Fandom Into the fire (1x1 MzHyde/Gallifrog)

[MzHyde]

Fia nodded at Cliff agreeing with her statement before listening to what Cal and Elliott both said, noting Jay grabbing the files to take a gander through them, knowing that she would be able to understand what was written down. As Jay took the files, she did notice the black and white pages except for the photos which made her realise these were all copies of the original files, and not the actual hardcopies themselves. Whoever did them knew what they were doing by taking the safe option to copy every one. The moment Jay said she had a plan, her curiosity only grew for the situation, her eyes turning to Jay instantly, just like everyone else's did.

Both her and Kay listened to what Jay was suggesting, watching her tap the files as she gave the options on what to do. If Dakkon was as good as Jay says he was or implied he was, which she always trusted Jay's opinion on people, then getting him involved felt like one of the best plans they could have. Both her and Kay nodded and could tell how methodically Jay was thinking about this. "I agree that getting Dakkon involved is a good plan. Leave the two options up to his expertise in what he thinks is the best way to go maybe? If he thinks he'll need the originals to compare then trust him in that decision. Either way it wouldn't hurt to get someone on the outside by trustworthy's opinion" Kay spoke up.

 

[_gallifrog_]

All listened intently as Jay explained her plan. "It's a good plan. Neither Cal nor I or any of our friends have any contacts in high enough government to verify these documents and hacking is far too risky. Plus we really don't need to give anybody the opportunity to try and get us with a cyber terrorism charge on top of everything else." "That we don't, breaking Qui out and helping him, it won't be seen as a crime if things go our way. But cyber terrorism? That's next level stuff, the kind of smear on your life that never goes away." "Yeah, I still remember the trial and fall out from the Vaxxx attack when I was what eight? nine? It was on the news more than Brexit and Trump put together." He added by means of explanation for those on earth who wouldn't have heard about the horrific cyber attack that decimated the economy of two planets and nearly started a war. Chas made a face, knowing Elliott wasn't the type to exaggerate.

"It's a good plan. If this guys is a good as you say, with that kind of access, then I'm all for it." John declared. "Oh he's THAT good alright, better even than that. I'll vouch for him, but it looks like you guys don't really need much persuading. And yes, I think it would be best to leave the choice of options to him. Who knows, he might already be looking at this situation and have some other insider information that we could all use." "Well it's decided then. Jay'll contact Dakkon while those of us fluent enough in Attili to read formal documents will start pouring through these in proper detail." There were nods of agreement all around and Jay got up to head to her franken-computer set up to retrieve Dakkon's contact details from an heavily encrypted file.

About half an hour later the door was shoulder bashed open by Rinaa. "Some things never change it seems." She remarked, shutting the door behind her. "The door?" Cliff asked, not one hundred percent certain what the teenager could be referring to. "It always sticks in my time too, it's never replaced, apparently it has 'character' like that." She made airquotes gestures as she said the word 'character' implying that she didn't believe a door that stuck had character, it was just a plain old nuisance. Seeing the files spread out on the table she raised an eyebrow, though she clearly wasn't surprised at the sight of them. "Deke?" "No, delivered anonymously to the letter hole downstairs. We have our theories as to who the sender is."

 

[MzHyde]

Kay and Fia just nodded every now and then as everyone was talking about thneplan and deciding it was their best course of action. Neither could see any other plan even plausible or thinkable to do so getting Dakkon involved was their only option. Neither fancied the idea of having the tag and accusation of cyber terrorism being put on them either. Hearing Elliott explain the comparison of one such event made both girls raise an eyebrow in surprise but nod in understanding none the less.

When the door got shunted open by Rinaa, they both looked up and gave a small wave of hello as Cliff asked if she meant the door before listening to Rinaa explain the door didn't actually change in her timeline. With the topic quickly going back to the files on the table, "so it's another addition to the seemingly neverending list of questions popping up" Fia added, noting how Rinaa didn't seem the slightest bit surprised to see them. "you don't seem surprised to see them on the table, guessing you were told about this in your timeline?" Kay queried.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Rinaa shook her head at Kay's assumption about her lack of real reaction to the files. "Not exactly. These times aren't really talked about in my timeline." The teenager shrugged leaving the 'just like many other things' part of the sentence unsaid. "It's more of that I'm used to seeing files spread out when I get back to whatever place I'm calling 'home' at the time. Mostly it was files Jay needed for work. Though when I got my flat-share it would be one of my flatmates study notes. When I lived on Attil, it was sometimes Cliff's medical stuff, the files that weren't so confidential that she couldn't take them home. But mostly it would be Cal and Deke's stuff." Rinaa shrugged the backpack off her shoulders, setting to down by the weapons rack.

"Makes sense." Elliott replied, deciding to focus on the fact that this clearly meant Rinaa was relaxing around them if she was this willing to talk as opposed to the fact that she didn't use the word 'home' to describe anywhere she'd lived. "Anyway, I've got a kind of weird question." "Shoot, I'll do my best to answer, unless of course." "It's gonna screw the timeline anymore than it already is?" Elliott finished with a smirk, Rinaa smiling and nodding "exactly". "Do you know what happened to my birth father in your timeline?" Rinaa nodded. "Yeah, I do. He's another person who died before I came into existence."

There was a silence before John asked "natural causes?" The teenager shook her head. "No. He was assassinated.... And NOT by Jay before you start thinking along those lines." She placed a firm emphasis on the fact that it wasn't Jay. It wasn't too far a leap to make, in her timeline, Elliott's death had sent Jay into a murder spree, leaving a trail of bloody bodies of people who'd failed Elliott (and by extension the rest of them), Zan had been spared, Jay explained why to Rinaa, but she wasn't going to drop that bombshell on them now, it wasn't her secret to tell. "He made a lot of enemies as well as making himself incredibly unpopular with the people who once supported him. Like, unpopular enough that they'd put a hit out on him. Though I suppose he did do a radical u-turn and become a whistleblower revealing the corruption, malpractice and abuse of power that went back YEARS. And after he died even more files went pubic, he'd built in a fail safe for if something like an assassination did happen to him." There wasn't exactly admiration in Rinaa's voice, but out of all the people in her family, Zan had done the least to offend her or hurt her when compared to many of the others.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay listened to Rinaa's reply, not expecting her to be so forthcoming with her answer. She was half expecting her to just give a short yes or no answer but when she gave a proper long well explained answer she wondered if this did mean Rinaa was more willing to relax around them all, especially when herself and Fia were in the room. She listened to what Elliott asked and how they could already finish each other's sentence which made Kay smile at what she witnessed. With the question asked and Rinaa telling them that his birth father died, Kay rose an eyebrow at the answer. Like John she would hacenust assumed that he died of natural causes as it was so many years in the future.

