Riv@l R3s3@rch

[Erin Hackett]

Alright, so Erin did not really think of this guy as a rival or anything, but he was something that was not a friend or a foe to her yet. She had met him a few times but they had never actually talked to one another alone or in detail. He was one of Tim's friends and Erin and Tim's relationship still seemed to be on the fence. At least to Erin it felt like it was more of an awkward acquaintanceship then it was a friendship. She didn't really hand around the guy all that much and well just they clicked but didn't click.

She didn't know but she figured with time she would be able to get closer to him and actually count him as a friend. One way to do that was to get to know him better. What better way to do that then to break into his room and do the research on him that way and via the internet. She had already done the internet bit but when it came to breaking into his room time she had come up with an even better idea. Why not go into the guy’s room he was friends with and gather information that way? It was brilliant as far as she was concerned.

It didn't even take that much effort to use her power to sneak to his room, her other skills to break in, and then just simple being Erin to be in the boys room and looking around. She had no clue of his schedule but figured he would be eating at the cafeteria like most of the people could not cook did right about now. Again, she was assuming he could not cook since she didn’t know a single thing about this guy. "What is that?" Erin asked as she ducked down and started to reach under the bed to pull out something from under Karsen's bed. Too distracted to hear the door opening to the room.

((Tag:Karsen Ford))

[Karsen Ford]

Karsen was pretty sure that he would be banned from the kitchenette if it weren’t for sandwiches. He was currently balancing a sub, a bottle of mountain dew and a bag of doritos. The problem he had with balancing was that he was awful at it, especially when it came to opening the door. That’s why he had rigged it to open to the press of a button now all he had to do was get the remote out of his pocket...which one was it again? After finding the right pocket he pressed the button and door opened with a soft click. He really wished the school would install sliding doors, those would be awesome. But not the doors that you seen at the supermarkets the ones that went up not down.

Upon entering his room he automatically connected himself to frodo, preferring to mentally converse with his pet than verbal. Not thinking that someone would be in his room, he didn’t really look for any kind of indicator as he sat in his desk chair.. Sitting down he set his food on the desk he snorted and turned on his laptop “Gesh Frodo you would think you were human with the amount of maintenance you need.” He said out loud absentmindedly. Connecting the cord from the robot to the computer he froze as one of his old robots when off loud bark.

Turning around he groaned “Hello?” as he looked towards his bed. Why anyone would try and take his defective robots he had no idea. A lot of the times, they were unable to function around the school because they acted too much like a dog.

Erin Hackett

[Erin Hackett]

Erin didn't know what she was looking at; there was something that looked like a robot and then just stuff. Stuff that she was calling junk for now but the robot dog-ish thing had caught her attention and now she was poking and prodding it. She was pretty good with tec, but that tended to be with more so computers and video games. Sure, a robot dog was sort of in that area since it was a computer as well but it was just different. She figured she could hack it but first she had to get a closer look at it, which involved sort of accidentally turning it on.

it had taken a moment to figure out how to turn it on, but just as she did she could hear the door to the bedroom opening up. "So zeta lame." Erin muttered to herself as she quickly scrambled under the boy's bed. How many times could she say she had hidden under a guy’s bed? More than she could count so she probably had a problem with this whole sneaking into people’s rooms and what have you. It was not until she was already under his bed; all curled up, and staying still that she recalled that she had just made a really stupid move.

With her power she had not need to hide under his bed and it had been sort of a last second scramble. Just as she was about to use her power to hide herself in case he ended up looking under his bed, his stupid robot-dog let out a bark. Not just a normal bark, but a very loud and mechanical bark that startled Erin. "Shhh." Erin whispered to the dog, as if that would help make it shut up. She was trying to be quite about trying to turn the machine off.

[Karsen Ford]

Whatever or rather whoever was hiding under his bed was awfully determined not come out. It’s not like they had any reason to be embarrassed….okay maybe they did because what thief actually gets caught. Not a good one he could say that much, still he couldn’t help the sigh that left his lips after realizing they weren’t coming out easily. Karsen wasn’t a lazy person, but he was fully aware of what would happen should he try and apprehend the suspect. He would fall and get hurt, thus letting the culprit go. He was going to have to build in infrared security system or at least get his hands on a security system and update it. What was the world coming to people just breaking into his room and trying to steal his pets. They could’ve just asked if they wanted a cool robot dog, he could’ve made a Frodo 2.0.

