StV: Penetration Testing

You're up late again. The message was from Dianna, of course; checking up on him again.

Jinx glanced at the chat message, then paused and clicked over to reply to it. Yeah. Somebody's been testing our firewall. Not sure who or why, though. 

There was a momentary pause, and then Dianna replied, Well, at least we know that one isn't anything to do with the new kid. His people don't work that way. 

Unless they hired somebody, David replied. But no, I don't think so. This might even be just a run-of-the-mill attempt at hacking a school. 

Is it strange to say that I kind of hope so?

Dave shook his head and just typed, No. He could do with having a problem that was just... a problem, and not an omen of worse to come. They did their best to stay ahead of things, but every once in a while their troubles ramped up into genuine dangers, and when they did it usually seemed to start with something comparatively innocuous like this. 

Listen, about the new kid... Dianna had taken three tries to type that one sentence, so she was hesitant about whatever she was about to say.

You still worrying about him? Aside from the thing with Nightmare, he sounds like he's doing fine. 

It's the thing with Nightmare, actually. I mean, that part is fine. I don't understand it, but whatever that was apparently made perfect sense to the both of them in the moment. It's just that I had a thought about it, and now I can't get it out of my head.

Dave hesitated, then typed: Oh?

Could you find out if he's ever killed anybody?

Dave went still at his desk. Why in the hell would Dianna think... Nightmare, he realized. The school had taken in troubled children before, but Nightmare was in a category all her own. If Lucian -- Lyceus -- was anything like her, that was definitely something they needed to address. Surely Sophia would have warned them, though... 

Dianna was typing again. They both insist that they were just sparring, but Bob let me have a look at his memories and that fight was bloody and as far as I can tell they were both down with that. Or there for it, or whatever the hell it is that the kids say these days. And now Jade wants Lyceus to go with Team Phoenix on their next outing, and neither Jonathan nor I know quite what to tell her. 

Dave considered that. All right, he finally responded. I'll catch him tomorrow and have a talk, see what I can find out. He might just tell me if I ask outright. He hesitated, then added another line: I'm not sure I wanted to know this. He seems like a nice kid. 

Yeah, he does. Just maybe a nice kid who's been trained to kill his family's enemies. I haven't asked Sophia; if she knew anything about that she'd have told us.

They've both been pretty clear that they weren't raised to be close to each other, Jinx observed. It seems like they're trying to make up for lost time, though. 

Just let me know, so we can figure out what to tell Jade. She's probably already wondering why we haven't answered her request.