Hearing that Zan was assassinated, got Kay and Fia very interested in hearing the story, Fia smirking at the clarification that it wasn't Jay who did the killing, knowing that most of their group would assume or guess it'd be Jay considering the state of Rinaa's timeline. They continued to listen to the explanation, at what it was that presumably got Zan killed, thinking how it does fit in with who could have given them the files of the people who could potentially be involved in Elliott's trial. "that matches up with our theory it's Zan who dropped off these files" Kay commented, gesturing at the files once more.

Fia then remembered something, "oh! Quickly change of subject Rinaa, did you manage to pick up what I needed?" she asked, remaining cryptic in front of everyone, knowing that only Rinaa, Cal and Cliff would know what she was talking about.

 

[_gallifrog_]

John hadn't been expecting Elliott to ask Rinaa any further questions, but he found himself intrigued when Elliott inquired as to what happened to his birth father's whereabouts. It wasn't something that John had even considered asking about, so it said something about Elliott that he wanted to know. To hear he was dead came as a shock to them all. They'd seen the man from a distance, he was tall, lean, exercised regularly, didn't have any vices that they knew of (like Elliott he rarely, if ever drank alcohol) and outwardly healthy. John didn't expect it to be natural causes, but he couldn't know for sure. Rinaa looked perfectly healthy, yet her DNA was cannibalising itself, so appearances were very much deceptive. It if wasn't natural causes he was expecting a car crash or some such similar event. But he was certainly not expecting an assassination, and neither, judging by the reactions of the others, was anybody else.

He also didn't expect to hear that Zan had turned whistleblower, clearly there was something he didn't know about the man, some moral integrity that up until then had been missed by them all, or something had happened that would make him turn so dramatically. He let out a small 'huh' of surprise as Rinaa spoke. There was a silence as everybody tried to absorb what they'd just been told. "Why didn't I kill him?" Jay asked, blunt as ever and vexed by her future self's behaviour."As a kid I didn't understand it either." Rinaa shrugged, raking a hand through her spiky hair. "But now, I think it was because you knew that living with the survivor's guilt would be more of a punishment than a bullet through the skull." Jay nodded slowly, Rinaa mostly definitely had a point with that reasoning.

At Kay's statement, Cal and Cliff nodded. "If he is flipping now, then I agree with Kay, it fits. Any good whistleblower waits and gathers information for as long as possible, which could be what he's doing now. And he's fully aware it'll take a miracle to redeem himself in our eyes. So I really can't say what is motivations would be at this moment" Cal was clearly thinking aloud as she spoke. She then turned to Rinaa "Is he turning now, d'you know?" "You're asking me questions I can't answer there I'm afraid. All I do know was that in my timeline he changed dramatically, like practically back to his stances as a teenager/young adult. He was the first person to say that Elliott's body should go to earth, with the rightful family. You gusy were too cut up with grief to even think of such things, but once you heard that proposal you were all right on board with it." There was something in the way Rinaa spoke about her other grandfather that suggested she didn't share the same views as everybody else in the room and Jay had to prod that. So she asked in her native tongue (not wanting anybody else to know what they were saying). "You like Zan more than we do I take it?" The teenager let out a sigh that betrayed just how conflicted she was internally. "Out of all my family members, he's one of the few who didn't do anything to fuck me over, which puts him at a pretty decent position in my mind. Not that what he did to Elliott can be forgiven easily of course. But I'm kinda biased I suppose."

Rinaa replied before Fia completely changed the topic with her question. Her urgency suggested to Rinaa that Fia wanted to do something soon. She fixed Fia with a look and spoke in a tone that seemed to be teasing, but her eyes betrayed her hesitance and more closed off mindset. "If by 'what I needed' you mean 'sweets I somehow managed to get addicted to in the space of a few days', then yes, it's in the backpack somewhere amongst the textbooks." Rinaa was working on the spot, not expecting Fia to ask her so directly and knew she needed to come up with a believable lie as to why she'd be getting things for Fia of all people.

She reached down and unzipped the bulging backpack. She could have got digital versions of the books, but Rinaa preferred textbooks she could actually write in, draw in and highlight important information using a colour system of her own devising. She pulled out a brown paper bag (unmarked) and passed it over to Fia. Looking inside to a casual observer, it appeared to be a stack of bags of sweets identical to the ones Fia had picked up for herself in the spaceport on Cliff's home planet. But in reality it was two bags of sweets taped carefully around the air-horn canister, with a loose bag on top and a half used roll of duct tape at the bottom.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay wasn't surprised that Jay would want to know why her future self didn't kill Zan herself, if she was Jay she would want to know as well as that's a curiosity that wouldn't settle until she would have an answer. Hearing from Rinaa that it was because Jay wanted him to live with survivor's guilt was actually a pretty solid reasoning, not to mention it was a pretty admirable case of taking the higher ground on something so major in Kay's mind.

She then looked up when Cal started speaking up in an agreement with what she said about it fitting with their theory it was Zan who dropped off the files. She could tell that Cal was thinking aloud as she replied also, something in a way Kay was doing with her statement. It was just a thought but one she felt was worth speaking out loud. With Rinaa saying she couldn't answer the next question from Cal's lips, she wasn't sure if it was because the teenager genuinely didn't know or if she was saying she couldn't answer because it was timeline sensitive information. Either way it was clear they weren't going to get an answer. With Jay then asked Rinaa something in her native tongue, Kay got more curious but respected it was something worthy of keeping from the rest of them. What she did note was the sigh from Rinaa before answering, thinking that whatever was about to be said was something that weighed heavily on the teenager's mind and had been for a long time.

Fia saw the surprised look on Rinaa's face after she got to ask her vague question, noting that she was probably expecting her to have been more subtle by asking when the two were relatively alone and not in front of every single one of their group, but Fia was never predictable in that sense. If she knew she could be vague and not let on she was up to something, she would be very open about it. She quickly learned that if she was too secretive, she was always caught, so she learned to bluff her way through certain plans. At the reply she grinned and nodded, playing along with the whole 'I'm addicted to said sweets and need more stat' excuse. But in reality the grin was because it wasn't the sweets she was happy to hear was acquired, but her simple but evil plan to finally get revenge on her dad.