“Can you please just come out and ill turn off the dog, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about.” Unless you counted the fact they seriously underestimated their stealing abilities…..or didn’t learn his schedule enough to know that he wouldn’t be out of his room. Not to mention...he had nothing of value on his computer or in his room...so why were people breaking in. It obviously made very little sense and he was starting to get confused. Tapping his foot in awful rhythm he waited for whoever to show themselves, the defect dog still barking.

Karsen wasn’t a very patient person, he was contemplating using Frodo to attack but the most the dog could do was fire paintballs and he didn’t exactly know who was under his bed. He knew it was Tim because there was no wheelchair and why would Tim have to hide under his bed. Of course his power could’ve just spiked and accidently turned on the radio but he gave himself a little bit more credit than that. He could tell how many devices he was tuned into, he could always just ask the dog if there was a person there but that was no fun. Besides he was constantly being told he needed to interact with people more….Sicking Frodo on the intruder would be considered interaction.

Erin Hackett

[Erin Hackett]

Erin still had the option to use her power, crawl out from under the bed, and make a run for the exit without having to worry about anything. Yet, she figured that if Karsen brought this up to Tim, Tim would inform him that he had just sort of indirectly met Erin. Tim should have known about Erin's power by now and her slight habit of using it on people. She mostly used it on Quinn, but when it came to people she socialized with and well pretty much everyone she socialized with she used her power on in some way.

At any rate, she figured she might as well show herself and meet the guy official now and get it over with. So she crawled out from under his bed with a sigh and slowly stood up. She dusted herself off and made sure to not make any eye contact with the boy since she was embarrassed. He might have said there was nothing to be embarrassed about, but clearly he was not aware of the situation. The whole situation was awkward and something to be clearly embarrassed about. "This is not what it looks like." Erin said as she crossed her arms over her shoulder.

It was basically pretty much what it looked like, so long as he was not thinking that she was some crazy stalker girl of his. Erin didn't even really know him and he was also a male so 'eww' in terms of wanting to stalk him. Okay, she did sort of stalk guys but she was not some secrete fan girl of this guy that she was pretty sure was a child compared to her.

[Karsen Ford]

Karsen’s eyes widen as a girl crawled from underneath his bed. He just assumed that someone was trying to steal one of the gadgets he had and found the wrong stash. Of course he had working gadgets he just hide them way better than his broken ones. “I was not expecting that’ He said more towards the dog beside him than anything else. He rummaged through his drawer full of remotes for the blue to turn off the dog. It would be easier to use his power but he was trying to get in the habit of separating himself from his power. His parents were constantly telling him that he was not his power and ect ect ect. Once the dog stopped barking he tossed the remote back into the drawer and locked it.

“Well, it looks like you’re trying to steal defective material and I should let you know that I do patent all my orginal technology...stealing will put you in jail.” It was total lie but not everyone knew that. Karsen didn’t want to have to deal with the process if it involved dealing with the people and the government. He would be in school for awhile so he knew that his stuff was relatively safe. Still he wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt since she seemed to be way too awkward to steal something and she looked vaguely familiar.

“Then what exactly are you doing in my room...from your perspective?” Of course he didn’t believe for one moment that she wasn’t a thief, why else would someone sneak into his room. Unless she was like one of those blackmailer types because he had nothing of consequence to be blackmailed with. He wasn’t a mad scientist trying to take over the world….even if he was planning on building his friend a rocket powered wheelchair...speaking of rocket powered he really needed to work on his skateboard.

Erin Hackett

[Erin Hackett]

Erin was not here to steal anything; she was not really the stealing type. Unless it was to make a point in which case when she was done making her point she would return whatever she stole. She had no need to steal when she could buy whatever she wanted, make it, or get it made for herself. She liked video games and computer related things, but that didn’t really mean that she wanted any robots or crazy stuff like that. She thought robots were cool but she was in full belief that robots were dangerous the smarter you made them and she was not ready for an early AI ruled life yet.

