capeandcowllogs | business as usual?

Entry tags:

business as usual?

WHO: Selina, Jaime
WHERE: Out, about
WHEN: Tack it on for a super late night one of these days!
WARNINGS: Idk yet gosh
SUMMARY: Seriously this is the one time he's NOT looking for burglars to bust he just wants to get his paper done on time
FORMAT: No

Seriously now. Jaime Reyes has had alien technology fused to his brain and spine for years now, yet somehow logic still dictated he was going to wind up with printer issues the night before one of his three papers was due?

It's the universe's revenge for procrastinating by patrolling. Which, in turn, required counter-revenge by...by more patrolling on his way to find a shop still open that late to accommodate him. He was pretty sure it was going to end poorly, so at least he could skim around for something to take his aggression out on, right? Some common, everyday ne'er-do-wells of the burly, hairy variety, no doubt. The usual.

At that late hour, he could afford to fly low and not wind up causing a stir on the street. Scanning for open businesses was easier that way, too, so it was another win-win. Or...Or the only win-win, if the array of CLOSED signs to the electronic stores was anything to go by. Because that was definitely a lose-lose.

Wait, no. That'd make the whole night a win-lose, right?

Oh, man. I need to stop drinking coffee.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It wasn't a half-bad plan, really. Mob-fronted computer repair shop used at a place to exchange electronic data too sensitive to email. It was probably encrypted and she probably wouldn't be able to read it. But still, stealing every flash drive in the place would certainly impact the operations, at least in the short term.

In and out through the roof. Piece of cake.

He kind of expected this. Computer-slash-electronic stores were typically nine-to-fivers. Or sixers, the ones more sympathetic to people with nine-to-five lives. And it was almost two in the morning. So, really, it was more salt in the wound to fly over places he knew were closed, pretending somehow one of the managers would be doing stock late and take mercy on his poor, procrastinating college soul. He could always throw the superhero card out and say it was to help save the world, anyway.

It was just a stupid idea, though, and Jaime had practically forgotten about it when Scarab relayed a heat signature inside the nearest repair shop. That's...not normal. Even he knew his wishful thinking was no doubt just that.

He landed on a building two spaces away and a stack of stories higher and squinted, getting the full range of Scarab scanners to scope out the situation.

Managers don't rifle and bag stuff like that. He's pretty sure. Not decent managers, anyway. And they certainly don't head up to leave...

He grew his wings again and stepped off the ledge, drifting up before starting to do a fly around and land before there was a good chance to get out of sight.

Closer, Scarab offered one more helpful clip of information: meowingcat.wav.

Jaime thought it was more disruptive than helpful at the time, but in hindsight, it was very clever. Distant hindsight. Swapping vision channels to actually see the outfit the lady was sporting was the real kicker––

Oh.

OH, WAIT.

"Catwoman," he blurted, low enough in altitude to be heard. "Really?"

"Beetle," she replied, looking more amused than annoyed. She even tipped him a little wave. The rooftops and sky had always been a bit crowded in the City. "Hey."

The impulse return wave is halted fairly quickly, because, dammit, this is not a courtesy call.

"Yyyeah, hi," Jaime drags out, tilting his head and squinting. "What exactly are you doing here? At this particular place and time?"

"Stopping crime, of course." Isn't it obvious, Jaime? Why else would she be breaking and entering.

"And yourself?"

"Not really seeing that," he admitted, just as quickly shaking his head of it and folding his arms. More authoritative, he thinks.

It doesn't really work around someone like Selina, however. It just doesn't. But he carried on anyway.

"Is there a story behind this store or something? Because..."

"Run by the bad guys." From her tone, it's clear she expected that to be obvious. "What, you don't trust me after all this time?"

Jaime's reply was hasty, a little on-the-spot at the jab. So much for arm-folding; his hand went to the back of his neck as he peers at the roof – through and inside.

"It's not like I can just turn off my common sense when I see someone jacking in and out of some place like this, you know." Of course, even rambling like that was proof of the benefit of doubt; she helped Abby, after all. He landed, a little heavily by losing the wings a couple feet up. "What was it that needs pilfering?"

