Cat's in the cradle (Melia and Taliesin)

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Matt was already asleep by the time Kristie came to join him. Many years of well practiced sleeping techniques gave him the ability to fall asleep fast, which in turn also gave him the ability, if established over time, the ability to sleep less. That being said, his delicate sleep patterns had been disrupted the night before and so he woke up constantly and abruptly. It took him a few moments before he realized that Kristie was there, and he felt bad, hoping that his moving about wasn't putting her in any pain.

Finally, after battling this irregular sleep pattern for half the night, he gave up and started playing with his phone. The bright light from it's screen caused him to squint in pain. "I'm not on the bloody sun, calm down..." he muttered at the phone, checking to see that his brightness levels were unfortunately as low as they would go. He checked his email first and immediately felt his stomach twist. He hadn't even opened the email yet, but the email was obviously from the group that Kristie was in trouble with. And he didn't like that they had his email address. After all, he had worked so hard last night to scramble everything up. Unless they'd found it after ransacking Kristie's shop... As unfortunate as that was, and had it's own consequences, he did hope that was the case because that would make things far less complicated. And as much as Kristie hated the idea of being on the run, so did he. It was still far too early in Project Tau Ceti for him to escape his inevitable criminal doom via space ship.

He was nervous about opening the email, for fear of it containing a computer version of the mailbox bombs that his neighbor kids used to put in his mailbox. (I found they no longer bothered him, and he was pretty sure that was Kristie's doing and he would need to thank her for that at some point.) Finally, after much internal debate he clicked open the link, only to find an easily decoded (for Matt) encryption about Tessa's whereabouts. Either they had purposely made it easy for him to decode, or they assumed that Kristie was smart enough to know how to decode it as well. He wasn't sure which was worse. Either way, they were well aware of his role in this operation.

Finally, he rolled over and poked Kristie. "Um. You might wanna see this," he said, setting the blindingly bright phone face up on the comforter next to Kristie's furry face. He was already starting to drag himself out of bed to check on his computer system, praying he hadn't been massively compromised.
 
"Meow?" Kristie lifted her head and blinked slowly at him before scrambling backwards as he shoved the phone in her face, pulling on the wound on her leg for a moment and making her hiss at Matt. It wasn't over the pain which was pretty mild with her mostly healed wound but because her cat eyes were more sensitive to light than his and if it had been bright for him it was like a sun for her freshly opened eyes. She gave him a dirty look before letting her eyes gradually adjust and peering at the phone. Her ears went back and her tail started whipping back and forth violently. "I see, so this is what they're up to. A trap after all." Or they could actually think she would give herself up without a struggle but that seemed unlikely.

She lifted her head and scented the air. The vampire was still around somewhere, probably patrolling again for the attackers that may or may not be coming. It wasn't particularly important to have his input just yet anyway. "You've got to give them credit, they didn't even bother to say 'come alone and unarmed', which essentially comes down to 'we are completely confident in our superior power'." She made a low growl in her throat. "Assholes." She stared at it a bit longer before letting her legs give beneath her and sighing heavily. "They are probably right too...perhaps I should just hope that they would honor a trade..."
 
Matt sat up in bed, sitting cross legged, his now extremely wrinkled shirt hanging limply on his boney shoulders. He cleared his throat a couple of times and then said nervously, "What if I go? I think they wouldn't expect that... and they want you and Avin for your supernatural powers and stuff but I'm just... nobody. We could set up a wire system with microphones and stuff so you could hear everything and maybe a little ear dealie and you could talk to me, tell me what to say and stuff? It could be a viable option..."

It was a risk, too, obviously. For he would be walking straight into someone he generally wanted to avoid. But he wanted to guess that they'd pried his information from Kristie's shop and not by hacking him somehow. And if that were the case, he was nothing more than a very regular customer and someone who was good friends with Kristie. He'd be banking on that if they decided to go with this plan. But it seemed as though he was the only one who stood a chance of getting back out unharmed. He was uninteresting to them. A plain human. And if he was just a human and only a regular customer, he was hardly much leverage to hold hostage either, unlike Tessa. He hoped.

He picked up the phone again, looking for any clues that they knew more about him than he had realized. He couldn't see anything. He got out of bed and padded to his computer room. He'd monitored this group for quite some time and had never seen his name pop up on any of their watch lists. He was curious if he was on there now.

After what felt like forever, his computer's whirred to life and he began furiously typing and doing some of his more dangerous hacking, which was unfortunately required in order to monitor who they were monitoring. He was particularly paranoid about any of the hacking that he needed to do, so he always took extreme precaution by remoting in to one of his disposable IP addresses. He liked to keep those over in Russia and China, because they were world powers that took interest in secret going ons in other governments, and while alarming to anyone if they got caught, not particularly surprising either. Because of this, he'd managed to be relatively fluent in Russian and Chinese as well.