“See, you are wrong. I have no interest in stealing your…pet projects and no one would be able to catch me to put me in jail.” Erin said as she crossed stood tall and held her ground. She meant it on so many different levels past just not wanting his robots and the whole jail thing. With her ability, money, and what she was good at. She didn’t think any jail would be able to hold her for long when escaping and getting away was something of a specialty of hers. Then again if it was some kind of mutant lockdown then she was screwed.

“Research.” Erin replied to his question on what she was doing from her perspective. “You are a friend of Tim and I’m…kind of a friend of his. So I wanted to learn about you in order to better understand the kind of person Tim likes so it can improve our relationship status.” Erin said, nodding a few more times. She also added in a casual step away from the guy and in the direction of the door, just in case.

[Karsen Ford]

Karsen shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head “What exactly is your power?” He asked curiously considering he didn’t see her it had to be some type of invisibility. Which would make some potentially interesting experiments where thermal imagining was concerned. Even if she wasn’t there she would give off a heat signature right? He knew how infrared camera worked, but not how they worked on mutant abilities such as invisibility. Though he doubted it was invisibility he had learned that unlike the comic books mutant powers weren’t as cut and dry as they seemed. No two mutants had the same ability even if they were called the same thing, it probably had something to do with how different people develop in different way and bunch of other mumbo jumbo he didn’t care about.

Karsen shook his head and then ran a finger through his hair catching on the growing dreadlocks in his hair. He would probably cut it soon but that was not of any consequence at that moment. He wasn’t sure that she was being entirely logical, mostly because she could’ve just asked him and then gotten her information. “Well you didn’t have to break into my room, not that I mind….but having to turn off robots does distract me. Next time you should just ask.” He looked around his room and walked over to a chair with a bunch of books on them, moving them to his dresser. He gestured for her to have a seat, since she was there might as well get it over with it.

‘So you want information on me or Tim...it’s not hard to be his friend ya know…..So I was wondering if we could exchange information….You want to know about what type of friends Tim goes for and I want to know if a camera could catch your thermal signature while you're doing you power thingy.’

Erin Hackett

[Erin Hackett]

"Why do you want to know?" Erin asked instead of just telling him. He did just sort of ask about it out of the blue and she didn't really know him. He was Tim's friend, not hers, and while he was a guy she as still nervous around him. She needed at least a little bit longer before she was fine telling information about herself. Even if it was as simple and basic as information about her power, which really was not that big of a deal. Still, she didn't know the guy and thus was not going to give him answers unless she got some answers first.

She didn't say anything about how she could have just asked for him to let her into his room and some complaint about it was a pain to have to turn off his robots or something. If that’s the case you could just always have them off and turn them on when you actually need them on. Instead of wasting power or whatever. Erin thought to herself. If she had the gull, she would have said it to his face, but she didn't so kept the thoughts in her head. She took another careful step towards the exit of his bedroom.

"The point as to not run into you and get information without your direct help." Erin pointed out, messing with the end of her shirt a little, but she had a tiny bit of fire behind her words. He was then making assumptions on what she wanted and then making a deal before she even got to correct him on what she wanted and didn't want to know. She again still wanted to do this on her own but figured having the source was better than spending too long in this room looking for the information herself.

"Well, yes I would be fine with you telling me what kind of friends he likes but, I could just tell you that if it’s a real thermal camera, I will show up." Erin informed him. Why waste his time doing an experiment she already knew the answer to? Unless he really wanted to do it, then she would because it was not that big of a deal.

[Karsen Ford]

Shrugging his shoulders her ran a hand through his hair “Just what it’s called...nothing personal like strength and weaknesses....” he trailed off at the end suddenly feeling really awkward about the whole conversation. Maybe asking her about her powers from the start wasn't really all that smart. After all they knew nothing about each other and she did kind of break into his room for no apparent reason. In his opinion Tim wasn't all that hard to figure out….seeing as Tim was a goofball most of the time. Well at least to Karsen he was...and that had to count for something.

