To catch a hacker set a hacker (Marco and Teddy)

[MARCO LAGUARDIA]

Marco's life came crashing down around his ears in the Goldenrod City Pokemon Center.
"I'm sorry, there's nothing we can for you..."
That one sentence kept on bouncing around in his skull until the writer reached an iron resolve; something had to be done.

---

Somebody had been messing around with the PC of the Pokemon center. Already nearly half a dozen Pokemon had gone missing, so to be prudent, the administration had decided to cut the center off from any and every digital connection.
While the theft of Pokemon was a heinous act, more importantly for Marco was the loss of the connection via which he was to send his work.
And receive confirmation of his pay.
Incidentally he was running low on money.
And truth be told he was too lazy to even consider trudging all the way over to another city because of one bratty computer nerd. If the city's foremost experts in computers were at a loss, then he would have to consult the foremost experts in hacking. Illegal was usually more effective than legal and Marco always had a particularly lax view on things such as 'sanctity of the law'.
Besides; in the end you had to set a thief to catch one.

---

"I heard from another guy that this fellow can hack your bank account faster than you can type in your PIN!"

And with that glowing, confidence-inspiring recommendation Marco found his way to Goldenrod's best hacker. His destination? A mail box where the mysterious hacker sent a messenger every now and then. That was if the rumor spawned from a rumor spawned from the screenshot of a chat room was telling the truth.
Hackers were usually unsocial -as he was finding out firsthand- and even though Marco would normally applaud such attitude, the fact that it caused him two days of sleuthing had made the normally unflappable writer a tad...grouchy. Considering he had been waiting by the letter box for over two hours, with Helena retiring to her Pokeball a while back, his temper was slightly worse for wear.
Finally, after what seemed an eon of waiting, Marco noticed somebody walking in his direction; their attention seemingly fixed on the letter box just to his left. Finally.

"Hey!" he called out to gain attention.

---

OOC: aaaand it's up!

@peeko

[Deleted]

Teddy hated Goldenrod, to be quite honest. The place reeked of homeless idiots and also a whole bunch of weirdos - and they said he was weird. He had reason to hate the place, of course. Swarming with people with clearly too much time to be loitering outside his house and also too many people, basically. He also hated the weather here - did it ever rain? Whatever it was, there was not a single cloud in the sky, and it was also bloody hot for "winter".


Regardless, Teddy was suited in his standard hoodie. Long sleeved shirts were more of a hassle at home, even if his house was air-conditioned 24/7 to prevent all his computer tech from overheating. Sun rays hit his face and he instinctively squinted and grimaced. Too bright. It was better than travelling at night, anyway. The streets became way too dangerous for any of that once it fell dark. His loyal little pet was trotting happily beside him, like a proud little prized pooch that just won the blue ribbon at the dog show. Benji wasn't even a dog, more feline or fox like, really. He did seem mighty happy, anyway.Guy didn't get to go out of the house very often, since he only went with Teddy, so he seemed to relish every moment spent in the sun. He bounced eagerly at the gate and wagged his tail as Teddy kicked the rusty thing open.

"Mail time," he muttered, and the Eevee knew exactly what that meant. Well, he mostly associated it with going out, which made him a very happy Eevee, regardless. He faithfully stuck to his master's heel at all times, constantly watching out. Benji knew how edgy his master could be around others, and that was where Benji stepped in! To be the loyal little Eevee that protected Master Teddy at all costs! He was the best Eevee, and he wanted Teddy to be proud of him. He'd show him!

Teddy wasn't too surprised to see that the mailbox was full. Said mailbox was a public one, at a safe distance from the house, if only to not draw attention to his trade. One could never be too careful when dealing with such delicate matters. He probably could hire a rotating set of people to do the collection for him, but that simply would be too much of a hassle. He would allow his guard to falter for only this brief moment. His pale fingers filleted through the stack of letters as he quickly scanned them based on importance and urgency. Spam mail was discarded without much thought, and those that caught his attention he put right at the top.

The next logical step was to retreat back into his hole of a home and then clear about 80% of the requests that had payments fulfilled. That didn't seem like it was happening, of course, when he realised someone was calling out for him.

