[IC] Rescue and Revenge (Katherin and Raptra)

[KatherinWinter]

Roxy shook her head. "I'm tone deaf." She had no interest in music beyond enjoying it. That didn't keep her from admiring his skill. She had spent her whole life in the shadows. She couldn't imagine doing something so public. She knew this would change her life. Hopefully for the better. Right now her only goal was surviving.

"You're weird." Roxy commented when Wyn called her sunshine. It wasn't a word that anyone would use to describe her. "I'm nore shadow than sunshine." She told him. She had spent most of her time hidden. She wasn't sure that she wanted to step into the light but she knew her actions might force her to. "We should see lights soon. It's not an ideal place to stop but it's late. Unless you want to drive we should stop."

[Raptra]

Wyn scoffed in amusement at her response about being tone deaf. "I guess you've somehow managed to figure that much out. No matter, I'm sure you'll be able to pick up something else that'll help you connect with others. Although you seem to be doing fine right now, unless I'm just special."

"Shadow? Hmm..." he repeated, feigning being in deep thought. "It's definitely a way more unconventional term of endearment, but it can work. Sunshine might be bright and warm, but shadows have their own mysterious allure. I can see how that suits you better."

He had not realized how much time had passed until she suggested stopping. "You know, that isn't a bad idea. We need to rest, and let the vehicle rest, but we should still rest in shifts though. I mean, can't be too careful, can we? Heck, I'll even take the wheel after."

"I shouldn't let my bodyguard tire herself out in case something happens. Hey, maybe you could teach me a thing or two once we get somewhere safe," he then finished off with another teasing wink.

[KatherinWinter]

"You're something alright." Roxy told Wyn. She didn't know what to make of the guy. This was the most she had interacted with someone since she was sixteen. She didn't understand him.

"It's not a term of endearment." She snapped. Why the hell would he give her something like that? That was something that couples did. She didn't know what they were but they weren't a couple. The last thing she needed was more complications.

"Sure. Why not." Roxy rolled her eyes. While he might be cooperating with her at the moment didn't mean he would continue to do so. The last thing she was going to do was give him the means to take her down. "I might not be as smart as you Wyn but that doesn't mean I'm going to give up the slim advantage I have over you."

[Raptra]

"As long as I'm leaving an impression, eh?" He replied, somewhat absentmindedly, to what he assumed was a compliment by Roxy's standards.

"Psh, call it what you want," he then playfully retorted at her defensiveness about the definition of a term of endearment. "Not that it matters anyway, shadow."

He ended off with another wink, rather amused at the reaction, although a part of him wondered if he was starting to tread on dangerous ground with her. She had been apathetic for the most part, with even her occasional expression of irritation at him being fairly subtle. He had not expected such a strong reaction from her over the nickname thing, out of all the topics they have had exchanges about so far. Regardless, he had to admit that the sudden display of emotion was at least refreshing.

"Oh? Am I smarter now? You've got to make up your mind up on that one," he teased, remembering all her insinuations about him not being too bright back at the bunker. He then shrugged. "Ah well, it was worth a shot, but I'd probably run before fighting you for any reason. Doesn't matter what your chances of winning are, running is always the best defense. Anyway, you're probably tired from driving, so I can take the first shift while you nap once we pull over."

[KatherinWinter]

Roxy snorted when Wyn stated him was leaving an impression. She would never admit it but that's exactly what he was doing. He confused her.

She shook her head when he called her shadow. If only he knew. She supposed it didn't matter. That life wasn't open to her anymore. She would have to figure out a new life for herself bit first things first. She had to secure her freedom.

"Snart in some way but not so smart in others." Roxy clarified. He was definitely more educated than she was. After he had been in college but he hadn't much real world knowledge. He probably hadnt even lived on his own yet. "Running isn't a defense." She told him. Although technically that was what she was doing. Unfortunately it was the only option she had. "Naps are for children. I'll sleep once we stop. If you want to take over I guess this is as good of a place as any." She pointed to the sign for the Stateline. There was a small area there for people to park and take pictures.

[Raptra]

Wyn shrugged at her clarification. "I mean, sure, I'll take that, but not what you said about running, though. I'm sure many martial arts instructors would disagree with you on that. As far as I know, a good one would always tell you not to fight if you can run. There's no shame in doing what we're doing right now. I'd say we're both at least smart enough to know we should be running."

He scanned their surroundings as Roxy slowed the vehicle to a stop among others. The area was indeed pleasant to the eyes. The surrounding trees separating the open gravel from the woods and the calm surface of the small, nearby lake reflecting the soft light of the Moon provided a refreshing view of the natural environment. As evident from the other cars parked within the area, they were not alone. Several other people were present, enjoying the scenery and one another's company.

"Oh yeah, this is a great place," he agreed, and then sighed. "It's really too bad that this van kind of stands out. I could see us being able to hide here in plain sight if we had a car your dad and his people wouldn't recognize. I'd love to spend some time around here. The view is gorgeous, romantic even."

He shot her a quick glance and audibly cleared his throat after that last comment, then proceeded to open the door and climb out of the passenger's seat. "Alright, I guess we switch out here. You need your rest."

[KatherinWinter]

"Next time you steal the vehicle." Roxy snapped as she undid her seat belt. She hadn't thought about blending in. She hadn't hadn't had to worry about that. She was used to working in the shadows. In her mind the van was like the ones she streets every. She wouldn't ask him what made the van stand out. That would tell him that she didn't know how what he was talking about. She had no desire to look stupid to him. He already didn't think much of her.

She opened her door and got out. She didn't want to lay in the back. She would feel trapped there. Heck she would be trapped until he let her out. No she would make due with the passenger seat. She had slept in worst places. She just wasn't sure if she could slept with him so close. She wasn't sure to having someone so close to her.

[Raptra]

"Sheesh, no need to get all touchy about it," he retorted, still somewhat lightheartedly. "It's time for a breather. Let loose, take in the sights for a few seconds before we get going."

He had expected her to get a little worked up at what he had said, but not at the part she actually did. Then again, it just reminded him about how difficult she was to crack. Every time he felt he was close, something like that would reveal that he had yet another layer to get through. It was likely that it was all an act, and the reason why she was still choosing to do it might have been obvious, but it was too bad that he could not empathize enough to further ease the process of making this acquaintance.

He made a point to savor the fresh air and enjoy the pleasant scenery himself as he got out of the van to swap places with her. Looking over the groups of friends hanging around the area brought about bittersweet feelings. Would he ever have people in his life whom he did not have to hide his past from? Once they knew, they would be taken from him. Roxy knew, and they were literally on the run together. Perhaps this was why he was comfortable around her despite her abrasive attitude.

"Seriously though, I don't care if you'd like to 'be a child' and take a nap right now. I'll get us there, and drive nice and smooth," he declared, once they were both settled in. He then started the vehicle, lowering his voice to a gentle and comforting whisper as he teasingly winked. "Sleep tight, my little shadow."

[KatherinWinter]

"This isn't a vacation." Roxy snapped when Wyn told her to let lose and enjoy the sights. He apparently thought this was some kind of adventure. She wished it was. While it might be a matter of life and death it would impact their futures. Hers more than his she thought. Maybe that's why he wasn't concerned with the outcome.

She didn't pay any attention to the fresh air or the scenery. She simply climbed in and reclined the car as much as she could. Then she closed her eyes. "Good luck." She told him. She closed her eyes. She was exhausted. She wanted to sleep. Unfortunately it wasn't that simple. She had learned to not let down her guard. As long as she couldn't let her guard down so the best she could manage was a light dose.

Roxy tried to think about what was on the disk. It had to be important for her father to go after it after all this time. But if it was important why wait this long? Had something come up to remind him? She needed to figure that out but she had no idea how to do that. She didn't have any contacts that didn't report to her father.

Eventually Wyn found an internet Cafe and stopped.

[Raptra]

The remainder of the drive was as uneventful as the trip before the stop. In fact, without Roxy awake to converse with him this time, the resulting silence within the vehicle seemed to weigh heavily on him. He occasionally glanced in his napping companion's direction while he drove them, drawing some comfort from the reminder that she was still beside him. He could tell that she sorely needed the rest, but he knew that it would be a long time before she could get some truly peaceful, undisturbed sleep, with the whole shady business on her mind. In addition, it was clear that she still did not fully trust him, but that was understandable, and not that there was anything more he could do about it anyway.

The Sun was rising over the next city as they reached its outskirts, and Wyn turned the phone (which he had shoved in the emptied chip bag anyway) back on to help direct him to the nearest internet cafe. It was still slightly earlier than the rush hour, and he navigated along the relatively-sparse streets, meaning to get to their destination before they were caught in traffic with the citizens driving to work. He figured he would get them to the cafe just in time for it to be open, but they ended up arriving just a little before it did. He went around the building before slowing to a stop near the back entrance of the establishment and looked over to the sleeping runaway mafia princess, knowing he had to wake her.

He leaned in and nudged her gently as he whispered. "Rise and shine, little shadow. Time to see what's on that thing, I guess."

[KatherinWinter]

Roxy didn't sleep but simply dozed. She was used to dozinh to recharge. She tried to figure out what to do. The problem was that she wasn't used to being in charge. She was used to being given directions. It was frustrating to realize that she wasn't as independent as she had once thought she was. It was something that she was determined to fix as soon as she could.

When Wyn nudged her, Roxy snapped awake and reached for her knife. One had left it's sheath before she recognized him. "Don't do that!" She snapped at him. She didn't want to hurt him. He was an innocent. None of this was his fault. He had just been related to someone who had done business with her father. "Let's see if this chip is worth anything."

She ran a hand over her face as she sat up. She looked around. They were in a city. She didn't think it was a big city. But it was big enough to have an internet Cafe. Here they should be able to access the chip without waiving any flags. It wouldn't keep her father from finding their trail but it would slow things down.

[Raptra]

Startled at her pulling her weapon out upon waking, Wyn jerked back, resulting in the back of his head slamming against the car window behind him. He should have been prepared for something like that, considering how on edge she was constantly, but it had been a long drive and that detail had probably slipped his mind. He rubbed where he had bumped his head with a groan while nodding concededly when she snapped at him for that oh-so-reckless action.

"Right... fine, I had that coming..." he muttered in a strained voice as he waited for the pain to subside, and then sighed. "Slept well?"

He turned to look out at the back door of the cafe for any sign of it being occupied. Sure enough, he saw the lights of the establishment turn on through the small frosted window of the door, indicating that a staff member or the owner must have arrived and opened the place. An individual's silhouette was then spotted through the glass before it promptly disappeared, implying that whoever it was had just unlocked the door. He then glanced back at Roxy and gestured to the back door with his thumb before holding up a dollar he had also found in the glove compartment earlier.

"I guess they're open for business. This should get us at least an hour I'd say."

Taking another deep breath, he exited the vehicle with her presumably doing the same. They just had to act casual, and hopefully, they would be getting somewhere with what was on that disc.

[KatherinWinter]

Roxy nodded. She had no idea. Saw had never paid for internet. She had always just used whatever WIFI she could find. She followed him into the building. They must of just opened because no one was there.

"Just sign in. If you're paying with card do it at the computer. If you're paying with cash, you pay here." The worker told them as they entered. Roxy let Wyn deal with that. She was sure there was some sort of tracking the business was required to do in case someone dis something they weren't supposed to do.

While he dealt with the worker, she took the opportunity to look around. She figured they needed a computer that was away from the winding. Maybe towards the back. She didn't know if the worker would check on them or not. They needed to look like B they weren't hiding their activities. So not the corner or very last room she thought as she studied the lay out.

[Raptra]

Wyn handed the dollar over to the staff and engaged in a little small talk with them, keeping them occupied while Roxy scanned the place for a suitable station. No doubt the both of them looked very much worn out, and he was able to use that to fib about them being a couple of exhausted college students who suddenly had issues with their personal computer and had a project that was due that very afternoon. Spotting his companion eventually taking a seat, he then ended the conversation and left the counter to join her at the workstation.

He was not sure what to expect once the disk was inserted into the computer, and so did not have much of an opinion about the window that popped up on the monitor. It looked like a command prompt, and he watched as incomprehensible text rapidly began to fill the dark area on the screen. It finally ended with a matrix of alphabets with each column and row numbered along its X and Y axes, and the text cursor continued to blink on the line below that, likely expecting an input. It was clear that whatever was on this disk was secured behind some sort of passcode. He turned to Roxy with a contemplative look, and then focused his attention back on the matrix. There had to be a clue in there.

It was not long before he recognized a word, or rather, a name running diagonally across the array of alphabets. Could it be? The chip was placed in the watch his biological father left him after all, and if Roxy's claim was correct, then it would make sense that this lock was put on by him for Wyn to crack. It was worth a shot. He sighed with a solemn smile and shook his head, running his cursor across the name he had spotted. He was certain that Roxy was familiar with it, considering all the research she had done on him.

"Cole Sullivan..." he read aloud. "Haven't heard that one in a long time."

He keyed in the corresponding numbers on the X and Y axes to the name on the matrix, hit 'Enter', and then waited for whatever was to happen.