She took the unmarked bag that did indeed have the sweets inside but she could tell the airhorn and duct tape was inside. "thanks Rinaa, I owe you one..... somehow" she grinned peeking inside in a way that wouldn't give the game away as she was still between Kay and Elliott. "I'm gonna put it with my stuff, be right back" she said more to everyone, standing up and heading down the hallway, where she did indeed go into her room first and pulled out the sweets from the bag and freed the airhorn from the bags. She then put all but one bag of sweets into her bag then sneaked across the hallway to the guest bedroom that John and Kay were using, where she expertedlt and silently set it all up behind the door, making sure that everything was expertly in the right place for maximum effect before sneaking back to her bag to hide away the tape then came back into the living room a couple of minutes later. The chosen bag of sweets opened and being tucked into.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Survivor's guilt was a very credible theory, John had to admit, he'd experienced it far too many times, and the mental side effects were pretty damn horrific. He was also reading between the lines (when Rinaa spoke it was what she didn't say directly or alluded to, that told the far more interesting story) and took from her words to mean that Zan had been there when Elliott died, and had witnessed how Elliott died. Nobody had ever exactly asked Rinaa how Elliott died, they knew they'd get no answer, and it was an answer none of them wanted o have. Chas (who was more likely to give somebody the benefit of the doubt than many of the others in the group) found what Rinaa was saying pretty fascinating. Somebody didn't just become a whistleblower overnight. To hear that Elliott's birth father had been the first person to say the rightful place for Elliott's body was Earth, that said something major about Zan, Chas just didn't quite know what it was yet.

Elliott had only a fleeting knowledge of Jay's native tongue, and didn't have the slightest clue what it was that she was asking Rinaa, and a part of him probably didn't want to know. Switching language was deliberate, whatever answer Rinaa gave, it wasn't something Jay wanted the rest of the group to know about. And if Jay didn't want them to know then it was no doubt unpleasant some way or another. She wasn't as secretive as she used to be. The conflicting emotions in Rinaa's face spoke volumes, whatever Jay was asking about, it was something she struggled with having a stance on.

There were looks of surprise when Fia asked if Rinaa had got the stuff. The idea of Rinaa being Fia's personal shopper was bizarre, she was the least likely candidate, they may have bonded on the trip to Cliff's homeworld, but the relationship was fragile and Rinaa was still hesitant to open up. When it was revealed that it was sweets she wanted, there was some eye rolling of 'of course, she has a sweet tooth'. "I would make some joke about drug mules and sweets, but I can't be arsed." John remarked, flicking through the files, trying to see if he could properly understand them (even though logically he knew he couldn't). At Fia's remark Rinaa just gave a shrug that said 'don't bother, I'm not gonna be around much longer anyway'.

While Fia went off to set up her prank, Jay shut down the computer and reached for one of her old military backpacks and started pulling out the contents on the table. First was a pair of long daggers made of a dark metal alloy. That was followed by a set of knuckle dusters, three pistols of varying sizes along with various corresponding ammo clips, a taser-like device and finally a set of gun holsters.

 

[MzHyde]

Fia was so damn proud of herself that no one who didn't know the plan was completely oblivious to the prank that was being set up and no one thought anything of the excuses being used. It just made her realise all the more that she got her knack for fooling people and lying well (when it mattered) from her father and she could have a damn good poker face when it really warranted it. She also knew that Kay and John both thought she was a bad liar like her mother, so every single time she got one over on the two of them, especially John, it brought a large sense of pride to her that she never let show on the outside. Before she went and set up her prank for Joh, she did hear what he said which made her give him the middle finger as she exited the room. Kay just found herself smirking at the reaction from Fia as she left the main room, not thinking anything of her exit whilst not realising that when she and John went to bed later they were going to get the shock of their lives.

Kay soon turned her attention to the actions that Jay was doing and all the equipment she was placing on the coffee table. "can't accuse you of not coming prepared for any eventuality" she smirked, her tone light to try and keep the mood up a little bit after Fia's initial attempt of lightening the mood by enquiring about the supposed sweets. It was just one of the off the cuff comments she made, without much thought to it. The kind of comment that quite a while ago she would have made to anyone if she felt comfortable enough around them.

When she came back into the main room, Fia took notice of all the varying weapons on the coffee table, thinking how Jay didn't hold back with coming prepared for any situation. She squished herself back into the space on the couch that she was on before, offering some sweets to both Kay and Elliott as she did so, mouth full of the sweets making her usual very slim face look borderline like a chipmunk. Kay took a couple of sweets thanking Fia as she did so, smirking at her current state.

 

[_gallifrog_]

"True, But if you think this in any way impressive, you should see my lock-up" was Jay's reply to Kay's more lighthearted remark. "Not that these guys aren't good." She picked up the gun and expelled the empty ammo cartridge before starting to take it apart, not even looking down at the weapon as she did that, a sign to all that she was extremely proficient with the weapon. Chas who was the most proficient out of the Earth group with firearms had tried to assemble his gun without looking at it, but had made a complete mess of it, so he had serious respect for the fact that Jay could do such a thing so effortlessly. "This one is a particular favourite, got it coded to my prints a while back." She cracked open the grip and angled it towards the others to reveal the circuitry inside. "But all the REAL shit is there in the lock-up. Various types of armour, other outfits and disguise bits, a LOT of sniper rifles, military kit, heist gear, including stuff for climbing buildings, plasma weapons, bikes, you name it, either me or Jack's lock-up has it."

"Your lock up IS awesome. Though calling it a lock up is an understatement, it's more of a garage crossed with a CID office, complete with pinboards and those glass screen thingys used as a whiteboard." Rinaa agreed, having spent many hours in there helping jay clean weapons and learning w=how to use those weapons herself. She'd tried to model her own container lock-up on earth off of Jay's, but it had also become a place to crash where she knew nobody would find her, hence the air mattress, portable heater, solar generator, mini fridge and spare clothes Fia had seen there. "Or for playing 3 in a row when you're really bored." Jay smiled back. "Or hangman." Rinaa replied with a grin, before a contemplative look came over her face."Though he usually ends up as hung drawn and quartered man." "That I can't deny." "In excruciating detail." "Not over the top at all." Elliott drawled sarcastically. "Well when you're playing with more than one language, you need more opportunities for guessing." Jay shot back before reaching for the gun cloth and oil. John couldn't help but smirk. "That's you told then, Ell." Elliott had taken a handful of sweets at that point and knew there was no point in coming up with any kind of retort.

