Ken vs. the Pizzaplex

13

Somewhere in Downtown Japan
No One's POV
"PIXAL, explain something to me," Naoki called up to the Nindroid up on the streetlight. The boys and Night were lined either side of the street, keeping an eye out for any suspicious passerby while PIXAL had taken the liberty to shimmy up the pole and play around with the traffic camera beneath the lightbulb; Naoki was the one closest to her and had taken the moment to strike up a conversation. "You were against hacking business security cameras, yet you're okay with tampering with city property?" His amber eyes stared up at her inquisitively. "How does that work?"

PIXAL smirked, yet refused to look down at the scientist as she fiddled with the camera. She was still in her fleshy Piper disguise, though it would do nothing with her current activity. "As I recall, you were all for doing something illegal tonight, Naoki," She called down.

"Yes, but while behind a computer screen, where the most danger is if the police trace my IP address," Naoki explained, glancing over his shoulder nervously at the currently empty street. "Out here, anyone can see us!"

At that moment, PIXAL successfully extracted the memory card from the camera. She slid down the streetlight pole and gracefully stepped away to face Naoki. "Now that we know what Ken was abducted by," She explained slowly. "We just need to find out where he was taken to. That, in turn, will also give us some insight into who took him. It may be a little underhand, but at the moment, we have no other way of tracking Ken down and we must find him before it is too late."

Naoki still looked uncomfortable - in fact, they all were uncomfortable about this - but PIXAL had a point. At this moment in time, they had no other choice. "Fine, just... please hurry up, will you?"

"I'll try my best," PIXAL concurred with an arched ebony eyebrow. She waved to the rest of the group and they all headed back to the alleyway so they could check out the footage.

Once within the safety of the brick walls, PIXAL plugged the memory card into her temple port and projected the contents onto the makeshift display surfaces. There were hours upon hours of footage on the card, but PIXAL fast-forwarded the time stamp to the exact same time Ken had sent the SOS signal.

The camera hadn't been pointed directly at the alley, so the group had to fill in the details themselves. Nothing of interest on the footage besides a few people either walking to work or taking a downtown stroll - a few came from the alley, but none of them were wearing (or carrying something that was wearing) a green coat. A car here and there, though not the black van they were looking for. About thirty seconds after the signal had been sent, though, they got their wish - a van similar in make and color sped down the road. If they were going backwards, they would have gone right through the alley.

"Bingo!" Valt cried in excitement, jutting his pointer finger at the illuminated van. "That's gotta be our guy!"

PIXAL nodded as she shut off the projection. "It's just as I figured," She muttered before turning to the group. "If this traffic camera was able to capture a glimpse of whoever took Ken, then chances are other cameras got even more of them. We'll just have to check them all."

The boys blinked at her for a few seconds before slowly and collectively swiveled their heads to glance at the exit to the alley; at the street beyond. Only a few turned back to fix PIXAL with an ARE YOU SERIOUS stare.

"You mean we have to climb up all those streetlights?" Fubuki asked nervously.

"I'm not a freaking monkey..." Lui mumbled, crossing his arms. Or had he ever uncrossed them? No one could ever tell.

"Yeah, I'm all for searching for Ken," Night told the Nindroid. "But you've got a screw loose in your head if you think I'm letting my baby boy climb a two-and-a-half yard tall pole." This time when she reached for Jin, he didn't fight her as she pulled him to her side.