Someone was calling out for him.

Teddy stiffened and found himself cemented to the ground, unable to move. Benji was two steps ahead. The Eevee ducked between his legs and then defensively stood before his master, trying to find the source of the voice. His eyes trained themselves onto the man fast approaching. Fuck, the authorities? No, acting suspicious would only put things against his favour. It was better to try and play it cool, deny any accusations, and pretend he was doing totally legal things. His gaze was impassive through the tinted lenses and his lips were in a lazy frown. "W-Whaddaya want?" he stammered out lamely, hoping he could have at least sounded a little bit cooler.

[MARCO LAGUARDIA]

Despite all their skills 'plausible deniability' seemed to be one not too well developed among hackers. Stutter, awkward pose and an overly-defensive Pokemon to boot? That screamed 'I'm up to no good; please detain me for questions!' louder than a mohawk, several tattoos, facial piercing and a leather jacket could do.
This guy was probably the master hacker he had been chasing after for so long, or at the very least, somebody who could take him to the guy. ow Marco had to somehow enlist his help without scaring the guy off or having an Eevee sicced on him. Well as one socially awkward introvert to another, how hard could it be really?

"Hello! Good morning!" Marco greeted cheerfully- or as cheerfully as he could manage with his lazy and apathetic drawl.

"I was told that you're the go-to-person for dealing with...certain computer issues. The Pokemon Center's been facing such problems lately, so I came calling to ask if you were willing to help?"

At the same time, because he was not completely stupid, he assured himself that Helena's Pokeball was within easy reaching and drawing distance. Marco could probably take on the Eevee, but if there were other Pokemon with the teenager he could be in trouble.
Other warnings about hacker dangers wandered in his mind. He didn't really spend much time on computers and his bank account was nearly empty anyway. Besides he hadn't even given a name so he should be fine...right?

---

OOC: dragged my muse back~

@peeko

[Deleted]

Human contact was something that Teddy abhorred for good reason. Most humans he met were separated from him by a table or over the veil of the internet, and in this case, there was none of that. Vulnerability swept over him, and a sense of unease began to slowly creep up on the paranoid lad. All it took was a conversation and everything could go wrong, like how everything had gone wrong a long time ago. His breath hitched and he found it increasingly difficult to breathe. Fuck that, he kicked himself mentally, shit happened years ago. No one's gonna come trying to take some grown diseased looking piece of crap like yourself. He wished his own words could ease his distress.

Initial fear turned to a snarky, unfriendly attitude. Fear was replaced by a compulsive need to reject whatever that came his way, regardless of whether it was an amiable or hostile external threat. Teddy's mind was blaring sirens for him to shut him off. His expression was unreadable behind his thick sunglasses lenses. The narrowing of eyes could barely be seen. He slipped his free hand into his jacket pocket, casually hitting away on his clunky phone keypad. Didn't even need to look to know what he was searching for.

"I'm a computer tech, man, only deal with jobs worth my time," he lazily drawled, waving the stack of envelopes with fat wads of cash tucked into them for emphasis. He barely raised a brow at the mention of the Pokemon Center. "The PC system is screwed and full of bugs anyway, their servicemen come by like once a blue moon and do their magic or something before it collapses in a month again, that much I can say." He often used their PC network for a warmup, only because the damn system was so buggy, you didn't even need to think to get through the security points.

Teddy couldn't exactly say that he wasn't intrigued by the prospect of having something that wasn't "get me this guy's bank account number so I can rob them!" or "get me this company's trade secrets!" It had become too much of a routine for him, frankly. There wasn't any kick in any of that. And this sounded like nothing big either. Teddy was going to need a damn good reason to convince him that this was even worth half of his time.

[MARCO LAGUARDIA]

Marco had a sudden yet vivid fantasy of calling out Helena, setting those fat envelopes on fire, tying the hacker to one of his Ninetales's tails and seeing if the threat of a 1,000 year curse was enough to convince this computer nerd to deal with the problem another of his ilk had created.

But, he didn't do that because he was a good natured, calm guy who wasn't that angry or desperate. Yet.