“I can understand the not wanting to run into people thing if it’ll make you more comfortable I could eat in the Kitchen and give you time to snoop around...as long as you stay away from my blueprints and don't bump into one of the robots...they'll go off.” Logically he knew that letting a strange girl roam around his room unsupervised was illogical but he felt bad for her. It was obvious to him that people should know he rarely left his room unless for classes….other people however….not so much. Still he didn't want to force her into awkward situations and it was steadily turning into one.

“Well to be honest Tim has a wide range of friends ranging from personality to personality but as long as you're open minded and not a total jerk you guys will probably be friend. It’s nice not to have a dislike of bats….Oh and just be yourself.” Karsen was pretty satisfied with his answer, all the people that hung out with Tim were open minded and weird. It seemed liked the girl would fit in just right. “I’m Karsen by the way or Kar….would you mind testing one out if I build one? Just to see if could build a better one than what’s out on the marker?” Of course he'd have to find a way to get an advanced thermal camera to see how it worked...or get a hold of some blueprints.

Erin Hackett

[Erin Hackett]

Erin looked at him for a moment when he said that he just wanted to know the name of her power and that he didn't really need to know the strength and weakness. Well, telling him the name was not that big of a deal, yet she didn't see how that would help him. Someone could have called their power something that was close to what they could do but no as specific. Erin's power name was pretty specific, but even still some people might not have knew what that all meant because it could be that she could just hide herself, or perhaps it was just object.

In Erin's case, she could pretty much hide whatever she was touching along with herself. Making it so that no one would see or hear her or whoever was connected to her when she was using her power. "Concealment." Erin said after moment thinking about it and figured if a name was all he wanted to know and not the details then she would tell him. She still thinks it was foolish for not wanting to know the details of the power, but his choice. "What can you do?" Erin asked, being a bit more specific because she didn't just want to know the name. She knew a little bit about his power but hearing it from the source was always better. Right?

"It's not the same if you are aware of it. So zeta lame." Erin said as she let out a deep sigh. She shook her head a few times but figured perhaps the boy was not all that good at socializing. Like she was one to talk. Karsen was then giving her an answer and Erin could not help but to have a sort of deadpan look written all over her face. The things he had said were so basic, things that Erin had already knew. Nothing that she actually viewed as helpful at all, this was why she wanted to have snuck in here to find out the good stuff.

"Well, the answer you gave me was lame, but I figure if you forget the whole me breaking in here thing, I'll do it." Erin said, but was still a bit guarded about it. He was basically trying to improve something that would see through her power which would come back to probably harm those with invisibility related power; something to worry about another time.

[Karsen Ford]

Karsen didn’t want to make the girl more uncomfortable than she already was so he didn’t attempt to get her to tell her more about herself. Well technically not herself just her power, but some people saw ones power as an extension of oneself and all that other yoda mumbo jumbo. Personally he thought it was cool she could sneak into places undetected, sometimes you wanted nothing more than to be invisible. “Cool” He turned back around in his chair and focused on his project. It wasn’t that he wanted to be rude, he just needed his computer to work on the vr headsets for the clan. He knew that Tim would ask about them eventually and he couldn’t be completely lazy while his friend was busy.

“Technopathy and Mechanical intuition is what it’s call and I can do almost anything with technology as long as you don’t ask me to explain it. I also kind of talk to machines, like I think the drink machine in the cafeteria is materialistic because of the dollars people put into her.” He disconnected the cord from his computer and his robot once the bar reached a hundred percent. “I’m also making the vr headsets for the clan...you’re apart of that right?” He asked her with a raised eyebrow.

Karsen shrugged “I’m not much of a talker besides, any information you find won’t be of use at any rate. Tim isn’t the type of person that goes for a specific kind of friend, he has a bunch of different friends and they all act differently. The only thing a lot of his friends have in common is that they’re his friends. As far as i’m concerned Tim is to mutants what America was to immigrants look for a better life….a melting pot.” Karsen was sure that he was mixing up his analogy there for a second but that didn’t matter.

”That seems like a fair deal, It’s not like I need it for anything, just for my room….I thought I was going crazy when my robot went off and there was no one here.’

