Panu fidgeted. The officer on the other side of the desk fidgeted. The META bot stood very tall behind him and did not fidget at all.

“You are under arrest. Crime: positive x-gene confirmed. You have the right to remain--”

“Yes thank you, we got it,” the officer said. He tried to shoo the bot away, but it didn't move.

Panu had his hands in his lap and his feet tucked under the chair, with his toes just touching the tile floor. He kept his head down, and his shoulders tucked. On his right wrist was a silver cuff that was very heavy and also very cool but every time he tried to look deeper into it it gave a warning growl of electricity like a bulldog on a metal chain. He could tell it down boy but if he was too obvious about it then probably the police would ask many many more questions. Are-you-a-technopath questions. Instead he would leave it alone. Being a nine year old arrested by a robot was better than being a nine year old who deserved to be arrested.

Around him, the police station was in various stages of preparing for a media headache. There was some shouting from a closed office down the hall, and someone was already drafting a press release about how this was a one-time glitch and no one had been hurt and the child returned safely to his parents. This was being drafted even before his parents were contacted.

“You are under arrest. Crime: positive x-gene confirmed. You have--”

“Thank you. We got it.” The officer looked very tired for ten in the morning. “Panu, do you know your daddy's phone number?”

The Finn shook his head and did not look up. This was a lie: he knew Jaager's number. But that had been given to him for emergencies. He was not bleeding, so this was not an emergency. He would not brother the dragon with this.

“How about your mother's?”

“I do not have a mother.”

The person typing the press release paused for a moment, then arrowed up the document and replaced parents with father.

Hoooo boy the officer exhaled in one huge breath, and then leaned forward, his elbows on his desk. “Is there anyone else we can call who could come pick you up?”

“You are under arr--”

“Yes thank you please stop talking. Can someone get him a cup of water, please? And is there any food left in the break room?”

“Bagels, I think,” said the press release writer.

“Bagels. Do you want a bagel, Panu?”

The blonde boy nodded, just a little. His stomach grumbled impolitely. He had not had breakfast before his arrest. Probably he should have thought about that before he started recoding METAs.

“Get him a bagel and something to drink, all right? We'll be right here.”

“Arrested suspects should be secured in--”

“Yes thank you,” the officer interrupted. “Has anyone found the master key to the cuffs?”

“For the safety of all parties, criminals with positive x-genes are required to wear power-deterring bracelets--”

“Thank you, Officer Tincan.”

“You're welcome, Officer Bryant.”

The officer behind the desk took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “You're being very brave about this, Panu. Don't worry, everything will be fine. Maybe we could give you a tour of the station later. Would you like that? Okay. Now, what's your daddy's name?”

“Ambrose Jaager.”

Ohhhhhh shiiit, the officer breathed out. The one typing the press release hit Ctrl+A, Delete, and then stood up. Probably she was heading to the break room for his bagel.

The Finn hurried to clarify. “But please you cannot call him, he is very busy. Could you call someone else? I have brother. Cafas Johnson. He is with Xavier's Institute?”

Sure why not an x-man the officer exhaled in one long sigh, thinking he was too quiet for the Finn to hear, or maybe just past the ability to care.

“Yeah. Yeah, I known Mr. Johnson. We'll call him right up for you.”

“You are under arrest. Crime: positive x-gene--”

“Can you mute yourself, please? I'm on the phone.”

The META bot obediently refrained from speaking while the officer behind the desk dialed. “Hello. Yes. Officer Bryant, NYPD, 24th Precinct. Is Cafas Johnson around? There's been an incident with his brother. Panu. Just a glitch, no one was hurt, but we'll need him to come down to the station to pick up--”

The press release officer brought back a bagel with extra cream cheese and a can of ginger ale. Panu thanked her. Then she went back to her desk, and sat with her hands on her keyboard, very much not typing as she stared at a blank screen.

The officer behind the desk hung up.

“You are under arrest,” the META bot dutifully repeated. “Crime: positive x-gene confirmed. You have the right to remain silent--”

It was not Panu's best hacking, but it was not supposed to be. It was supposed to be Most Obvious Discrimination Ever, but hopefully not actually hurt people. Jaager hadn't ordered that last part, but he hadn't not ordered it, so Panu would try to work it in. This META was the first field test for the reprogramming. If everything went well, soon he would start reprogramming all of them.

Officer Bryant dug aspirin out of his desk. The press release officer sat in front of an empty screen. Down the hall, the person in the office was still yelling.

The blonde boy ate his bagel. It was not as delicious as the ones in Ragnarok's break room, but still very good.