Forcing himself to snap out of his daydreams Marco got down to the distasteful task of dealing with another human being, on terms of business and probably for an extended period of time. Ugh. And if that wasn't bad enough he had to be dealing with a hoody and sunglasses wearing, always texting, dismissive teenager.

That fantasy was looking like an awfully good alternative right about now. But Marco was drifting away now- again. He had to do something about that.

"See the problem isn't exactly the PC system." he explained, managing to keep his voice friendly enough "Somebody's been hacking into the thing somehow and stealing Pokemon. I was told that you know everybody in the business and everything in the city that falls under that business goes through with your say so. That's why I came calling around to you."

Okay, the last part was completely made up and absolute cringing drivel. But every human being had that little part of them that preened under praise and basked in the glow of compliments. Mr. Hacker with his contempt of the PC system and its technicians seemed to have his healthy share too.

Something had to push his buttons, right?

He just wanted to submit his work after all and just get his paycheck, was that such a bad thing to ask for? No, then why was Fate kicking him around like this?

---

@peeko

[Deleted]

His fingers traversed the keypad with alarming speed and accuracy. It wasn't much of a phone - Teddy didn't carry a phone because there wasn't anyone to contact anyway. More of a self assembled clunky tablet, but it carried out its duties well, so he didn't complain. It reached a point where Teddy needed to focus his gaze on the screen, and without much thought, pulled the slab out of his pocket and tapped furiously on the keyboard. Still emotionless and expressionless as ever, of course. His mobile data was infinitely slower than his high speed encrypted broadband back at home, Teddy found himself growing impatient and tapping his foot against the concrete irately.

His eye twitched at mention of a hacker. Fuck, so much for trying to deny that. He was as readable as a book, he didn't even know why he tried. He was awfully silent as Marco elaborated about Pokemon. His eyes momentarily shifted to Benji and he did not budge, if only because of the guilt (or perhaps lack thereof) that plagued him for his errs. Teddy shrugged it off quickly - he didn't need this kind of guy to give him burdens.

"Hacking, huh?" he muttered, eyes not leaving the screen. "I'm gonna correct you there, because I don't know shit about anyone else out there, but if you think people can come in and think they can just come in and take my damn place, they're fuckin' wrong." Was that a tinge of jealously and anger? Now he was riled up. Who did they think they were, barging in and trying to usurp his hacking throne? Fuck no.

He had all the information he needed. Stowing away the tablet, Teddy posed his question, "Question is, how much are you gonna pay for my services, huh, Laguardia?" His services were well sought after. A pretty penny wouldn't just cut it for the guy. As mundane as some of the requests were, he was sure he could earn more cash fulfilling those dumb requests than waiting around for people to come begging for his prowess.

[MARCO LAGUARDIA]

Any elation that he may have felt at hearing the teen's anger at somebody invading his territory, disappeared when Marco was addressed by name and was then asked how much he was willing to pay.
After all Marco had been very careful not to mention his name. Silver hair was distinctive enough he supposed, maybe combined with the fact that he had visited the Pokemon Center in the not too distant past...?
Who knew. But the casual backhanded blow that had been dealt, the blatant rudeness that was simply pulling out his personal information from cyberspace had Marco simmering slowly.
Maybe a few years back he would have given him a spiel about working for justice and when that failed he would have let Helena with her glowing red eyes and psychic powers rough him up mentally, he had done that often enough really, but with age Marco had learned to be a bit more subtle and consider the consequences of his actions.
Besides it would be more trouble than it was worth to explain assault by Pokemon in broad daylight in the middle of Goldenrod City.

"If you've pulled out my name you'll probably also have found out, or will find out, that I don't have much money. Probably never will, and I probably won't have paid you if I had the money anyway." Damn right, pay the money earned from his writing to this arrogant little shit? That was very near sacrilege for the author.

Marco paused shortly, holding up a finger to forestall any arguments.

"But, if you do put down those hackers then I'll do the legwork necessary to retrieve the Pokemon they've stolen. Hackers are gone, you get the reward on the Pokemon's safe return- everybody goes home happy. Deal?"