Rinaa got back up from the edge of the table she'd been perching on to examine the laptop and solar charging rig (which was no neatly folded back into it's protective box). Seemingly happy that Jay hadn't broken anything she brought it over to the free armchair, before heading back to the fridge and getting the takeaway. "I guess I should warn you guys, this laptop is gonna go COMPLETELY nuts when I turn it on. I haven't used it in this time yet. This was only ever intended as a back-up if I couldn't tech that fit the specs I prefer"

 

[MzHyde]

Kay just smirked and gave the 'fair enough!' look to Jay back when she mentioned the lock up before listening to the more in depth information of what she had in said lock up. Hearing the lost was impressive, and it was even more impressive seeing the woman dismantle the weapon without even looking at it after showing them all the circuitry inside. She could see how impressed Chas particularly was, knowing he was the most competent when it came to firearms out of their Earth group. She couldn't help but smile and snigger at the hangman game chatter between Rinaa and Jay, going into great detail of how extra they went into it at times, only for Elliott's sarcastic remark making it all the more entertaining.

Fia on the other hand, just stared down at her packet of sweets then at the handful Elliott took then back at her bag of sweets again before shaking her head, feeling like nothing really changed in that regard between them. Kay noticed how Fia reacted to the handful of sweets being taken and it reminded her of how herself and Sam used to be when they were just a little younger than Fia, smirking at the reaction on Fia's face whilst getting the feeling that she was used to such a thing happening by Elliott. Both of them then looked at Rinaa when she gave them all a warning about what could happen when she boots up the laptop, both of them nodding in acknowledgement.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Nobody was particularly surprised at the extent of what Jay said was in her and her brother's lock-up. It went with the territory really. Though John couldn't resist a wise crack about the gun modification. "Very Bond-esque." "Yep, had a right laugh when that kind of gun popped up in Skyfall." Jay replied, carefully scrutinising each piece of the gun. Cal was watching the banter between Jay and Rinaa with undisguised amusement. Not only was what they were discussing funny, it gave a glimpse into what their relationship was like in the future. Already they were thinking along the same lines and falling into an easy, light back and forth banter, somehow managing not to step on any emotional landmines in the process. Cliff was also fascinated. It seemed that it was Jay who Rinaa was closest to out of all of them, even if they didn't spend a massive amount of time together, Jay seemed, usually, to just know exactly what to say to the teenager. And looking at them then, it seemed as if they made each other happier, which seemed counter-intuitive, but then again neither of them were 'normal' people.

To log in, Rinaa had to type in a very long password, then angle the lid so the laptop could recognise her face, then leaned forwards to let the retinal scanner to do it's thing. After that was another password and she was in. Some might consider all the security excessive, but this was her work laptop and had all kinds of classified things on it, that she'd rather have blown up than let anybody outside of Jay, Jay's partner and Rinaa's work/uni friends see. As soon as the last password was typed in the laptop leapt into life. Rinaa hadn't been exaggerating about her laptop and how it was going to react at being switched on. If it had been a patient Cliff would have suspected it was having some kind of mental breakdown or seizure. It started making all kinds of alarm noises, the lights under the keypad and around the screen lighting up and flashed red in warning and various notices popped up on screen. To John it looked like a miniature version of what he imagined a meltdown in a nuclear reactor would look like. If an actual klaxon had popped out of some hidden compartment he really wouldn't have been surprised.

Looking at the laptop Rinaa sighed very slightly. "I can empathise, I feel like that sometimes too" she said to the laptop before leaning forwards and getting to work. Cliff did the only thing she could and took out her hearing aids, placing them on the table in front of her. The only sign that Rinaa was in anyway phased by this wall of sound and warnings was the fact that she was biting her lip as she typed, dealing with one alarm at a time. Apart from that she looked completely in control of the whole thing. it took her about three minutes to sort out the whole thing, after which the laptop felt silent. "You certainly weren't exaggerating, what on Attil got it such a state?" John asked, warily looking at the laptop as if it was going to explode (which he knew it could). "Yeah, it doesn't usually do that. I just had all the setting ramped up to max as a precaution for the next I rebooted it, cos I didn't know what I was gonna do with the laptop and decided better safe than sorry. And as for what exactly was triggered? Proximity alarms." She tapped the lid of the laptop."There's cutting age bio-detecting tech in here, detects somebody's bio-signature and can be programmed to react depending on which person it sense. This stuff... it's not commercially available, but Kane let me have it installed anyway. I don't know the programming language at all, too advanced for my level, but a mate of mine who studies computer science does and helped set it up and personalise it."

 

[MzHyde]

The way the banter happened between Jay and Rinaa wasn't that surprising to Kay or Fia. They put the ease of getting along down to the fact that Rinaa only had Jay in her life properly in her timeline and as a future single parent with a kid, Rinaa naturally became close to her. With that in mind, both of them figured that just naturally made things easier for both Jay and Rinaa to almost bond with each other in this timeline. As for John's bond reference and Jay mentioning skyfall, it went over both Fia and Kay's heads as neither girl had actually watched the film. Kay simply because it didn't appeal to her in the slightest, and Fia because she hadn't gotten around to seeing it for herself to make her mind up on it.

Both of them watched on as Rinaa started the long high secured log in process on her laptop, truly now realising that Rinaa wasn't joking when she said to Jay just how tightly she had secured the piece of technology. It was when the alarms went off that Fia thought Cliff had the right idea of taking out her hearing aids, knowing she would definitely be glad of it when John went into the bedroom later as the noise would be so much worse. The noise from the laptop was irritating but both Fia and Kay managed to deal with it, even if it was irritating for those three minutes until Rinaa got them to turn off.