Edited 2011-11-15 13:38 (UTC)

"Information." She looked at him, a slight tilt of her head. The goggles hid her eyes but she appeared to be thinking. And studying him.

And he, in return, was doing likewise, though his mask did a lousy job of hiding any expression at all.

"You know," he said, his head tilting, "I kind of am in the possession of info-crunching tech right here. If whatever you need out of there can be peeled off, transcribed, and put back..."

"Perhaps altered and put back?" she replied, smirking a bit. "Don't want to make things too easy for them."

"Or," he pressed, "give them – if these are bad guys – any excuse to cry foul for having their junk jacked. Yeah?" Because really, he had no idea what lead she was working on. Bad defined a broad scope of things and people working in and out of the City.

He held out his hand. "Can I see?"

"If they're given the wrong location and that address happens to be passed off to the cops.."

She only hesitate a moment before passing off the bag. There's a couple dozen flash drives inside.

Jaime fished around and picked up one of the drives, pinching it between a finger and his thumb and bringing it closer to his face. With a couple blinks, he gives Scarab the chance to see inside-out. Guess I shouldn't be surprised it's normal enough, he thought, moving it away from his eye. It's what's in the inside that counts.

"Oh, here––" To free up his other hand, he held the bag back out for Selina, as simply as if he were just exchanging grocery bags or something. "I bet I can just..." Two of his fingers melded together and flattened out, the tip altering. "Oh, cool. That'll work. So let's see..."

He plugged the drive in...into his fingers, which was weird only if he stopped to think about it. Squinting, he let the suit feed in the data and send it out, expanding a hologram screen for the both of them to see.

Selina's eyes skated over the details. Names, times, addresses, numbers. "You are handy, aren't you?" she murmured as she read.

Maybe a little too handy. He grimaced at the lists of private details, starting to feel really underhanded.

"You're...positive this is bad guy stuff, right?" he asked. "Because if it's not, and we're just kind of nosing around in other people's business..."

"Human trafficking bad enough for you?" Her voice was cold. It was something she'd seen a few too many time in the City.

"Are you serious?"

He felt cold, and not necessarily because of the chill in Selina's voice. Alien invaders, sure. Crazy murder-mutants, okay. He tended to tackle things a little over-the-top or fairly mundane. Petty thieves and what have you. But that was different.

He gaped at the data screen. "You mean the guys who run this place are...?"

"Involved in transport," she finished. "That's just one of their sources of income. One of the worst."

That and black market trade in exotic animals. But most people didn't find the abuse of even endangered animals to be anywhere on the same level. Selina however wasn't most people.

The screen flickered a few times before fading out entirely, and Jaime pulled the drive from his fingers and looked at it for a moment. Holding it back out to her, his shoulders lifted up with his breath.

"How else can I help?"

She studied him for a minute. Hard for her to remember sometimes that there were people who weren't used to this crap. "They use the flash drives to avoid a hackable database. But maybe bugging the place could help."

Bugging? Jaime frowned, looking over and down past the edge of the roof. Sure, he was Beetle, but...

"Yeah, maybe..." But he didn't have the means right then and there. Tim, perhaps. Or Ted. Ted was good with making the stuff.

"I'd have to get that stuff from someone else," Jaime admitted, looking back up. "All of my tech stays stuck on me.

Selina nodded. "There are bigger fish then the middle men. But keeping tabs on them couldn't hurt."

He looked a little disappointed. Middle men, huh... It's not like he could just swoop in, punch someone in the face and fix everything in a situation like that.

"I guess if you don't mind having another person in on this, I can get a hold of the materials..."

"That's fine." She studied him for a moment. "Not really used to this sort of thing, huh?"

"No," he admitted, letting his head drop a bit at that. "I've mostly just done the...rescue-someone-from-a-mugger, punch-an-alien-in-the-face, zap-a-giant-robot-or-dinosaur kinds of things. Everything being all up-front and in your face, you know?"

It felt a little weird, standing there discussing something like that.

"Well, anyway," he cleared his throat. "I'll see if Ted can help out with this, yeah?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

business as usual?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject