Troubled Mind (Private DS) [COMPLETE]

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Fire. Smoke. Screams. With the village up in flames all of the villagers were running around, helping friends and trying to save whatever wealth they had. All he could do was watch. Instead of being terrified, he was shocked. Some of the inaudible yells suddenly turned and faced him accusingly. Stereotypes. But he didn't have anything to do with this, unless he did. Trying to speak did nothing. Something hard hit him in the head, and he crouched, cradling his head in his hands. He needed to run, get as far away from here as possible. He wasn't wanted here and any authorities would be here soon enough, and he would be blamed for this. With blood blocking his vision and smoke blinding his senses he ran, ignoring the objects and words being thrown at him.

Arik shook his head. The same memory kept coming back, haunting him in his sleepless nights and now in the day. Any distractions he took didn't work, the projects becoming interrupted more and more often, and he didn't have anyone to talk to about it. He just wanted to get away from it all. The reminder of why he was like this, and looking for distractions had become more and more dangerous for him. Twice he's almost gotten himself killed looking upon things he probably shouldn't have, learning this he'd be better off without. He was smarter than that, yet at the same time he was as dumb as them all. The only reason he was hiding as a human was because almost no one knew of him in this form, most people he knew saw him as a were and a were only, with his slightly cocky and enthusiastic behavior. The only thing that resembled that now was his black hair. It was natural for him to be more cautious in his human form, he was much weaker than he was as a wolf and there were many more threats this way. But now it was the way he had to be, probably for the rest of his life. Even in those life-threatening situations the were had never thought to go were, it would expose him to much. Maybe he didn't care if he died anymore, death was going to come either sooner or later. He had also stopped using his powers, although that wasn't much of a change as he never had a reason to really use them in the first place.

But that was months ago, and he was just looking for another distraction today. The sky was overcast with grey clouds threatening them to give the citizens a light rain later today. With the slight wind adding to the chill in the air everything seemed to be pretty normal. Even with less people wandering the streets than usual, those who weren't out were probably hiding from the weather from inside their homes. Arik knew he shouldn't be looking for trouble like this, but it was his only source of mental relief, and without anything else to turn to it was just going to have to work until it killed him. Although now he just had to decide what he was going to do. The alleys always had some sort of thing going on, but he could always just wait for some suspicious person or group to walk by and follow them. Taking a seat on one of the cities benches Arik rubbed his tired face, trying to be able to stay up before he slipped into another haunting memory.

Arik finally withdrew his laptop, placing it on the table. If she was able to notice, his laptop wasn't like any of the ones you could buy. It was custom made, and ended up working better than one of the store bought ones. He quickly flipped through some things as if it was a second nature, barely giving the woman a chance to see what exactly he was doing. Soon enough he came across one of the leaders files. "Here it is. Yuuki Hatake, leader of Dragon Storm and..." he started, glancing from the picture that came with the file to her. Realizing his sentence stop he cleared his throat and continued.

"A skilled 'assassin.' Very fast and dangerous. The location of her guild is unknown, but we'd like to think it might be located somewhere in Vetur. Family unknown." There was more written on the file, but he was sure that she could read the rest herself or wouldn't care for him to read the whole thing out loud. But now that he read more about this person, he wondered if she really could be this person, and how much she'd like to know that he could obtain all of this information.

Yuuki's eyes scanned the laptop. A highly productive, high-speed laptop that would definitely not be out in the world for people to buy. Types like these were reserved mostly for the government or for military use only, but Dragon Storm had quite a few of these leftover that Yuuki was able to get working. But this... this was definitely custom-made. After all, she had a trained eye that could notice all of those small kinks that had been modified in the laptop itself. Did this kid also make this laptop? If he did, then yes... he had quite an array of technological skills. Maybe, just maybe....

She shook that thought away, watching as he typed a few buttons in too fast for her to see, and pulled up a file. There was a blurred and pixelated footage next to the file itself, too blurry for someone to clearly make out who the person was. One couldn't possibly tell it was her, especially considering the fact that Yuuki made a conscious effort to blend in with society and not stand out.

At least they got some of the facts about her right?

While that made her proud that she was labeled as dangerous, at the same time, she couldn't help but feel a pang of worry. If she was labeled as dangerous, that would mean that she was labeled as a threat and would want exterminated. And who in their right mind would want that? Not her, most definitely. And thankfully, they got the guild location wrong. Very much so.

She stayed silent as she read through the rest of the files. There wasn't much more about her anymore, since that was the only info the government was able to locate. But somehow, this man was able to get a hold of these files. Finishing the reading, her eyes glanced up to meet the young man's green eyes sharply.

"How did you obtain this information?" She didn't care that he would probably assume that she was Dragon Storm's leader. That was a matter she could take care of, no problem.

Arik watched her as she read, trying to read what exactly she was thinking and what he should be thinking. But the woman was rather good at keeping her emotions quiet, and he couldn't tell if the one showing was interest, anger, annoyance, or even fear. She glanced up at him, wondering how he was able to acess the government files.

"How to do it is rather... complicated, " he started off truthfully. "And depending on your knowledge of technology it can either make a lot of sense, or no sense at all." The boy shrugged. He never had to explain his methods to anyone- although that might not be entirely true, there was at least one person he would have guided through. But at the same time, what if all of this was just guiding him Into a trap meant for him to actually confess that he was doing things rather illegally.

"But... how do I know I can trust you with this information, if you think you can handle it? You might just take it and call the cops on me while you scheme out some evil plan." Maybe that was a little too childish for her with the 'evil scheme.' He could also just be getting himself in more trouble with her, which was just as likely. Arik wondered if she realized that just a little force would probably cause his fake facade to crack.

Yuuki's eyes were still trained on the young man, having not left him as he attempted to answer Yuuki's question. Complicated? So he had been able to hack into top-secret government files to gain this information? Yuuki couldn't decide whether to be slightly horrified, or slightly amazed. While there had been hackers in the past... no matter the situation, that was still no easy feat, considering that technology security had improved vast amounts since a while ago.

Oh, so he was playing cautious as well? Well, unfortunately for him, this was information that even the cops didn't know of. And evil plans? That was a bit farfetched. He seemed nervous. If Yuuki could just push a little further, then maybe...

"This is information that even simple police officers don't know about," she said absentmindedly, eyes dropping down to scroll through the information again. A few more seconds of this, and she shifted in her seat to gain a more comfortable position. "It would be a mistake to inform them of this."

"I am one hundred percent that I can handle this. Now, what other files do you have?"

Arik mentally sighed when she said it'd be a mistake to tell the cops about this information. She was rather right, but at least he knew that she wouldn't rat him out on them at least. "Okay then, but don't blame me if you can't keep up." He stated, leaning back slightly in his seat before he went on a long ramble about how he got into it when from the perspective of him accessing the files it only seemed like a few seconds. If she interrupted him through this spiel he wouldn't mind that much, he doubted anyone could fully understand what he was talking about half the time.

After he finished talking he couldn't help but let out a little laugh. She wanted more files? Of course, who wouldn't. "Well, depends on what you want. The whole internet is my domain." He said, spreading out his arms. The boy then, rather quickly, stopped his arrogant display and went back to his computer. "But, seriously, I'd like you to name one thing I couldn't find, and don't make it too easy." Arik gave a little smirk, glancing up at her. Maybe a bit of a challenge would interest her?

Yuuki laced her fingers together and placed her elbows on the table, leaning her weight onto her hands. She listened calmly to his explanation of how he was able to hack into the files, and Yuuki was able to keep up for the most part, having done some hacking herself. My, he was rambling for quite a long time, that just proved he knew much about this specific subject.

But her main concern were the other files. Did he have them or not? That was the question she wanted answered.

But of course, the young man was going to play a little minx and act high and mighty. And that was a bit farfetched to proclaim that the whole Internet belonged to him, but whatever. It wasn't like she knew what he was capable of, but he didn't know what she could do as well. That made them even for the most part.

One thing that he couldn't find? Hmm.

"Fine. See if you can locate where Dragon Storm's base is."

He was expecting something that wouldn't be too easy, but still not hard, like some more information on some other member or maybe another guild or anything else, really. But now, he was just screwed. He took a breath without saying anything, his smile faltering as he began to work. He should have known better than risking that possibility that the woman would ask one of the things that the internet wouldn't be able to supply him with. Even if it was narrow, it was still there, and now he had to see what he could do about it.

Even if there was no actual reason to feel pressured, he did. Most likely the reason for it was because he had challenged her, and now he was most likely going to lose. He'd like to think she'd just be disappointed- and if so why should he care? But the male guessed that for whatever reason she continued to interrogate him for that his failures weren't going to help him. As he continued to browse he went through the pages as if they only had one word on them, his eyes quickly looking for any keywords and anything that would pop out. There had been a few things, but after a bit more reading had proven insufficient of giving him what he needed.

After a few more minutes, Arik realized it was going to be useless to continue. He could feel as she watched him, wondering if she was expecting him to fail. Should he just give up now, or look around some more? The male frowned a bit, trying to think of a general area where it could be. If she was the leader of the team, then it could be likely that they came from around here. If it was somewhere in Xastristan then it wouldn't be in any of the buildings as they were all occupied to some extent, and if the government was really concerned about her and her team then they would have found them by now. It had to be hidden, and not in plain sight either. He scanned over a map of the area, trying to manually find it by some miracle.

Arik closed his eyes, letting out a sigh as he slightly hung his head before looking back up at the woman. "Well, you got me." He admitted, pulling away from the screen only to reveal a map that he left on Xastristan's west coast. "There's no actual information on the base's location, only speculations of about every spot in the continents. I'll admit, whoever there leader is-" the male paused for a slight second before continuing, as if casually accusing her of being the leader, "-they are rather talented at keeping their guild a secret."

Good. If the Dragon Storm base could be that easily found, then Yuuki and her team would have already long been captured. After all, it was their home. Of course it had to be well-protected, and Yuuki had risked quite an amount of things in order for it to stay hidden. If this teenager could break in, then that would just prove that she was incompetent in her job. Genius or not, Yuuki still had more experience in the matter, so she was pretty certain she could hold out just a bit longer. But the map had landed on the west coast, where Dragon Storm's base was conveniently located. Yuuki let nothing cross her expression, maintaining a poker face as she stared at the map.

And it seemed he suspected her, with his tone of speech. Well, there had been some rather obvious hints that had been dropped, either by accident or on purpose. But that was an issue that could be dealt with simply. She would figure that out later. That was what she was good at anyway, acting on the fly.

"Of course it's hidden. They have many enemies."

"Now. Tell me, and show me, everything you know. Do not lie to me." Her voice dropped considerably lower, taking on a dangerous outline. "You would not like what happens if you lie."

The woman still made no expression as she examined his work. He expected her to let him go now- he had given what he could. Instead it was the exact opposite. She obviously knew something about them, whether it proved she was the leader or just one of their enemies. He could honestly care less, what business was it to him?

Apparently it was more his business than he'd like to think, considering she thought that he knew more than what he was giving, or at least that's what he assumed. He had a good idea what would happen if he lied, but if she thoght he knew more already than admitting that he didn't wasn't going to be good. "I- This- I don't know anymore unless I could find more about the team, but, I don't see why you think I know more." He stated, the boy's eyes flickering from her face to her hands, watching her for movement he might be able to avoid. Arik could tell his voice sounded worried, but it was mostly from her not trusting him, not from false information she seemed to think he had. In one way, he wondered what she would do to him if she thought he was lying, but at the same time he didn't want to find out.

Yuuki's eyes did not drop from their dangerous glare. The young male was slowly breaking, she could tell that much. Then again, even when they had first met, he was never really that tough. Always stuttering, slightly shaking, he was like a tiny little puppy who was first seeing the world. She pushed his laptop back towards him, and shut it.