They listened to Rinaa's answer to John's question as they were curious to what would make it go off in such a manner. The answer they just about understood so just nodded before Fia just stuffed her face with more sweets. "so.. Did it sense more than you in its proximity, to make it go off like that?" Fia asked as a way to try and see if she was understanding what Rinaa was saying.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Jay, Cal and Cliff all understood what Rinaa was trying to explain, bio-metric data identifying tech was used in various places, mainly to keep track of who was clocking in and out of somewhere. Bio-metrics were much harder to fake than physical documents (that didn't mean it couldn't be done however). "Yes and no would be the simple answer to that." Rinaa replied. "And the complex one?" Chas asked, hoping the teenager would be able to explain it without going into a massive lecture based on tech for them that hadn't even been released yet.

"Well first off the biometric stuff doesn't work on me, with my DNA constantly degrading, it's changing my biometric fingerprint that my laptop would normally identify me by. And since it's been almost three years, my DNA had lost four or five helixes, so I'd be just as much of an impostor as any of you guys, IF I didn't use a different method to identify myself with. It recognises me by my hand prints and fingerprints, nowhere near as secure sadly, but I'd rather that than it blowing up in my face. That's what two of the alarms were about, but those were fixed with my personal codes."

"The rest of them were triggered by...." Rinaa hesitated before just spitting out, slightly ashamed about what she was going to say. "Well you guys being near it when it's on. Or more precisely, you four." She gestured at Fia, Kay, John and Chas. "being near it." She pulled up a series of files and swivelled the laptop around before continuing her explanation. "My laptop has four levels for dealing with people. The first is for unknown people or people I've only met a few times. It behaves just like a normal locked laptop and no matter what you do, it won't let you in, unless I give you a set of codes, and even then, you wouldn't have access to anything super classified. That's where Elliott is." "Fair enough." Elliott shrugged, he was dead after all in her timeline, so it wouldn't make sense for his details to be on there.

"The other three of them are based of personal data I've uploaded about people, bio-signatures, hand prints, facial scans.... that sort of thing. Usually if I'm working it would just be a pop-up notification to let me know that they're in the area. But I ramped the settings up to the max before storing it, and as the laptop was so confused about not being on Earth, not being in the right time and not being able to connect to the internet, so it treated everything like a cyber attack and went it full on defensive. All the lights and whistles really." She gave a very slight smirk at her own joke before continuing with her explanation, scrolling quickly down through the files so that the others could see that each file contained a photo of a person, their clearance level, some notes about them and a brief outline of why they were at the level they were at.

"There's the green list, which Jay is on, she could use this laptop with no problems whatsoever. Everybody else on that list would be a friend or co-worker cos we share laptops a lot at work. Below that is the amber level. People I trust, but don't see often, so they have to put in a code before they can use it, so that the computer knows they're safe. As I don't see Cal, Cliff, Cliff's siblings, Deke, Trish and some other people you wouldn't know nearly as much as I'd like to, they're on the amber list. After that is the red list. People I don't trust with my tech, people I don't trust to keep any secrets on it a secret, people I wouldn't trust as far as I can throw them, and people I just don't like in general. That's where you four are" she gestured at Kay, Fia, John and Chas. "And before you three start looking all outraged at that, Chas is the only one who had any right to be really offended by it. I know John went snooping through my phone on the flight here, and I know both my timeline's Fia and Kay tried to get into my phone before. Chas, you used to be amber or green list in my timeline, but you broke your word on something important, something I can't talk about now, I decided I couldn't trust you, and you never quite got the chance on redeem yourself on that before I went time travelling, so you're still on red." She paused before raising an eyebrow at something in the corner of the screen. "And one of those noises was because I have one unread email which is absolutely TYPICAL."

 

[MzHyde]

Despite Fia's natural curiosity that she definitely picked up from John growing up, she would have accepted Rinaa's simple answer to her question solely on the fact she didn't want to risk saying something wrong and ruining what they had worked hard on to get along with each other. So when Chas asked what the complex answer was, Fia felt reassured she wasn't the only who wanted a more in depth answer but knew if anyone would get the answer out of Rinaa without her taking offence to it, it would be Chas. As Rinaa began answering it, she could claim to fully understand what as being explained but she understood it enough to get a basic grasp of what was being said. She thought that it would be the end of it but Rinaa continued on, and specified that it mostly went off because herself, Kay, John and Chas were near it, she couldn't even attempt to be offended.

From what they knew of how Rinaa's versions of Kay and Fia and how they treated her, neither Fia or Kay could act offended or shocked that they'd be the cause of a security breech on Rinaa's laptop. Neither of them could say whether John would be offended by it, but it was surprising when Rinaa said Chas was on the list. They listened as Rinaa explained the tiers of accessibility to her laptop, both thinking it was pretty damn smart of her to have such security on her laptop. Everything started to make sense to both of them, especially when they explained the red tier that held John, Chas, Kay and Fia. At the end mention of the last one being an email notification, both girls had to smirk. "well, I cant fault your system and categories. I'm not offended in the slightest because we all know how our other selves were to you" Kay explained to Rinaa. "what she said" Fia chimed in simply. Kay was surprised however that Rinaa knew John (and herself) went snooping through her phone, but then she realised if she had this level security on he rlaptop, then it wouldn't be that surprising if she had something on her phone to alert her someone went snooping in it.

 

[_gallifrog_]

It made perfect sense that out of all of them Elliott would be the only one not to provoke a major reaction from the laptop, he was the only one who didn't exist in Rinaa's timeline after all. There was a flicker of surprise on Chas' face when Rinaa first said that he was partially to blame for the laptop going haywire, but that was smoothed away quickly as she began to explain properly. The set up was elaborate and jay could see in her daughter's face that Rinaa was trying to keep it as basic as possible, no doubt omitting all kinds of nuances associated with future Earth tech. Seeing the files of people the laptop knew was pretty impressive, she wasn't expecting there to be so many. Jay couldn't help but feel slightly smug that she was the only one in the room on the green list. As Rinaa flicked through people files Jay recognised a few of the Isogrii and now knowing that Quin was somebody important in Rinaa's life, she wasn't surprised when she saw the assassin's photo pop up (the redhead had let her hair grow out a bit from the buzzcut she wore currently (and Jay couldn't help but think that it suited her)). She was surprised, however, that the other assassin was a green listed.

