Double Features (IC)

[Fox]

Dragonfly shook her head, pulling her hair back and out of her way as she - very quickly, without turning around to expose her face - swapped her visor out for some shaded goggles. "Not a very good liar. Socially...maladapted. Poor social exposure, no formal schooling. Little experience with parents, for that matter. Can't really help you there. Still advise lying as little as possible, if possible. Avoid complications."

She dug out a tool that was almost an undersized welder rather than a proper soldering iron, lighting it up and started a rapid series of little touches on the disassembled parts. "Should be proud of what you do, if you help people. Too little of it. Too many people who've spent time making the world a worse place. Don't know if parents would understand that."

[Carces]

"Don't know if parents would understand that."

"See, exactly." Vance gestured to Dragonfly for assurance while completely missing the point. "I just don't thing they'd get it. This isn't the sort of thing you just bust out and tell someone. This stuff is pretty crazy, even by movie standards."

Vance sighed to himself. "But I guess I could study more. If it'll make things better." he begrudgingly acknowledged. Between his budding super hero career and his newfound need to study harder to keep things under wraps, there wouldn't be any time at all for movies or games.

Ah well. He could always cut back on sleeping. Afterall, when was the last time Silhouette slept?

[Aoiroo]

Looking at Vance she half laugh,

"You mom might not, but your father is on the streets just as much as we are fighting largely the same things you are, I'm sure he's seen some scary s$&t that most of those B horror movie makers could not even dream of just doing regular patrols."

Heck she had seen and been dragged into crazy adventures just walking the streets during the day so it wasn't unlikely,

"This is a crazy world, and Freedom City is the epicenter of it. Just look at all the s#!t that's happened here in the last two years alone."

[Fox]

"Mm. Misunderstanding. My fault....communication mishap." Turning her goggle-obscured head to glance at her notes on a nearby dry-erase board, she muttered some numbers under her breath and turned her attention back down to the device that was starting to resemble a watch face. "Didn't doubt, so much as lacked information. Don't know your parents, don't know parents in general. Honestly do not know whether or not parents would accept admission of heroism. Would need more data." or more parents - poor chance

She lit the little soldering iron again, getting back to work on the wiring and circuitry. "Study is a good idea. Keeps you from compounding your issues. If you must lie about how you spend your time, best to show that you did so responsibly when the lie is exposed. More practical, less damaging. May not turn out so bad in the end. Any parents who live here may be familiar with 'crazy'."

[Carces]

Backed into a corner, Vance tried to change the topic as smoothly as possible.

"W-well, in either case, I'm not going to be telling anybody right now. This is pretty important and it'd be a mistake to cause a... uh... unpredictable reaction."

Creature Feature nodded with a small amount of self-satisfaction in an attempt to make his self-justification a little more plausible. He wasn't sure if even he bought it, but it was still grounded in the truth.

"I'll at least need a proper excuse for this thing. It might take a while to get things tracked and whatnot, and any sorts of things could go wrong. Finding Ms. Lights and bustin' up SHADOW ninja nazis might take more than a day, and I don't think a 'study slumber party' is gonna fly, y'know?"

[Aoiroo]

"Very true, you'll have to come up with a good excuse for that. School trips are out those are documented, you'll need someone to vouch for you, someone your parents trust. Not me I'm saying, they know who I am, but they don't really well know who I am. Got anybody in your family you can fesibly confide too, you don't have to tell your parents but having someone close to the family helps a lot more with cover stories."

It certianly helped when she started testing her powers all those years ago. Allison probably being the best person at keeping secrets was good at helping to come up with excuses when she started off using her powers a bit too much on reflex.

[Fox]

Dragonfly didn't seem to have much to add to that, bent over the unfinished device and carefully screwing the half-finished circuitry into the base. family - probably nice - can't say - leave that advice up to Silhouette - wiser mind - better experience sounds like

She started digging around in nearby shelves again, scowling as she came up with an assortment of cell phones that just wouldn't do. Too big, too small, too thick.... hiring would be a good cover - superhero-owned business? - mm - can't help there - gives me ideas though - record for later

[Carces]

"Someone I can confide in? I dunno..."

Vance thought about the question. The trick, of course, was thinking of someone that was trusted by his parents enough to pull off a convincing cover story that wouldn't be followed up while not giving up his own secret. Having too much of one trait tended to be at the cost of another, whether it was his own friends from school or friends of his mother or father.

Of course, there was always...

"...my brother, Joey, maybe? He moved out a bit back when he started goin' to University." Vance grimaced as he mentioned his big brother Joey. Even though the Hanover Institute of Technology was inside Freedom City, his brother had essentially disappeared when he received the full scholarship and had moved out to get closer to the school. Even before his HIT days, Joey's time was always scarce, taken up by important tasks and projects, whether it was in technology or sports. It was not a small part of Vance that dreaded asking him to waste his time, even for something this important.