It was a decent enough compromise, one of those Pokemon was a Dratini and had a considerable amount of money promised for its return. The others nearly tripled that amount- more than enough to fill up one of those damnable envelopes he was waving about.

---

@peeko

[Deleted]

In all truthfulness, it hadn't taken him much effort to find out who the guy standing in front of him was. Pokemon Center records and a quick match to his face didn't take a genius to do, and Teddy was always up for a little bragging. Especially so now, when his skills were at stake. Well, not only his skills - his dignity and his pride. Yet, even then, he wouldn't compromise on his profession. He had spent the last eight or so years self teaching and honing this. He wasn't running a goddamn charity case for the homeless. He didn't have the time to deal with people's worthlessness.

Normally, he would have proceeded with a swift background check. It came with the paranoia - constant fear of whoever he was exchanging with. With the guy's name, he could possibly unravel his whole history with a few clicks and taps on his handy dandy device. But no, the man had spared him the agony or leafing through his boring life story by telling him flat out what he wanted to hear, or in this case, what he didn't want to hear. Scarlet eyes narrowed and he lowered his frames to catch a glimpse of the little shit who was trying to strike a deal with no money. Was this a joke?

"Hey, are you shitting me right now?" He didn't even intend for it to be a question. Teddy was flat out convinced the guy's head right now wasn't functioning. Benji raised his hackles warily at the other human. Master Teddy sounded a little upset. Was it this stranger's doing? He wouldn't let it be so! The albino spoke again, "I'm not running some charity here, man. I'm running a business here, only those with payments get fulfilled. No dough, no go." Teddy vigorously shook the letters with cash attached to make his point.

He scoffed a little when he made mention of a runner. He didn't need that either. Whatever this guy was offering, it was trash to him. "I'm no stranger to the PC network and its loopholes. Requests like those aren't exactly rare. I hope you're at least bright enough to know that my abilities are not limited to petty thefts. I don't have that moral conscience bullshit goody two shoes like you like to preach. Couldn't give a fuck for whatever happens to stolen Pokemon." His voice would not reveal the truth behind his own personal crimes. Benji looked at him and ate every word he had to say like it was the word of Arceus. Little guy didn't need to be informed of the undesirable means he had taken to obtain him. Maybe he would divulge the truth one day, but that was not today.

He turned to leave. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do."

[MARCO LAGUARDIA]

"Unauthorized Pokemon battling is illegal. Unauthorized Pokemon battling is illegal." was the mantra that Marco had to constantly tell himself to stop himself from flipping out. Really, the teen's attitude and the little 'defend the master' thing the cute little Eevee (which had probably never experienced a proper battle) was doing was pretty irritating.
It was probably better to bug out now and ask somebody else to help him out, there had been two other names on the list he scavenged up from his snooping.

But, just to avoid the extra effort of finding another computer nerd, maybe one more attempt to win this guy around wouldn't hurt.
"I thought I made myself clear man." Marco answered with a weary sigh, this was such a drag "I'm not asking for charity. When- if- you find the hackers I'll go around and collect the Pokemon from them and you get the 'dough' for their safe return." Really was asking him to delay his immediate gratification really that hard?

"Thing's simple really; you find 'em you get the money. You don't find them and you don't get the money- because you didn't really complete the job anyway."

What time was it? When was he supposed to wake up Helena anyway? Oh well, now was a good time as any.

"But, if you insist I could probably find somebody else whose more confident in his skills and willing to put his money where his mouth is. If requests like these aren't rare then I'm sure anybody'll be able to do it really." Marco shrugged nonchalantly.

Was he laying this on too thick? Haggling was never his strong point and he hadn't done anything of the sort in a while. But, really he could probably find somebody else to do it.
He just really didn't want to.

Oh wait, he had to rouse Helena.
With a swift movement the Pokeball was withdrawn and Helena was out. The Ninetales stretched in the sunlight, splaying her legs out and then giving out a large yawn that -quite coincidentally of course- managed to show off a mouth full of sharp teeth.

"What do you say Helena? Shall we take our business somewhere else?"

---

@peeko