Chas had expecting himself to be on the amber list of people, he knew future him and Rinaa got on well enough, as did him and future Jay (provided Kay and Fia weren't around) so he couldn't hep feeling both curious and a little hurt that he wasn't on that list. When Rinaa started explaining the red list, he could feel his heart sinking, not offended by what he was being told, more of disappointed that his future self had sunk so low as to be lumped in with the people who had destroyed Rinaa's life, whether it was through their actions and attitudes (Kay and Fia) or their lack of action and 'too little-too late' approach (John). He was wondering what exactly future him an done for Rinaa to lose her trust in him and the question must have shown on his face as Rinaa continued explaining that he'd gone back on his word on something important. He didn't need to know what it was future him had gone back on to know that it would have hurt Rinaa severely to have somebody she trusted essentially betray her. Though it was good to know that Rinaa clearly though future him would have redeemed himself, so he couldn't have been that much of an asshole. "I can only apologise for whatever future me did."

There was some smirking from Cliff at the unread email remark, knowing exactly what Rinaa meant. When it came to work it always seemed like there was one more unread email between her and finishing up. What he didn't know was that john had gone through Rinaa's phone on the trip over and raised a questioning eyebrow at John, who had the decency to look guilty about it. "Guilty as charged. I'm guessing the phone was kitted out with some kind of advanced future tech?" Rinaa shook her head "nowhere near the extent my laptop was, this has shit that must be kept classified, my phone just had more sentimental stuff- photos that would act as spoilers for the future, message from friends, that sort of thing. Along with some bio-data and scans on my degrading DNA and notes from Cliff on what to step up my medication to if things got worse. It was a fingerprint scanner that got you, John. Luckily for you the taser phone never quite worked." She finished with a slight smirk, drawing the laptop back onto her knees again. "Well either way it's a damn bloody impressive piece of kit." Jay remarked., something like pride and awe in her voice. "This laptop really does have everything doesn't it?" Rinaa nodded, "that it is I used it for a lot of stuff in my timeline. And unlike some of the others I didn't damage it irreparably." She tapped the edge f the lid where the protective coat was crinkling away to demonstrate her point.

 

[MzHyde]

Fia thought out of the four of them, Chas would have definitely been at least in the Amber list until Rinaa examined why he went into the red list. She could tell that it shocked Chas that his future self would or even could betray Rinaa or anyone for that matter but she also knew Chas always did things from a good place in his heart and his future self must have had a what he perceived to be a good reason for breaking a promise involving keeping a secret or similar. She too was surprised for a moment that John would go snooping in Rinaa's phone, yet at the same time she wasn't surprised. She always figured her dad to be the kind that if he truly wanted to try and figure someone out, he'd easily stoop that level, hell, she was certain that if her own phone was left unattended and there was cause for it (in this time period or her timeline) he'd snoop through her phone as well. She wouldn't even put it passed her dad to put some kind of tracking on her phone if he knew she was sneaking out for whatever reason.

Kay listened with intrigue with how Rinaa knew John went snooping and was surprised and impressed that it was something so simple that caught John red handed without them even knowing it. She remembered that night so vividly as it was the night John found her sleep walking and scared Rinaa shirtless because she was alight with phoenix fire, which made Rinaa drop her phone, leaving it at the mercy of John and his curiosity. That was also when they found the photos on her phone, giving them the clue she did infact some kind of friendship ring in her timeline. Both Kay and Fia agreed with Jay that either way, it was impressive tech Rinaa had on her. "as long as it works, that's the important thing" Kay commented.

 

[_gallifrog_]

"Oh it works alright" Rinaa confirmed, with something approaching pride in her voice, reaching for the take-away with her other hand. There was something about the way she was sitting in the chair, legs propped up on the coffee table, laptop balanced on her head, bulky schoolbag by her side, that just looked right. "I've dialled everything back down to the regular settings, so it won't be sounding like a nuclear power plant going into meltdown every time I turn it on." "As impressive as that was, once was definitely enough." Cal agreed. An amused look came over Rinaa's face. "I've heard worse than that." "Really?" John asked sceptically, his nose crinkling as he made a face.

"Oh yeah, somebody accidentally put the cortex into level 11 panic lockdown once." Rinaa replied, gobbling down a large mouthful before continuing. "That's the level reserved only for use when the world is ending or somebody has released a bio-chemical weapon and the whole place needs to be hermetically sealed before we all die or get infected with Rage and it goes all 28 Days Later on us" she added, using pop culture to explain the seriousness of that level."Nearly blew our bloody ears off with the amounts of sirens blaring from all angles, all the blast shields came down and it was switched to this weird blood red emergency lighting. It's funny looking back, but at the time it was awful." She shook her head, half in amusement, half in annoyance.

"Though for the past while, it's been the sound of bomb warnings, the flashing of the impact counters and the desperate scramble to a shielded zone. Followed by the missiles streaking through the atmosphere at mach 2 and the shock wave that accompanies it. After that it's just the sheer devastation left behind, the sobbing, the screaming and the dying. Most of the missiles don't get through. The Speedster clan and Lanterns are good at deflecting them, say what you will against them, the rarely let bombs through. And there's been massive leaps in forcefield tech too. But every once in a while, with more frequency recently, one gets through. The one that hit London had me in hospital, though, the laptop fared better than me, all it needed was a new case, if you needed any kind of proof that this is as sturdy as it looks." She gestured at the bulkiness of the laptop, it was at least double the thickness of the one Cliff worked on. "Bulky laptops are far better than slimline things. Just saying." She shrugged, before taking up another massive mouthful of food, as if she hadn't just been talking about the city John and Chas had grew up in and most of the others in the room knew and loved.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay noted the pride in Rinaa's voice clear as day and she couldn't fault her for feeling such an emotion over it. If she had some kind of technology that had survived through mbay a turbulent moment and come out with just minor scuffs, then she'd feel pretty smug about it as well. She nodded at Rinaa saying she dialled back all the security on her laptop so they don't get blasted with the alarms again, completely unaware that she'd get blasted with even louder alarm going off later in the evening. John wasn't the only one who was skeptical about Rinaa having heard worse, so was Kay. So when Rinaa decided to elaborate and explain what was worse, she listened with interest, imagining how much worse that could be and easily imagining how it'd be like something out of a horror film.