[Aoiroo]

She thought about it,

"It's all circumstancial really. If you can't tell the truth, you could probably use crashing with him as another lie that might take a weekend if he's a university student around this time of year, I don't think he'll have much time to notice you past picking you up and driving you home. A convention might work, or maybe a film festival. That one might work since theatre houses are pretty big in Freedom there's at least a couple every month. It's not hard to fake, they don't actually count attendence and just a ticket stub and a t-shirt would be more then enough. Though it does give us a time limit, two days, maybe three given we wouldn't want you to disappear for that long anyway a lot of really awful stuff can go down and in just a few days."

[Carces]

Creature Feature smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "Hey - Yeah! And that kind of thing would be perfect for would-be kidnappers, right? Lots of chances to be alone in the streets, lots of dark rooms, and everybody just thinks you came in a costume if you show up in rad ninja gear! That's brilliant!"

The large werewolf attempted to snap his fingers in time with the declared brilliance of the plan, but produced no sound. He looked down at the giant, hairy mess that was the wolf-guy hands, only now noting how they were completely inappropriate instruments for finger snapping, including his extended, razor-sharp claws that would likely punish the careless. Note to self: Don't ask for anything activated by snapping from the scientist lady...

Vance shook himself out of his stupor and continued with the plan. "Now all we need is the closest convention-thing I could convince my parents I wanna go to." He looked back up to the various flashing screens within the warehouse. "Uh... I don't suppose you have google on any of these things, do you?"

[Fox]

Dragonfly glanced up, peering through her goggles at the scattered, half-functioning computers and laptops and keyboards around the warehouse. no - broken - broken - trapped - broken - absolutely not - personal files - not on the internet - would tear a hole in space - would tear a hole in the user - broken - mm

She absently used a screwdriver to wave toward a spiral staircase in the back corner of the kitchen, which was tucked away under a second story that took up a third or so of the upper warehouse on this end. Half of it was walled off like a proper room - probably a bedroom - while the half the staircase led to was open to the rest of the building, just a sturdy metal railing keeping people from falling off the edge and down onto the workshop. "Up, near the couch. Should be turned on already. Touch my games and I test that," she pointed at a bulky hand-held device with a screen for the user but no apparent barrel or weaponry attached, "on you," now pointing the screwdriver at Creature. actually - would be interesting - useful field test - unknown effects on a shapeshifter - ethics - shame

[Carces]

"Ooooooo....kaaaaaay?"

Creature Feature wondered what testing bulky-looking PDAs would entail, or why someone would need another test subject. Maybe late night texting tests were the scientific equivalent of a detention?

Whatever. The science inventor person doesn't want us touching the games, so we don't touch the games. Afterall, every guy... er, girl needs their games, right? Piece of cake.

Creature Feature looked back at Dragonfly, nodding and smiling before arriving at his destination - the spiral staircase. His ears drooped as he looked at the tiny steps as well as the low roof made by the staircase itself when the steps went entirely around.

Okaaaaaaay... maybe a particularly hard to cut cake.

The wolfguy form was a remarkably agile and quick creature, capable of leaping extraordinary heights and lengths and certainly capable of awe-inspiring feats of acrobatics. However, ultimately, the form was also rather large, which meant the as-of-now impractical feet of the wolf were also very large - a little too large for compact steps.

Vance looked up. Jumping was out of the question. Even if he managed to gracefully bound off the spiral staircase, bit by bit (something rather unlikely to happen, thought Vance), he still wouldn't be able to see where he was ultimately going and would probably hit the mysterious games the scientist warned him about.

Besides, no one likes a show-off. Vance thought to himself.

With few other viable alternatives, Vance began to inch up the staircase as he bent right over to avoid hitting his head on the second staircase. Using the railing as his point of stability, Creature Feature slowly pulled himself up, balancing his large feet on one or even two different steps in whatever fashion he could fit the feet.

Woo! I'm doin' it! Maybe I can start a career as a stilt-walker!

In his premature cheer, one of Vance's feet slipped and he crahed onto the stair case, his large chin slamming into a step as the edge of the stair caught his throat. The reverberating sound from the struck staircase was more than enough to cover the inaudible "Urk!" from Creature Feature's battered throat.

Then again, maybe not... Vance thought as he proceeded to crawl on the stairs on all fours, eventually reaching the top floor where he could search for a computer.

[Aoiroo]

Sil watched Vance start of the stairs and couldn't stiffle a chuckle as he fell face forward on the stairs.

"I need to stop hanging out with him or I might not be able to take monsters seriously anymore."