Once again, this time Yuuki wasn't completely sure whether he was lying or not. The boy's voice was being overtaken by a slight tremor, which could have passed off as both a lie or just plain fear, so Yuuki couldn't take risks. There were only so many options she could take. It was to either kill him on the spot, question him further, or let him leave. Killing him on the spot would leave her out in the open for a murder, and letting him leave could let valuable talent or information slip between her fingers.

"Fine, let me put it this way. Why were you researching about the team in the first place? It's common knowledge that they're dangerous. Do you want to be in danger?"

Arik was graceful when she pused his laptop back towards him, cautiously placing a hand on it but making no quick move to store it in his jacket. His laptop was probably his most prized possession, and he hoped he didn't show that too much. It be too hard to rebuild one if he had all the right parts, but this one was built to perfection from over the years.

But he couldn't focus on that with the predator close enough to attack. "I just stumbled upon them when going through their files, idle information that was floating around in my head until my brain deemed the memory to be insufficient of helping me. Of course the weak connection got sparked when we spoke about it. I've only heard small rumors about them before, the label on the file the only other indication that they were dangerous. Usually I shouldn't have to worry about them, I'm a nobody who would only be targeted when I decide to corrupt all of their files." He said, wondering for a second if he said a bit too much. "As for being in danger, I would doubt that Dragon Storm would ever have a reason to waste their time with me, so I wouldn't have thought of being in danger by them. But for me, danger is just a free destraction." His fingers lightly patted the top of his laptop, a motion he barely remembered starting. Even if she decided to take the were's laptop it was practically impossible for her to get into it unless she somehow knew the code. And even if she did take it he could still track it. He wondered how surprised she'd be if he made it to wherever her team was located. She probably wouldn't be surprised, she'd just kill him on the spot. With a final pat he took his hand off of the laptop and leaned back in his seat, waiting for whatever she had to say next.

"Usually I shouldn't have to worry about them, I'm a nobody who would only be targeted when I decide to corrupt all of their files."

There seemed to be an underyling threat hidden underneath that message, or maybe it was Yuuki who was thinking too deeply into this situation. But, on the contrary, he did say "when", not "if". Either that was just a slip of the tongue, or he really would plan to target their files. Yuuki made a mental note to strengthen her files even further, but this wasn't the most worrying thing. Plenty of people had tried to hack and gain access to their files. All had proven failures so far.

Danger was a free distraction.... of course it was. Yuuki couldn't count how many times she had heard that phrase before, back when she was with that organization. Back then, she had found those morons inexplicably stupid for thinking that. They wanted to be in danger? They wanted to possibly get themselves killed? She couldn't help but be slightly amused with his efforts. Looked like he was a bit more fearless than he looked. He could make an excellent asset to the team... if it weren't for the fact that he liked to keep secrets. But everyone had their own demons, Yuuki included. Well, why not give this a test then? They were looking for more members, anyways.

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a card with a very secure hotline listed on there. "I'd like to offer you a position on the team. In return for you joining, I can give you shelter, plus all of the technology you want to mess around with. Try to access the hotline."

"If you can."

She shot one last challenge at him, confident that if he ever did call, he would be able to bypass the securities and get through. She stood up from the booth, tucking her hands into her pockets. "Maybe I'll see you soon, then." With that, she turned on her heel and walked out of the cafe place area whatever.



OK TIMESKIP ARIK

Arik was surprised at her seemingly sudden change of mood. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a card that she handed to him. He was slightly hesitant to take it at first, but eventually did out of curiosity more than anything. She wanted him on the team? She just admitted that she was Yuuki, the leader of Dragon Storm. What exactly did he get himself into? On the surface, it didn't seem like much, a card with a number on it. He could throw it away and be done with it, simple as that. But it felt as if this whole thing had a deeper meaning behind it, like if he didn't do it within a time her and her team would come after him. Of course, it was highly possible that he was making it all up, but with this new unknown foe you could barely be sure.

