Chapter Text
Tracking Robert wasn’t as hard as it should be. And Elliot couldn’t help being disappointed in the lack of safety measures Robert had in place, but also somewhat glad this wasn’t going to be a nightmare to deal with.
Robbie’s security measures were fucking hell. Those said safety measures had even attacked the man’s own son. Only by the grace of being useful had he been able to slip past them.
Elliot started simple. He simply reassigned Invisigal. There would be no need for her to hurt anyone this time. A spy planted right into the Phoenix Program. They took her right in, like she was a sad, wet, hungry dog.
It was Elliot’s luck that Robert was the Phoenix Program dispatcher. In a single day she was able to get him a treasure trove of information.
The most important thing she brought back was his identity. Robert Tak. Invisigal had tried to make one joke about it and the team had come to Robert’s defense. More accurately they had come to the defense of Kim and her culture. It seemed like the team knew about Robert taking his wife’s last name. They had told her to make fun of his original surname. Even some of the team called him nicknames based on it.
With Robert’s last name Elliot was able to hunt down everything.
Elliot started with the most important information first. He hunted down the address of Robert’s house. It was a fairly middle-class house on a suburban street with a yard.
Elliot needed in. He needed to know what the family did inside during their daily lives. He needed to make sure they stayed safe.
He should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. He knew there were cameras in Robert’s house. The fact that he could try to hack them was proof enough. However for whatever god damn reason he could just. Not. Get. In.
The first day he spent hours trying to get past Robert’s firewall, only to fail every time. After the third hour he slammed his fist on his desk and forced himself to take a break. To find something easier to clear his mind.
Finding Kim Tak’s social media was much much easier. She didn’t post many pictures of Noah or Amy on there, but that was fine. Elliot printed a few pictures of Kim and put them to the side for a file for later, then continued to scroll.
There were plenty of pictures of the family, or just Robert and Kim at the beach. And considering how if he scrolled far enough back he would find plenty of beach photos before Kim met Robert then Elliot could safely assume Kim liked the beach.
He printed one of the beach pictures and added it to the pile.
He continued to scroll back up, pausing on a picture of her standing at the end of a marathon. He squinted and made a new tab for it before continuing.
Ah. There they were. Pictures of her and Robert’s wedding. It seemed they met before Robert had started working at SDN. He made a note on a sheet of paper to figure out how they met later. But it seems Robert had taken up a job at SDN for her sake, or perhaps Noah’s. He made a note about that as well.
They were very nice pictures, Elliot had to say. Even if Robert’s side of the wedding was very... empty. Had none of the other Brave Brigade members even bothered with Robert? Had it only been Chase?
Fuckers.
He printed the pictures and put them into the stack. Then went back to trying to hack Robert’s cameras. He spent another four hours on them before giving up for the night.
The next night, after handling his business with the Red Ring, he went right back to trying to hack Robert’s cameras again. Only to again, be met with another handful of hours of failure and a broken but easily replaced keyboard before he started to dig somewhere else to calm himself down.
Following the breadcrumbs from what he had before he dove deeper into Kim Tak. A registered nurse. Very nice Robert-
Elliot squinted. He circled the note on his notepad about figuring how the two met.
Running Kim’s name through his various programs he found out she’s quite the energetic bee. As it turns out, that one marathon wasn’t a fluke. She’s appeared in the top twenty in the last ten marathons in LA.
He found plenty of information on her family too, but extended family was for a later date.
Through Kim he quickly found Noah and Amy. With this he started to put a timeline together, working backwards. Amy was born three years ago. Noah was born seven. Meaning Robert and Kim had Noah when Robert was 25 and Kim 26.
Elliot made note to look into the decline in Mecha Man sightings.
The two had gotten married young, based on the pictures. Robert would have been 22.
An unfamiliar flash of feeling shot through Elliot. Worried if Kim was a gold digger who just saw Mecha Man and struck. But their wedding was around ten years ago. They had two kids, and it seemed like from the few videos of the two online Kim actually got mad at Robert for buying her expensive presents without thought. Seems Robert found it funny and kept doing it to her every so often.
He tapped his fingers against his desk.
Alright. That was enough of that. Back to trying to hack Robert’s cameras.
Elliot Conners went to bed that night fuming. Curled up so tightly in his blankets to stop himself from shaking in rage.
The next day he rushed his duties with the Red Ring, rescheduling some of his less important tasks for later in the month so he could get back to his workshop sooner. No one argued with him when he said he had important things to do.
Hours later he was slamming both his fists against his desk. “Robert what the fuck! Why is your fucking firewall the most complicated thing on the fucking planet! I’ve seen government offices with less fucking security!”
He forced himself to breathe through his nose. To count his breathing so he could calm down. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back.
Fine. He would work on something else and get back to this. He would get past those fucking firewalls one way or another.
Moving on from Kim Tak, Elliot moved onto Noah and Amy Tak. Using Kim Tak’s information he was easily able to find where Noah and Amy went to school. A private school that, while not the most expensive, was still more expensive than public school.
The teacher’s notes said both children were pleasant but high energy. Both very sociable. Good. Very good.
Better father than your old man, Robert.
Both children were enrolled in an after school social program. Elliot only had some doubts that it had something to do with how high energy they were, if the teacher’s notes were anything to go by. That club was twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
He printed out the school pictures of Noah and Amy.
Elliot was going to need a way to keep everything organized. He would gather the materials for that tomorrow.
That was enough of that for now. It didn’t seem like there was much direct information he would be able to get from just hacking systems. He needed to see the family directly.
Late into the night the sounds of crashing in Shroud’s lab could be heard as he slammed his keyboard against his desk enough to destroy the electronic.
Robert fucking Tak. Why was your camera system firewalled so heavily?
He rested his elbow on the desk, rubbed his forehead, taking deep breaths. Fine. He would come back to this tomorrow.