Given, no matter how scary Vance looked or how strong he might be, he wasn't really a fighter. He didn't have it in him, at least not yet. He might be able to find a reason to fight but now his reasons were pretty flimsy. Given, her reasons were pretty flimsy as well.

"Sorry to distract you, but...."

She took a few seconds to say this out loud, she never really talked about this with other people, or heroes, she never really hung out with them,

"Why do you think we do this? Me and Creature Feature, we aren't apart of the normal cliche, we don't have the usual trama, family loss and the like or the excuse of a reputation to live up to or to live down. I have a couple of answers in mind personally but some outside input is always good."

[Fox]

"Mm. Don't know your histories. Will have to take your word for it. Reasons...."

She paused, tilting her head and staring off at nothing for a moment. "Can't...apply my own experiences. Have my own reasons to do what I do. In general....mm. Trauma or obsession aren't required for hero work. Suspect....suspect you're just good people. Sounds silly. Probably true, though. You're skilled, got powers - chance, circumstance, don't know in your case - and had options. Pretending you had no powers would be difficult. Villainy isn't wise...and requires certain mindsets."

She shrugged, glancing at Silhouette through her large, opaque-looking goggles. "Hero work lets you help good people. Or hurt bad people. Subtle difference...mm. Or just the thrill. Or any other reasons. Heroes seem...diverse. Many reasons. Most of them good. Why is less important than what you do."

[Aoiroo]

She smiled, it couldn't be seen but she looked at Dragonfly. She was wrong about living without powers, it was easy to do nothing, to pretend to normal it was for her at least she had done it for ten years. But she was right about reasons, reasons weren't important, no matter what the reason she was still doing some good even if it was a little. It was true for the others too,

"I'm glad you suspect I'm a good person, I know you are, whatever reasons you might have."

Standing up she stretched a bit and started up the steps,

"I'll make sure Creature doesn't touch anything he shouldn't, plus I doubt he can type with those big wolf claws in the way."

[Fox]

Dragonfly paused, and then snorted, turning back to her work. "...not that simple," she added, largely to herself as she worked. "Many reasons. Good person, thrills, revenge. Redemption. Penance. Too many options...actions speak louder."

Shaking her head, she reached out to dig around her shelves for a couple more parts. clear thoughts - task at hand more important - violin for later

[Carces]

Farther away and up one floor from the serious discussion on the motives of a hero was the hunched over figure of a werewolf engaged in a battle he was presently losing. The age-old struggle between werewolf and technology is counted on the disturbingly-low ratio of wins between the werewolf and the silver bullet. While Creature Feature's struggle with the computer upstairs was, perhaps, one that resounded less dramatically through the ages, it was certainly going about as well.

Where are all the icons? I *like* icons... Creature Feature frowned at the monitor as he squat down, the chair having been long-since abandoned after several sessions of trial and error regarding sitting comfortably while using the computer. Of course, using implied knowing what to do at a command prompt, a useful tool for a technical genius with an incredible amount of technical talent, keyboarding skill, and the ability to formulate complex algorithms in the same amount of time it takes a normal person to remember their password.

Alright, alright... don't panic. Gotta keep a cool head. It's just like fighting a thug, right? Just... with words and commands. The scientist lady talks to the machines, so they gotta be helpful and chatty, right? Right. Let's do this.

Taking a deep breath, Vance summoned to his mind everything he knew about computers, until he was entirely satisfied he wouldn't need help. Tapping at the keyboard, one claw at a time, he went to work at the computer.

>google

'google' is not recognized as a command or program.


>internet

'internet' is not recognized as a command or program.


>GOOGLE

'GOOGLE' is not recognized as a command or program.


>google.exe

'google.exe' is not recognized as a command or program.


>google.com?

'google.com?' is not recognized as a command or program.


>internet dammit!

'internet' is not recognized as a command or program.


>hlep

'hlep' is not recognized as a command or program.

With the age-old standby of asking the computer for help failing him, Vance engaged the screen in a staring contest while clicking the mouse a few times for good measure. This was probably some sort of alien technology, where the earthly concept of 'help' was far too primitive to be included in any sort of operating system.

This warehouse sure had some weird stuff in it.

[Aoiroo]

Sil had made it up the stairs just long enough to catch Vance in his staring contest. He seemed so content with his clicking he didn't seem to notice her approach which was otherwise much less stealthy then usual because of the constant snickering. She was right next to him before she said,

"This looks like a funny little motion icon, Wolfman vs Computer, the ultimate stare off."

Still chuckling a little she pushed his hands out of the way and clicked away on the keyboard bypassing the command system searching quickly through various files which mostly included several PC games and first shooters. Dragonfly wasn't kidding about games, it was probably a good place to practice aiming skills. Pushing past the files it wasn't but a few minutes before she had the lastest version of a browser provided by USNet as well as a list of popular film festivals that were being held in the next month.