Erin Hackett

[Erin Hackett]

“I like to think so.” Erin said proudly. It always made her feel good to get a compliment about her power and he had done it the right way. He kept it simple and sweet with the word cool instead of going in to how the power fit her or how she was cute or something. Perhaps he could just tell by the vibe she was giving off what the right words were. She was a tad offended when he just turned around and gave her back to her, but she didn’t say anything. She was however thinking of a Lion King line about not turning your back on someone.

Erin listened as he went on to explain his power but then as he started talking about how he could talk to technology, well now she was writing him off as crazy. Sure she was slightly willing to believe it was possibly that he could talk to technology but if that thing had an actual level of intelligence. Like a computer or a robot that was designed to do a task that required it to think and adapt. A soda machine? Yeah, Erin was pretty much thinking he was a nut job and wondering how Tim could handle being around such a person. Then again, Karsen said that Tim liked people of all walks of life or something cheesy like that.

“You might just want to stick with telling people the name of your power…and not going into that second bit of it.” Erin pointed out, taking yet another step towards the door. Great, the guy is a nut job yet is basically best friends with Tim. I’m missing something. Erin thought to herself. She nodded her head at his next question and was now worried about what was going to happen to her brain if he was the one that was making changes to their headsets. “I think…I get it…” Erin muttered, messing with the end of her shirt.

She was still very confused and didn’t fully get it but he gave her an answer and it was only fair that she held up her end of the bargain. “Where do you want me then? Just tell me where to stand and I’ll do it.” Erin said as she was already preparing herself for showing off what she could do; or well not showing since she would vanish. Perfect time to escape too. Erin thought to herself.

[Karsen Ford]

Karsen shrugged his shoulders. he wasn’t trying to be rude or anything he just had a lot to do in a little bit of time. It would be something of a problem if he ruined Tim’s chance at a new friend but at the same time he didn’t really care if she thought he was crazy. “I know it sounds crazy but I read electrical pulses and every machine gives off pulses. They transmit into messages and stuff. It’s hard to explain to someone who can't mentally link up with machines. While it can’t compute a Machine wants what it needs to functions. A soda machine needs money to function to it wants money. In the human world someone who's obsessed with money is seen as materialistic are they not?” He shook his head and continued to on the program.

Karsen could sense her hesitation the more that he talked “Don’t worry not many people do get it, even those who have similar powers. Mostly because I’ve been so connected with a computer that I think like one so it makes sense to me.” He knew that people wouldn’t get his logic and he had come to understand that completely. Of course he had just signed his warrant to a lonely life but that was okay to.

“Not right now, I don’t have a program or a camera, I’d have to build one that takes a while with my project. Perhaps we’d be on better terms and you won't be so hesitant to tell me about your power...it’s the only reason I didn’t ask for more details.”n

[

[Erin Hackett]

Erin nodded her head a lot when he spoke up about it sounding crazy, because it did. Erin honestly didn't care if it was actually a part of his power or not, she still thought he was missing a few bolts in his head. He had to be if he was actually willing to 'talk' or even care what a machine wanted. A machine was made to serve a purpose and when you started to give it the ability to question its purpose or pay it enough attention when it started to 'feel' or whatever; bad things happened.

She was a firm believer that it was going to be the down fall of mind kind because of what they allowed technology to do and think for them. "All sounds like you are going to play a role in why AIs will rise up and kill us all." Erin said, nodding again. Yes, she had a ton of video games and movies that she played and watched that situation happened in. She was so going to blame Karsen if that happened in her lifetime. He told her not to worry, but she was still more so worried that he was 'With the Machines' and would betray mankind.

If this were a video game the option to annihilate him now would have popped up and she was sure she would take it. Good thing this was not a video game so no one needed to be annihilated. She didn't say anything more on how it made sense to him and would just let him have that 'win' or what have you. A confused look took over her face as he spoke up about not actually having anything ready to do the test. Then why the hell did you ask!? Erin yelled inside of her head and on the outside she was looking at the boy like he was dumb.

Well, clearly it was easy to be bold around this guy, but he was Tim's friend so she figured she had to at least be a little nice. Especially when he started to talk about them being on better terms or something. She was distracted with her thoughts and missed most of what he ended up saying. "Well you did kind of ask for the name of it out of the blue...but if you wanted to know about my power itself...you could just ask." Erin muttered, but loud enough for Karsen to hear if he was paying attention.