Changing With The Tides (A TommyInnit Au)

Chapter 19: Maps and Cameras

And Tommy unzipped the bag...

Inside the bag, two sleek, black, shiny earpieces sat, along with a small device, kind of like a phone, and a small, camera-like object. Immediately, Tommy covered the lens of the camera, but upon further inspection, he deemed the camera harmless as it was turned off. Then, he focused on the earpieces. "Purp! I can probably hack into the signal that they are using to communicate! We can listen in on their conversations!" Purpled looked at him in shock. "You can do that?" "Yeah, of course I can! But we have to go inside." Purpled nodded, and Tommy slid through the window, Purpled following closely behind. "Here, hold this." Tommy handed Purpled the bag and took one of the earpieces out, studying it carefully. "All I have to do is add this..." Tommy muttered quietly, taking out a small screwdriver and opening up the earpiece. "This might take a bit. Make yourself comfortable!" Tommy said, fully focused on the device. "And maybe check out that phone thing while you're at it." Purpled nodded, spreading out on the bed, letting Tommy work in near silence.

Almost a full hour later, Tommy broke the silence. "Done!" He said proudly. "What did you even do?" Purpled asked, looking up from his phone. "I added an audio recorder to send the stuff to my computer, as well as a piece of technology that will let me mess with their signals whenever I please. And, it will notify me when the headphones are being used, so we will always know when to tune in to their conversations." Purpled nodded, a small smile splaying across his lips. "Sometimes, you scare me." He said, letting out a soft laugh. "Okay mister work out man." Tommy joked. "What did you find out about the phone thing?" "Not much to be honest. It definitely isn't a phone, but I can't tell what it would be used for. I can't even figure out how to properly turn it on." Purpled said. "Why don't you grab the security cameras we built the other day, and I'll work on this?" Tommy suggested. "I think we need to properly spy on these people now." Purpled followed his instructions. "Alright, test them like I showed you yesterday, to make sure they work, and if you don't mind, go out and find good spots to put them at the lake. Make sure they have a good view of everything around them." Tommy said, and Purpled nodded, setting off to do his job.

Tommy replaced the earpiece into the bag carefully before turning his attention to the device in front of him. Purpled was right, there didn't appear to be a way to turn the device on, though there was a screen and a back. The screws were very well hidden with the sleek design of the device, but Tommy's eyes had been carefully trained to spot such small details, and he noticed them rather quickly. He unscrewed the back plate, and the tech inside glistened. But Tommy still didn't know how to turn it on. It had to be something conventional, something small enough to carry around, but not too obvious. Then, an idea came to him. He dug through his bag, looking for the broken parts of his old computer. Finding the film from the screen of the computer, he held it up to his eyes, watching as he was suddenly able to see everything on the screen in front of him. It was like magic, and it also explained the dark glasses that the man was wearing so late at night. But what did the man want, and why did he have to go to such measures to protect his device? Using his own method, Tommy hacked into the device from the tech he had revealed in the back, waiting for the lock screen to disappear. Once it did, Tommy gasped, shocked at the sight in front of him. On the screen was a map, and everything from the clearing in the woods to the road was marked accordingly. Someone was making a map of their property, and it looked like they were getting closer and closer to finding the SBI house.

Purpled slid in through the window, oblivious to Tommy's discovery. "I did it! He said proudly. "You can see everything from those things!" Tommy just nodded at him. "Something is really wrong. Someone is making a map of our property, and they're going to stumble upon the SBI house sooner rather than later." Purpled looked at him, concerned. "Why would they be making a map of our property?" He asked. "I don't know, but I don't like it. We should check the cameras and the earpiece tonight, and hopefully gain some sort of a reason for this person to be snooping around our property." Purpled nodded in agreement. "For now, we should take this back to the clearing so they don't know that we are onto them." Tommy said, holding up the bag with all the devices in it. Again, Purpled nodded, opening the window. "Come on, we don't have too much time before Phil will come to check on you." Purpled said, sliding out the window, pulling Tommy behind him. "We'll have to sprint."

"Oh my god, I didn't think you actually meant it!" Purpled gasped out. "Of course I did!" Tommy replied, equally out of breath. "They can't know about what's going on, and I'm not in the mood to explain why I was sneaking out of the house after a panic attack." Purpled flopped down on the ground, tossing Tommy his sticky gloves. "Here, use these to climb the tree and let me rest a minute." Tommy rolled his eyes, but complied, climbing the tree with ease. "Maybe we should have done more agility stuff in our workouts." Tommy placed the bag back within the crook of the branches and sat for a moment, using the height of the tree as a lookout post. "Purp, we need to get back, like, now. It's starting to get a bit dark, and I don't want any encounters with our mystery map man. Let's head back." He climbed down the tree, surprised with how rejuvenated he felt. "Race you!" He called, getting revenge on Purpled for last time, and the two took off through the trees once again.

When they reached Tommy's house, Purpled and Tommy parted ways, promising to meet up on the roof to watch the security footage and listen to the earpiece. Tommy climbed the side of the building, and entered through his window, shutting it behind him. Now, he would have to face Phil for just a few minutes, and he could go to bed for a bit before Purpled came. As if on cue, someone knocked on Tommy's door, asking to come in. Tommy unlocked the door and opened it, coming face to face with... Wilbur?

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I hope you enjoyed! New chapter of You're Better Off Without Me tomorrow, and I'll see you all later, yeah? Bye! <3