"Okay, skim though and take your pick."

[Carces]

While it was true that Creature Feature was no stranger to being surprised by Silhouette, and while it was also true that he was attempting to learn as much as he could about fighting and the art of super-heroic war, of which the element of surprise was usually a factor, Creature Feature had a long way to go to taking surprise well.

"FWAAGH!" Creature Feature let out the curious mixture of a grunt and a yelp and toppled backwards where he had squatted precariously, sending the rolling chair flying backwards, clanging against the railing of the spiral staircase.

"Oh, uh... hi Sil." CF rubbed his head as he addressed his mentor with an appropriate measure of embarrassment. Embarrassing or not, Vance was always glad to see Carrie, particularly in a time of crisis. It would likely take both of their abilities to crack this indecipherable user interface and access...

By the time Vance had finished getting up off of the floor, Silhouette had already completed the search.

"What?? B-but, how did you... WHEN did you...?" Creature Feature stared at the screen in disbelief for a moment before realizing that Silhouette was waiting for him to browse through the search results. He closed his muzzle tightly as he crouched down again to look at the computer.

Figures. Even *aliens* can't make a computer ninja-proof.

[Aoiroo]

She continued to snicker as she grabbed the chair sat on it and rolled back over to the desk,

"While you were busy jumping out of your skin I opened a search bar and found the browser using some command line codes."

It was something she hadn't seen in a while, but to Dragonfly it was probably all the same.

"Anyway, skim through and see if there's any festivals you want to pretend to attend. If we have a definite date we can set up a schedule to control as many variables as possible to find Ms. Lights."

[Carces]

Vance frowned as he skimmed through the list. While there were a few film festivals happening in and around the university district of Freedom City, many of them occured over weekdays and there was no way that he could convince his parents to let him skip school. On top of that, many of the conventions and gatherings happening around this time appeared to be largely professional-development types of gatherings, where film-making hopefuls would gather to hear various lectures from people in the field. While Vance was certain his parents would appreciate an educational angle on the festival, it wasn't the type of atmosphere where getting kidnapped was ideal.

Finally, the cursor rested on a home-brewed web page. It seemed that, during an early December weekend, a member of HIT was showing horror movies on a projector out in the commons for a "late night horror extravaganza". He was also inviting anyone who cared to come along. An outdoor attraction in the dark in a place where he was the youngest and would stand out like a sore thumb? Creature Feature grinned to himself, showing off his large row of sharp, jagged teeth. It was definitely the kind of place they were looking for.

However, convincing his parents to let him go to something like this would be much trickier. While the showings happened at night every for three nights straight, it wasn't necessarily the kind of convention where Vance could spend all day, presumably. But his parents didn't know that, did they? It was real enough to check on, and if push came to shove, he could always say he was sitting on a lecture or two during the day. It was a tough call that required expert advice.

"How about this one?" Vance asked Silhouette as he pointed to the screen.

[Aoiroo]

Watching over his should she read the description of the one he picked out.

"It's doable, certianly not an event where they'll really be counting heads. If you can get your parents okay we should be able to set something up."

Glancing at the screen she slid in front of him and started to scroll pressing the keyboard keys.

"It's set to go from the third to the fifth. Is there anything you have on your schedule that might contradict going?"

[Fox]

"Mmm...." Dragonfly squinted at the face plate she was trying to use, and sighed. "Too small," she muttered to no one in particular. "Why I don't work in plastics. Could recast....dislike the machinery. Loud, generates too much heat...." She was already on her feet, brushing some bits and wire aside and lifting a thin sheet of scrap metal. She gave it a good squint, calculating angles and force. mmmm....

She took the opportunity to check in on the computer upstairs as she laid out her metalworking tools, screen flickering slightly as she took a look at the browser. "Not bad," she echoed, disembodied, from the speakers on that desk. Down on the workshop floor, the sound of a hammer on steel could be heard. "Nearby, safe neighborhood. Hope your parents are reasonable."

[Carces]

"I don't think so. 'cept if I have homework over the weekend or somethin' like that." Creature Feature answered back to Silhouette before pulling his head back at the sound of a speaker and a hammer. Frowning as he glanced around, looking for any obvious signs of a microphone nearby, Vance spoke up. "Yeah, uh... well 'reasonable' is an awfully strong word. At least, it is in this case. Buuuuuut I think I might be able to do it. Maybe."

Vance bit his lip - or the equivalent of biting one's lip when one's teeth are too sharp for doing anything but devouring hapless movie victims. This would be a tough sell for sure.

[Aoiroo]

"Well it's our best bet, the sooner we find her a better."

She turned towards Dragonfly,

"Also, you have any trackers? We might want to put one on the real Vance just in case he gets taken before we can set up the distraction. I'm sure if we explain things too him he won't object terribly."