Once he'd broken into their database, he found their monitor list and scrolled through it. Kristie and Avin were now toward the top of their list and Tessa was mentioned once or twice, though to them she was only considered a female subject. He checked for himself and deduced that he must be their male subject, sometimes referred to as customer and once or twice referred to as Matthew, which made him a little nervous. His main email address popped up but they didn't seem to have any of his other email addresses. It did appear that they had made several attempts to hack into his system but had only managed to get into his dummy system, which he had set up as any normal computer with a browsing history of youtube videos and porn and illegally downloaded music, a facebook account that he had used his own picture on. It didn't have much, because he didn't have many friends. So it remained a bit inactive, but he tried to post on it once in awhile typical dummy things, links to articles and videos. He posted close up pictures of his garden from time to time, but never his house. He'd also purposely let the computer get some viruses too, trying to make it look as normal as possible and dumb himself down. It seemed they'd gotten his name from the dummy facebook account and so he was less concerned. He felt successful in his attempts to make himself seem like a normal person. He did hope he hadn't over done it and made him look suspicious though.

He reported back to Kristie his findings after he'd safely backed his way out of all of his intricate web tunnels.
 
Kristie had an idea what Matt was going to say from the expression on his face but even as he spoke she was half wishing just about anything else would come out of his mouth. She had to admit she needed the help but she was having a hard time getting over the fact that she really, really hadn't wanted him to get involved. Her ears flattened back on her head and she watched him pad from the room in painful silence. She already essentially had to verbally reaffirm that she had to step back and remember that he was an adult who could make his own decisions even if those were extremely risky and somewhat suicidal. This was just somewhat more immediate.

Finally she let out an exhausted sigh that sounded more like a hiss and jumped carefully down from the bed. The landing was mostly pain free and she took a moment to stretch and feel what injuries were still not quite healed. Most were nearly back to normal, aside from her leg but that would be fine too by the time they started moving.

She eased into the living room, spotting Avin sleeping in a corner in his bat form. Though sleeping was a bit of a misnomer. She wondered if Avin was old enough to be somewhat practiced in his fathers restorative trance. "Vampire." She spoke low and clearly. The bat did not react for a few moments before suddenly launching itself from the ceiling and flipping over before landing neatly on the floor, now in it's more familiar form. She hated how vampires were all so ridiculously beautiful. Until they went into fighting mode anyway. She firmly pushed away memories best left where they were and stood up, showing her true form once again. "There has been contact. They wish us to come to them."

Avin nodded, his expression impassive which was indication enough of his real feelings on the matter. He had revealed himself so he had a vested interest in taking care of this matter in a fairly permanent manner as well. There wasn't much to say after that so they remained in this strange not really hostile but not particularly friendly show down either until Matt emerged to report what he found.

"You've done a good job of keeping under the radar as usual." Kristie complimented him as she plotted how she might want to do this. "Are you still sure you want to get involved? We are probably going to have to get a bit messy, both in the physical sense and electronically." Names would need to be scrubbed, even better if they could wipe the whole database. The humans who were involved were likely to be a more problematic matter.
 
"No..." Matt admitted honestly. He didn't particularly risk the meticulous personal and so very private security system he had set up for himself. He felt he had made himself a beautiful technological cocoon where he couldn't be spied on. He'd even hacked his iphone in such a way that things that most people didn't even realize got out into the collections of data, were safe from view. Matt had made himself a perfect little black hole of data, and then strung a web around himself to hide in. He didn't want to risk anyone punching a hole into his safety net.

On the other hand, he wanted to protect Kristie. She was very important to him. A friend in a world where he didn't really have any. Between her and Dominic, he was saved from a world of loneliness that he hadn't even realized he'd been living in, until it went away. And he liked the feeling. And he was very certain he wasn't about to risk losing one of the two precious friends that he had to some violent governmental-esque group. Down with centralized government.

So he nodded. "But yes, I'm sure that I will do it," though he risked a glance at Avin and wondered just why exactly the Vampire couldn't do the job himself. He wasn't sure why he was also needing to help Avin. Matt was in this for Kristie and he made it quite clear with his natural proximity to her and also with his still distrustful eyes.
 
Avin did not miss the distrust aimed at him not just by Matt but by Kristie as well. He couldn't blame them, considering the situation and Kristie's previous experiences with his sire. It was no more than what he expected so he did his best not to let it bother him. "Very well, now we need to make a plan." For all it wouldn't last past the first engagement, it would be good to have a list of goals to accomplish for whoever was able to do so in the chaos.

"If we could get a map of their base that would be best." Kristie mused aloud, her fingers twitching as she thought longingly of her own computer. "Also if we can determine where they are holding Tessa." Her words were not entirely coherent as she thought out loud. Her ears and tails were twitching with each new thought that passed through her mind. "Any information on the computer systems they use and possibly even if they also have paper copies..."

Avin shook his head ruefully. "I think as far as the information gathering goes it will mostly be up to you two."

Kristie frowned and glanced over at him. "You could use that."

Avin shrugged. "I could, but I choose not to. Besides which in the process of I may reveal myself and get captured or set off any number of inconvenient outcomes."
 
