath. It was going to be hard to stay here all alone. At least the little guy would help in that. Nox bent down and unlatched the leash from the collar of the puppy and it ran full terror towards the food bowl. Thing was hungry again.

Nox fed the puppy and looked at Connor. "Water, beer? I think Aurora might have wine or soda somewhere."


"Beer sounds good."
Nox grinned. It was how he felt, a beer would make the world go away. But he wasn't his father. Nox grabbed a beer and a bottle of water and popped the top on the beer with his power, he didn't actually own a bottle opener anymore.

Nox sat down his phone on the counter and handed Connor the beer. "Aurora's phone goes to voicemail. It's either off or dead. I don't delete my call list so it's all there still."
Nox unlocked the encryption on the device. "Don't let it sit too long or the encryption will change and I'll have to get back in for you. Long as the connection is active it'll still work."
That was about all the tech he knew, the rolling encryption to keep people from hacking the Atharim. It was a new security measure since the HQ servers were hacked twice in a very short period of time. Nox wondered what they'd recovered, but it really didn't matter to him.

"I'm going to go into the dojo and throw a few things to jettison some of this crap from my head. If you need me just yell."


Nox didn't really wait for an answer. He went into the dojo and grabbed the power. He could work attempt to work multiple weaves, but right now all he wanted to do was throw things. Fire was dangerous, and he wanted to break things so he just wove balls of air and water and threw them across the room to see how big of a splatter pattern he could make. As the first ball splashed against the wall the pup started barking at it. Nox threw another and the little dog chased it. Nox smiled as the pup was unable to actually catch the balls of air and water, as soon as he had one, Nox let the weave dissolve into a puddle below him. It was relaxing and much needed.

[[Connor with permission]]


Edited by Nox, Jun 30 2015, 03:13 PM.

[Connor Kent]

As they made their way to Nox's place Connor couldn't help but notice his surroundings. Not exactly family friendly. If he had been single- or when he was younger- he might have come down here to check things out, had he known. It looked Nox's speed, that was for sure.

They entered what looked like an old warehouse or fire-station. The inside had been done up so that parts of it looked like an apartment. It reminded him of TV or movie sets, islands of homey furniture and atmosphere amid larger unwalled spaces. It seemed an odd place to live. Well, then again, if he was in his 20's and single, not so much.

It did make him wonder at Nox's sister though. As if thinking of her had been a summons, Nox handed him the wallet along with a beer and explained the encryption. He'd seen that kind of thing before, using RSA keys and such, though those had been broken years ago when quantum computers had finally gotten off the ground. It was just as well that he didn't have to try to break into the phone. Encryption was not his forte.

But what Nox wanted was doable. Nox excused himself to work out some of his stress and Connor let him to it. Instead he began to work on the phone, setting up a session with his own wallet. Then he set his wallet in holo-display mode and started to run a few little apps he'd found over the years. He found the connection header right away for the call that had been made. From there, he was able to get into the raw memory of the buffer for the old packets that made up the actual voice conversation. He didn't expect to find much. Recording sound was memory intensive and generated thousands of packets per second. Even a fraction of them was only enough to give him maybe a 10th of a second of actual sound. He played what he had anyway and just heard a blip of a man's voice. It did confirm Nox's account though.

No, what he needed was to uwrap the network protocol layers of the packets he had to track the location. Layer 10 network protocols sometimes embedded coordinates in the packets, depending on the manufacturer and OS on the phone. He hoped this was the case. Government workers- emergency responders and police and the like- always did for safety reasons. If they went missing, their last calls could help pinpoint the position. He expected it was the same with Atharim, given what they did. All he had to do was get past the security protocols to view the data enbedded in the packet headers. It would take a while, but with multiple packets, his software could find commonalities and break the encryption.

Finally, he had it. A location anyway. He pulled it up in his phone and saw that it was a fancy apartment complex downtown. He set a geo-tag on his and Nox's phone. He also pulled up the records and found the apartment owner. Cross Mining. A quick search brought up the company history. Around 100 years old. Family owned from Spain. Current CEO Esteban De La Cruz. The man was about Connor's age.

It was a start. He headed to the place Nox called the dojo- he found the use of the word funny- and spoke up. "Ok. I've got something."

[Nox]

The dog was pounching everything in the dojo. Nox moved from water balls to balls and rays of light. It was a bit more challeneging and the dog couldn't catch them either without disipation. And the dojo had started to smell like wet dog, not an appetizing smell to linger.

Nox had no clue how long he'd been working in there, the dog was lying on his belly under one of the obsticals off to the side tuckered out. Nox had proceeded into trying to hold two weaves together at the same time. It was failing miserably. But he did manage to get two working at the same time, but the first one failed almost immediately as he tried to get the second one stable. It was going to take a bit more work and a lot more concentration. And right now concenatraion was hard to come by - with Aria gone, Aurora missing, Lucas was dead. His heart sank as he thought on it, and Bas, he was about to be dead.

Nox couldn't imagine Bas getting away from the first order of the Archangls, that had been who the message was from - Martin Borovsky - metatron. That man was ruthless on a normal hunt and he was blood thirsty for gods if he was anything like the Regus and Nox was fairly certain he was.

Connor came in saying he'd got something. Nox nodded and stopped what he'd been doing. He wiped the sweat from his brow, he'd looked like he'd run a marathon and he'd barely moved, dual weaves was difficult work.

Nox sat down on the mat in the dojo and grabbed his bottle of water and took a sip. Connor handed him his wallet and the location of the call's orgination sat blinking up at him. Nox threw the screen into holo mode and he could see the building. He grinned and then if fell flat. This he lived for hunting, but the reason for it sank his heart. Nox looked to Connor, "What do you bet we can roll back footage for a few weeks? Find what this mysterious man looks like? Maybe who he is?