[KatherinWinter]

"Great." Roxy muttered when she saw the matrix. She had no idea how to deal with something like that. She stared at it, feeling defeated. She should have known it would be protected somehow. But she figured since it had been hidden for like ten years, it couldn't have anything too sophisticated. Apparently, she had been wrong.

Luckily, while she had been staring at the matrix like an idiot, Wyn had identified and solved it. It hadn't even taken him ten minutes. "I guess it's a good thing I brought you along." She might have figured it out, but it would have taken time she couldn't afford.

The God's Eye flashed across the screen. Roxy frowned, and that name was familiar. "Shit!" She exclaimed. The clerk glanced at them. She gave the woman a fake smile and a thumbs up hoping to convince the woman that everything was alright.

[Raptra]

Watching as their surprise loaded onscreen, Wyn shrugged at Roxy's 'compliment', though, it was nice to hear it coming from someone like her. "Not that I gave you choice, did I?"

His playful smirk after that comment quickly disappeared as he shifted his focus back to the computer screen when an unfamiliar symbol appeared, blinking, on the screen. He was about to actively search his memory for any recollection of the image when her unexpected outburst startled him as much as the staff member at the counter, perhaps even more so, considering he was seated right next to her, and that this was another tier of emotional expression from her he had not yet seen. She had so far ranged from apathetic to moderately irritated during their time together, and for her to curse out loud like that now... was this actual fear he was seeing?

After she appeased the staff she had worried, he leaned in and whispered with caution. "Uhh hun? What is that symbol? How much trouble are we in? Like, should we be booking it right now or...?"

[KatherinWinter]

Roxy rolled her eyes at his comment about not giving her a choice. "I could have left you at aby point." Technically she could have but it wouldn't have done her any good and put him in danger. It had been a lose lose option so she let him stay and hoped it would be worth it.

"We should be booking it like yesterday. As far and as fast as we can." Roxy told him honestly. Unfortunately they had the clerks attention and leaving before their time was up mightmake them stick out in her mind. Not that they wouldn't already. "But we can't." Just than the door opened and a couple college age people entered. They went to the counter. Maybe the place would get busy enough that the clerk forgot them. "Close this down and pull up something college related."

[Raptra]

Wyn chose not to say anything about her retort. He would have gladly continued this playful 'competition' in getting her to reveal the soft spot she had under that cold, jaded exterior, but it would seem that they had more pressing matters to worry about. She had not yet elaborated on her knowledge of what they were looking at, but noticing her paranoia extend to wanting to stay put even though they should be getting out of there so as to not draw attention, it was clear that not discussing it where they were was of top priority. He shrugged at her request to open something related to college studies as a coverup.

"I guess you're the veteran..." he muttered under his breath, proceeding to search for the first thing he remembered from his classes. "Might as well study since this is what we're doing."

He let out an amused scoff after his last statement, and in just a few clicks, a mathematical formula sheet and a random assignment paper filled the screen, covering the suspicious command prompt. To make it more convincing, he grabbed some recycled paper and a pen from an open box at the edge of table and started to work on solving the equations on screen. What he had pulled up was a topic he had gone through during his previous term at the university, so he mostly knew what he was doing. Meanwhile, his foot tapped impatiently as they waited for the establishment to fill up so that they could leave.

[KatherinWinter]

"If we leave before our time is up the clerk might remember us," Roxy growled softly. She also grabbed a piece of paper. Unlike him, she had never seen the problem. She was watching the time more than working on the problem. They had about twenty minutes to fill.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the clerk scanning the room. As she thought the woman kept track of people. She figured they had some that alerted her or blocked things that could get the business into trouble. She wondered how long they kept their history. "Is there a way change our activity? The history will show we opened something if they check it."

[Raptra]

"I mean, sure, no problem," he whispered in response to her reasoning. "I'm certain that you're keeping track of your dad's location. We can stay as long as he and his people aren't going to be bursting in here looking for us."

He scoffed lightly in amusement at her question, but kept his eyes on his paper as he replied. "I know how to erase our activity, but as for changing it... well, pretty sure we can't turn back time to do that, and I unfortunately don't have the knowledge or resources to override it. In fact, I'd have thought that injecting fake data into a system would be more up your alley, Miss Runaway Mobster."

He then shot her a quick wink and proceeded to eject the disk. "In any case, I'm guessing we want this back first. The longer we leave it in here, the riskier it'll be."