cal rankin. (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} doesitbetter) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} mutanthaven,@ 2009-06-04 14:20:00 |
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((backdated to earlier this week))
Calvin Rankin was not exactly a person that it was smart to mess with. Not simply for the logical reasons, alhough there were a number of them -- he was well built, knew how to handle himself, and apparently wasn't afraid to get into fights, he was smart and didn't have qualms with using that to shout others down in arguments, and he had powers that enabled him to be as good as you were at most anything you could do. All of which he used to his advantage, especially in the last few months. The real reason, though, that it wasn't smart to get on his bad side, was that he had a taste for vengeance longer than the state of California. If someone wronged him, he didn't simply shrug it off and get over it. He would get that person back, somehow. And the time when it was really advisable to worry about what he might do was when he seemed like he wasn't going to actually do anything.
As was the case with Lorna Dane.
He'd said some things about her on the journal, sure. Had insulted her to her boyfriend (or whatever he was) and was apparently the acting Vice President of the Lorna Dane's A Big Fat Whore club, but that was paltry, kiddie stuff. Not truly damaging, and not really any worse than what people like Terry did on a regular basis. He knew Lorna didn't care about that, and thus he didn't care about it. So he kept relatively quiet, and waited for the right idea and opportunity to come to him.
And then it did.
All the talking about UCLA and colleges was what did it. Lorna had taken that from him, had basically wiped all of his plans for the future off the board. No more school. No more college. No more graduating and getting a job and going on to make money doing god knows what, maybe even having a family. Now he was a threat with a record. So he'd return the favor in kind. If he didn't get college, then neither did she.
He didn't want to copy Tessa to do it. It would've been easier that way, but he'd have to be around her when he went to work, and she would know what was going on. Instead he waited for when Doug left the hotel on one of his random excursions. Cal didn't understand why the guy would leave there just to go to an internet cafe, but it made things easier for him that Doug was both predictable and a dork. The blonde hacker didn't notice Cal as he walked in a few minutes later, face mostly obscured by the cap that he had pulled down low. Cypher's powers and knowledge filled him though, and he knew that he could get done what he wanted to easily. It didn't take him long at all to get into Harvard's system, moving into the admissions area and finding Lorna's file. Jackpot.
When he was done, he not only had been through her record there, but her permanent record from high school, as well as her police record (which she now had, if she didn't before). Red flags would start popping up immediately for them. After all, Harvard girls weren't supposed to be the type to get caught with cocaine. Or to have documented suspicions of plagiarism and cheating in their sophomore and junior years of high school. He didn't even have to bother with trying to out her as a mutant somehow, those things alone would have her acceptance revoked, quickly. Even if she got the tech team to reverse it, it was too late to put her back into the rooming arrangements, or deal with the class registration without jumping through a thousand hoops. He gave the screen a harsh grin before clearing it off and moving away, leaving the cafe once more.
Poor Lorna. Maybe next time she'd pick her targets more carefully. At least they were even, now.