With the chat moving on to about bombs hitting London and making Rinaa end up hospital because of it, she really didn't like the idea of her birth home being blown up by bombs. Fia also hated the idea as like Chas and John she had grown up in London and it was the only place she truly knew. It was one hell of an example to show how sturdy her laptop was in comparison to her, even if it as a rather morbid one. "that I don't doubt, slimline laptops are great but really breakable" Fia agreed, without actually saying that she had broken a laptop (or two) in her timeline by accident which resorted to her being told of she breaks her third and current one, she's finding a way to buy the replacement because she parents weren't going to replace it again. She even once had to get her Aunt to buy her a new one to try and pretend she didn't break the first laptop, but the broken one was found and she was given a scolding for it.

"let me guess, you're speaking from experience?" Kay spoke up, turning her attention to Fia, who at the sound of that assumption tried to look innocent but the sheepish guilty look on her face gave her away. "...... Maybe" Fia eventually said guiltily.

 

[_gallifrog_]

John almost regretted asking what could be worse, he'd completely forgotten that Rinaa's timeline was descending into interplanetary war. The first answer was the kind of one he expected from her -the facility she was working in accidentally going into full lockdown. The way she described it, the fact that such a panic level was even needed, (while it did sound like something from an apocalypse movie), it just drove home the point that Rinaa's timeline's Earth was far far removed from the mostly peaceful Earth they all knew (and loved to a greater or lesser extent). When Rinaa spoke of the bombs, she spoke in the same detached way that Jay did when she was talking about something utterly soul crushing, removing all traces of any emotions from her voice, turning it into a monotone. But there was no mistaking the pain in her eyes as she spoke. While Rinaa had no proper family on earth, she genuinely loved the planets and there were people there who she loved more than herself and would do anything for.

John nodded his agreement at Rinaa's words, and Fia's comment. "Agreed, if you hit somebody over the head hard enough with a slimline laptop, their head bursts through it like something from a kids cartoon. A bulky laptop? Now that's a reusable weapon and highly effective." John was speaking from experience. He'd broken quite a few laptops belonging to other people in such ways, but never his own, which was bulky about almost eight years out of date, he refused to replace it as it still had a proper CD/DVD drive and a massive long charging cable, which was perfect for using to binge movies with when he couldn't be arsed to leave his bed or the couch. At Fia's second remark he couldn't help but smirk. "of course, she is, that face practically has guilty written all over it."

While Fia, Kay and John went on a side tangent about how slimline laptops were kind of shit, Jay decided to risk saying the things on her mind. The description of the interplanetary missiles Rinaa gave was vague, but Jay knew the ind of destruction such weapons could do. "This laptop survived an interplanetary missile blast? Damn, that's impressive, the techie who wrote the ranty list must really know what he's doing." Rinaa smiled fondly at that "yeah, he does, he's a bloody genius, he's technically an MIT student, but went to London on an exchange and never went back to the States. He was my mentor when I had my first summer job in the lab, and one of my best friends, we just clicked really." She shook her head slightly before continuing. "And I should probably clarify, it wasn't a direct hit, I was in a bunker at the time, a good distance from ground zero so got rattled around a lot. It was helping with the clear up and search and rescue afterwards that got me. There was a bunch of people trapped in the sublevels of a building and I was going down on ropes to help carry them to the surface. The whole building collapsed with me in it. Luckily I had the phone and laptop on me, to help scan for life signatures, they just used GPS tracking to find me and I was taken to hospital. It's lucky I passed out, or I probably would have claustrophobia on top of everything else." She gave a self depreciating shrug, running a hand through her hair, feeling slightly awkward about talking about what she'd done in her timeline, not seeing the surprised and slightly awed looks the others were giving her, stunned at what she'd just said.

 

[MzHyde]

Fia couldn't say she ever used a laptop of any kind to bash round someone's head to knock them out, but she had done the typical spilling fizzy drinks on them and making it spark and break, (which she got Sam to replace without her parents knowledge) and she had dropped one off the rooftop of the apartment when she was up there studying one summer evening and it smashed into smitherines below. She didn't intend to, it was purely a case of her clumsy moment coming to the surface and as she stood up, she accidentally kicked it off the rooftop. The real insult to injury for her was that John was below at that precise moment it smashed on the ground just millimetres in front of him. It was then she knew she was in big trouble and made to never take a laptop or expensive tech onto the rooftop again. When John chimed in on the conversation she narrowed her eyes att him and poked her tongue out at him. "okay sure, I've broken a couple of laptops you guys bought me. I mean... One.. Yeah, one laptop and it was an accident. Not my fault it couldn't survive a dive off the apartment roof" she said back before quickly trying to backtrack when she realised she admitted to breaking more than one laptop.

Kay just smirked and laughed at Fia trying to backtrack with her comeback to John whilst failing miserably in the process. She then rose an eyebrow at the roof comment and looked at her, "a dive off the apartment roof?" she questioned, causing Fia to nod sheepishly once more. "I went to get up coz I was getting a numb leg, as I got up and swung my leg out, I accidentally kicked the laptop off the roof and it missed dad by like...a few millimetres. Because naturally the universe decided that it was going to stitch me up in the most classic way possible!" Fia elaborated, using her hands and arms to explain more by gesturing the flying laptop and making an explosion sign with her hands of it hitting the floor, then ending her explanation with an eye roll and wave of the arms by shrugging them upward and back down again. She was aware of Jay and Rinaa talking about the rest of the original conversation but didn't pay too much attention to it.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Looking up Rinaa saw the expressions on Chas, Elliott, Cal, Cliff and Jay's faces. "What?" She asked, clearly surprised by the open admiration and how impressed they were being so clearly written on their faces. "I've tried out a lot of stuff in my life, trying to find my niche and expand my horizons. The sort of thing you're supposed to do as a teenager." And also to have a legitimate excuse not to spend any more time than necessary near Kay, Fia and the bullies Fia hung around with. She knew Jay did it too citing a work emergency as an excuse to leave or not even be there in the first place. Why somebody had decided family dinners for the extended Constantine-Hale-Tziyen-Za'Lott family was a good idea was beyond her. It never ended well. "Most of it didn't stick. Search and rescue somehow did, I guess it's do with all the Isogrii climbing training I did as a kid. And the fact I apparently keep a cool head in times of crisis." Rinaa clearly didn't believe that statement. "And besides, it's the least I could do, given that my family kinda lit the spark that started the thing and got blown totally out of control."