"Hmm," Matt hummed. "Sounds like laziness. Or pure chicken shit." He shrugged and picked up his laptop. The group wouldn't be so stupid to display maps. He wondered how many other poor captives they held hostage. Their quarters, wherever it may be, he thought was likely full of them. Tessa one of many more curious subjects.

It was no easy task, but he did find some old blue prints of ductwork. It was the best he could do. He showed it to Kristie. "Unless you know some secret I don't," which was to say, entirely possible. Up until now, the group, though he'd monitored them, had never been a big focus of his, while for Kristie and probably Avin as well, there was a deeper connection and a much longer term eat or be eaten type of relationship.

Matt still largely ignored Avin, finding him rather arrogant and annoying. Though he didn't really have any real good reason to be so rude to the vampire, he'd simply gotten off to a bad start by coming in uninvited, however grateful he was that he'd been able to care for Kristie.
 
Avin turned a sharp look on the human, having a brief loss of control. Matt making such judgements when he didn't even know what Avin and Kristie were talking about just rankled. Perhaps Matt would think it was just fine to use such invasive powers and if so then Avin truly would have misread the man but as it was he was simply spouting noise to make himself feel better and Avin found it exceptionally hard not to give him a taste of what he was scorning.

Kristie was somewhat surprised to finally see a crack in Avin's up until now quite calm exterior. She didn't know what to think of it just yet. They had bigger things to worry about either way. She didn't have any computer access though and for the moment could only watch Matt anxiously as he went to work and plan. Once she saw what he found she felt a nervous tightening in her chest, starting to feel that this might just be impossible after all. She had broken into places with less information but they weren't places that had been protected against supernaturals as well.

Avin had returned to his bat form and found a remote corner where he could brood in peace but when he noticed the tension between the two in the room he reluctantly flew down and peered at the diagrams himself. "Hmm, so this was the most you were able to determine? I may actually be able to help here then." He glanced at Kristie. "Your distance from the supernatural community may have isolated you from the forming of this but there are a few groups who have been putting information together, gathered painfully from many risky attempts, and they may have some more recent information especially towards what defenses might be in place."

Kristie straightened a bit and stared at him, not quite believing it. "Of course...I should have known there would be such things." She spoke musingly, seeming to be a bit more hopeful as she became lost in thought. The supernaturals were starting to work together, aiding by the advent of technology as well.

Attempting to put down his 'Lord of the Manor' stance, Avin held out a hand and asked as mildly as possible. "May I use the laptop?"
 
"No," Matt said, somewhat childishly as he snapped his laptop shut and hugged it to his chest. It was true he truly didn't understand what was going on. But he could guess well enough the level of danger, especially the risk of exposing himself and his large sums of money. Still, when Avin mentioned adding in help from others the hairs on the back of Matt's neck rose up.

It had been a big ordeal for him to admit the help he'd needed from Mr. Howard, and not without an extreme amount of research before coming forward and presenting his case. Matt's general stance on everything was that the more people there were involved, the worse off things were.

He mumbled something about needing a drink and disappeared into the kitchen where he made himself an overly sugared cup of tea that didn't actually have any alcohol in it at all. He made quite a bit of racket in the kitchen, and could even be heard swearing as one of his cabinet doors fell unsurprisingly off it's hinges. After a bit he emerged back in the doorway of the living room with his chipped tea cup, feeling a need to stand and pace a bit to soothe his ADHD.
 
Avin's ability to hold his poise was starting to visibly fray. He was trying to be patient and understanding with Matt but he only had so much to give. He managed to wait until Matt was out of the room before muttering a soft curse and strode over to his corner before returning to previous position. "You truly have the patience of a saint." He growled at Kristie soft enough only she could hear.

Kristie watched both men move in silence feeling for Matt and somewhat unsure about Avin but gradually starting to soften towards him as he started to let down his guard a bit. At his words she smiled at him weakly but did not speak until Matt returned to the room. She then moved towards him, once again employing a more diagonal rather than straight on approach so as to seem less threatening and spoke in soothing tones. "Matt." She had an inkling of what might be bothering him. "if you fear the involvement of more people, you can rest easy. I am sure the information is accessible through only the website, no one else need know what we plan." She glanced towards Avin questioning and he nodded in confirmation. "How about I use it instead?" Avin could just tell her how to access the websites instead.
 
Matt stopped pacing to look warily between the two in silence before taking up his increasingly frantic pacing. He spilled more tea than he drank with all of his movement. The sticky liquid seeped between the cracks in his worn floor. He paused again, considering Kristie, but largely ignored Avin. He'd already changed all of his passwords from when Kristie had initially made her way into his computer system, and was wary at times even with her.

Finally he said, "Whatever she can do I can do," and he sat down with the computer himself with a stubborn disposition. He finally acknowledged Avin enough to look at him. "You can help. But you can't look at what I'm doing. Kristie can look though. Those are my conditions."
 
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