~Le Time Skippe~

It had been a few days since Arik had met that strange woman. He still hadn't called the number, but it always taunted him. He had left it on the counter in the open of his hotel room he was staying in, mostly so that he didn't forget about it but also so that he didn't lose it. The only times it moved was when he picked it up, but he had all the information he could get off of it on a separate piece of paper. It had occurred to him that he should probably take it apart, see if there was anything more to it that wasn't on the top, but he also guessed that it could be set-up with some sort of alarm or other tactic so he couldn't get in it. Of course, if that was true it probably had a tracker of some sorts in it. Wouldn't mean much to him anyways.

He had researched what he could, but most of it wasn't anything useful or anything at all. Sort of like the guild, nothing much was known about the line. The good thing about that was that it shouldn't be a scam line or something on the lines of that, but he was still curious on what she meant by 'access the hotline, if you can.' What sort of security did she have tied onto it? Maybe he should just call it to find out.

Arik pulled out his phone, dialing the number. -Stuff later- Finally he was put through, the phone making occasional rings to tell him that they hadn't picked up or hung up on him, yet. It was at this point that Arik began to pace around the room. If it wasn't bad enough in public, it was even worse when you couldn't see the person you were talking too, and barely knew them. He couldn't remember if the woman knew his name yet even, and if she didn't would he tell her? Apparently it didn't matter, as the phone picked up and he'd have to make a choice between speaking and waiting.

"Um, hello?"

Yuuki leaned back on her chair in her office study. She frowned at her holographic computer screen, as she typed out a few keys on her holographic keyboard (cuz we're in the damn future guys). She dragged a few things through the screen, as she enlarged other images and swiped them across the screen. As she was preparing to type in a code, her phone rang. Yuuki raised an eyebrow. Was it that young man she had met and talked with in the cafe? Yuuki smiled thinly. Well, he came through. Maybe he really would accept Yuuki's offer then. He would be a great asset to the team, no matter how wimpy he seemed. At least his intelligence could make up for it.

Yuuki picked up the phone, cradling it between her ear and shoulder. "Um, hello?" She heard him say awkwardly.

"Arik," she greeted calmly. Yes, she had done her research. Of course, she had her own ways of finding out his identity, but she had done a thorough enough of a background check to at least pass the young man for now. She eyed her computer screen, rolling her chair towards her hologram table on the other side of her desk. Pressing a few buttons, a large hologram depicting a certain building and its layout appeared, hovering over the table.

She swiped it, playing around with the hologram as she adjusted the angle in different areas and zoomed in so she could seal the layout into her brain for her next mission. Gray eyes rapidly scanned back and forth. She grabbed a special pen, and circled some of the key areas that she may have to look out for.

"Have you accepted my offer then?"

Arik wasn't sure what to expect when she answered. Maybe, due to their last encounter, something more violent then the calm and collected answer he got. It took him a second to reply to her. "Yeah- yes," he said, wondering if that was the right choice. What was he going to do now? The only option seemed to be to wait for her to do something- like reveal this was all a huge prank or something. Or to tell him something to do. The male wondered how much she trusted him yet. Would she just give him the location of their base? He could easily be undercover to tell the government all he could find out about this guide. Arik just waited, tapping his fingers on his leg.

The dark brown haired woman smiled thinly when she heard Arik's answer. "Yeah-yes," he said. Good, very good. Yuuki had received a brand new asset to the team then. Of course, her other teammates already knew about this; Yuuki had long informed them, when she had gotten back to the base right after her first meeting with him had ended. She pressed a butt on the table, and the holographic building disappeared, to be replaced by a grid map and a single red dot beeping in the center. Bingo. She leaned forward onto her elbows, watching the dot blink on and off.

"Good, good... I'm glad you accepted. Stay put, then. I'll send someone to retrieve you. Oh, and? Welcome to the team." With that, Yuuki hung up the phone with a satisfied smile.