John noticed the slip-up in Fia's words and the clumsy way in which she tried to cover it up. More than one laptop had been broken evidently, but not necessarily all of them had been laptop he and Kay bought for her. "Sure, sure, as if that was anywhere near a believable lie." He retorted with a grin. John couldn't help but smirk as Fia told the story, looking so incredibly adorable sheepish as she did so. He was slightly alarmed by the fact the laptop had almost hit him, knowing full well that anything with any weight whatsoever dropped from the roof of his building would have splattered his brains over the pavement and killed him pretty much instantly. And unlike Fia and Kay, he possessed no kind of healing factor. And he certainly didn't walk around with a shield ward on all the time, not only would that drain his energy, all magic had a cost and he was in the red enough as it was. "That's the Constantine luck, only thing I can really say to that." John shrugged.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay had to smirk and chuckle at John calling Fia out on her lie about just how many laptops she broke because of one reason or another. The way Fia was being so sheepish about the accidents was truly adorable, but Kay wasn't going to say it out loud and embarrass her daughter any more than she currently was. She noticed how animated in using her hands to tell the story Fia was, noting how it must have been a little tic she picked up from herself as she knew when she truly got into telling a story, Kay would use her hands to help tell said story, even if it was rare for her to do so.

Fia nodded at John's comment, finding that he never used the word 'luck' lightly and she did notice how he got alarmed that it was him who the laptop almost hit. "trust me, when I saw you on the ground as the laptop went smash on the floor I was freaking out so bad. I was also in sooooo much trouble for almost killing you. One of the few times I actually had a panic attack" she admitted. Kay listened and she could definitely see how their future selves would have had lectured Fia for such a move, but she would have also liked to think that if they knew of Fia's panic attacks they'd have done something about it to calm their kid down. She also could see even now, that Fia would be utterly lost without John in her life, just as she would. "you said more than one laptop, what happened to the other one?" Kay asked curiously, "can of sprite" Fia simply replied, knowing it was pointless to pretend she hadn't broken more than one laptop. This answer just made Kay laugh, thinking how it felt like such a typical Fia way of breaking something. "and don't laugh at me" Fia pouted, jabbing Kay in the arm making Kay rub her arm where she was jabbed. "sorry not sorry kiddo" Kay smirked.

 

[_gallifrog_]

There was some slight wincing from the others at Rinaa's statement, but they all knew it was true. It was John who'd started a diplomatic incident as he attempted to get Elliott's body back to Earth, but it was others who escalated it, using it as an excuse to push their own anti-alien ideals forwards. The Attili side wasn't without fault either, Zan turning whistleblower exposed all kinds of deep rooted corruption. None of them could really imagine what it had been like for Rinaa growing up as a teenager, seeing the beginning of the era of bombings and knowing that it was because of her family that it was all happening. The second hand guilt had become crippling at times, so helping out with the search and rescue both in the field and developing better tech to find people was how Rinaa had learned to square it with herself.

It was Elliott who spoke first, with both pride and conviction in his voice "it's still damn amazing anyway, don't ever talk down saving people's lives. Or anything else you've done that we don't know about." Rinaa went to say something, but Cliff cut her off, shortly followed by Cal. "He's right, it takes a special kind of person to climb into a collapsing building and risk their life in the process." Cliff herself had never gone into the paramedic side of medicine, but there had been a few, thankfully very rare cases, where somebody had been rushed in with life threatening injuries and it had been an all hand son deck scramble to do anything and everything to save their life. So she had the utmost respect for people whose job it was to put themselves in such situations (or who voluntarily put themselves in such situations. "You've got something most people don't have, and many don't even appreciate." Cal told the teenager, her voice conveying the unspoken part of that sentence, the part that went 'we see it and we believe in you'. Jay was the last to speak, but for Rinaa her words held the most impact, as Jay had always been the one constant in her life, the one who would tell her anything straight even if it would hurt Rinaa or Jay herself in the process. "They're all right, that kind of trait? It isn't learned, it's something you just have." Jay didn't say it was clearly implied in her words that 'those assholes in your timeline, those who can't see it, they can fuck right off, they don't matter'.

John could easily see why such thing could trigger a panic attack. Killing a parent was bad enough in and of itself, he'd been there (Twice) and damn well knew what he was talking about in that regard. But when it was somebody you loved and couldn't imagine life without, the guilt and 'what if's afterwards just ate you alive, and never truly went away. John couldn't say he'd ever had a panic attack as such, there'd been instances he'd come close, but he'd never quite tipped over the edge. And if he was killed, well there was a damn good chance his death would ignite a war in Hell as the various princes of the underworld fought for his soul and the right to torture it in ever more creative ways for the rest of eternity.

Thankfully the subject move don before John could open his big mouth and say something that would make Fia feel even worse of the whole situation. He snorted when Fia revealed that it had been a can of Sprite that had caused the demise of her other laptop. It was such a stereotype, the can of fizzy drink (or coffee depending on the age of the person) spilling on a laptop and destroying everything. "That doesn't surprise me, Sprite is literally an acid. Surprisingly effective at hurting ravens, particularly those around the tower of London, though everybody knows they're fakes robotic ones." John's tone slipped into one of musing contemplation that often happened when he said some really obscure fact and he started thinking back on how exactly he'd found it out.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay was aware of what was being said between the others, finding it great that they were giving Rinaa that boost that she no doubt needs every once in a while. It was obvious that Rinaa had a lot more going for her than she thought, so Kay was glad that the others were reminding Rinaa of it. However her main focus was still on the chat with Fia and John, chuckling all the more at John equally finding it amusing that out of all the ways Fia has broken a laptop, it was the typical can of sprite that did one of them in. She was tempted to make some remark like 'how come you're not jabbing him for laughing at you?' but John's comment came in before she could speak and carried the conversation along.

Fia rose her eyebrows at John's remark, wondering how he knew it was surprisingly effective on ravens and how he knew about the tower of London ravens weren't real. "how do you know that exactly? On both statements that is about the ravens" she asked curiously, she also found herself now debating if she ever wanted to drink Sprite ever again, but milliseconds later her brain knew she would drink it again, knowing that it'd take a lot to make her stop drinking her favourite fizzy drink. Kay had admit she was also curious as to how ajohn knew what he did about the ravens as she always assumed they were real, and certainly always looked real if she caught the tower on TV from the news or anything else. Granted she had never been to the Tower herself as she just never got round to it, despite it being a popular tourist attraction in London. "always come across as real to me" she then shrugged.