The woman who had handed him the phone had looked very confused while explaining that his brother had been arrested. Cafas returned the puzzled expression as he accepted the phone, entirely certain he did not have any brothers, let alone ones in New York City.

"Cafas Johnson, how can I help?"

Officer Bryant, 24th precinct, brother, arrested. Cafas was very confused. Right up until he received a name. Panu Jaager. That certainly explained a lot. Arrested for having an active X-gene? Cafas glared into the middle distance as he listened.

"I'll be right down."

This is going to cut into training time...

The X-man fired off a text to Adder, having trouble not crushing his phone in hand. He couldn't believe they were trying to play this off like it was nothing. He stormed his way into the garage, tearing his riding jacket from the wall peg it was hanging on. He shrugged into the stiff, armoured jacket, rammed his helmet on, yanked on his gloves, and kicked his bike's engine to life.

The motorcycle fishtailed on the gravel drive, throwing stones up as Cafas gunned the engine, the front gate barely opened wide enough to admit the bike before he tore through it and out onto the road.

Of all the damned precincts, too...

It was a short journey when you payed little to no attention to the speed limit, splitting lanes at inadvisable velocities. He'd have run the red lights along the way if it weren't literally suicide to do so. All told, it took him a little under ten minutes. He left his bike in the staff car park, helmet only just off as he strode in the doors with a purpose.

"Mister Johnson, they're just through..."

Cafas was barely listening, too focused on maintaining composure. He certainly didn't want to, but he doubted he'd be getting away with any indiscretions in the 24th precinct. The passing glares told him his doubts were well founded. Very well founded. Cafas passed through a doorway and set eyes upon a small child wearing a shock bracelet. on the other side of a desk from one Officer Bryant, who Cafas had far too much experience being contempted by. He quickly covered the distance to the terrorist child. "Are you okay Panu? I came as quickly as..."

"Active X-gene detected. Database returns known mutant Cafas Jahnson. Halt, you are under arrest. Crime: Having an active..."

"That isn't a crime. Officer Bryant, why in the HELL is a child wearing a bracelet designed to incapacitate grown adults?" Cafas placed a hand on Panu's shoulder reassuringly as his power reached out an found all the metal in the bracelet. What remained clattered to the floor a moment later.

Panu was a little sad for the cuff, which was a highly advanced and compact marvel of genetics-based technology. Maybe the work of a technomancer. Probably one that was holed up in a Secret Government Facility and needed a Daring Rescue. Probably there was a coded message in its software, designed to be read only by a fellow daring technopath, that would lead straight to the secret heart of the conspiracy. Now it was very dead and on the floor, and he rubbed his wrist where it had been his for just a little while. Whatever secrets it held it were very far from saving now.

But his brother had done this for him without hesitating, so that was the opposite of sad. That was warm feeling growing in his chest, and smiling towards where he thought the man was. “Thank you.”

The officer behind the desk let out one of his very eloquent sighs. “Mr. Johnson, if you could please refrain from destroying city property for five minutes. As you can see, we're experiencing some technical problems. No one's hurt, no one's in danger. Why don't you take a seat while we wait for IT to sort this out?”

“You are both under arrest. All mutant suspects are required to wear power-deterring bracelets to ensure the safety of all parties. Please hold out your arms.” The META bot helpfully produced two new cuffs from a compartment in its side, which contained a compact row of them.

“Why does it have so many of those?” Panu asked, kicking his feet under his chair, his toes just barely scuffing the tiles. "Are you expecting to arrest many mutants at one time?"

Officer Bryant played with the cap of his aspirin bottle, popping it on and off. Pop snap, pop snap, pop.

Cafas had barely opened his mouth to declare his opinion of Bryant's It department, who had after all allowed the bot to malfunction in the first place, when said bot cut him off. His head turned slowly towards it, eyes flicking to the cuffs then up to eye level. He tried to get a reading to answer Panu with, but the bulk of metal that made up the bot was making it awfully hard to feel the small components of the bracelets. The META took a step forward.

"Stand down. That's an order."

The robot paused a moment.

Good.

Then stepped towards them again. Cafas set himself between the robot and Panu. "Please present your wrist, or I shall use force."

"Would you kindly just do what the bucket of bolts says?" Bryant piped in. Cafas' eyes didn't waver from the bot. For Panu's sake he refrained from making the gesture he wanted to. "Officer Bryant, if you expect me to allow a malfunctioning META unit to put it's potentially malfunctio..."

His peripheral vision caught a movement, backed up by the whirring of servos and the movement of the titanium arm. Cafas flinched his arm away just in time for the bot to close its hand over thin air, rather than the X-man's wrist. "You are under arrest. Stop resisting."

"Like hell." Cafas all but spat the words. Another mass of metal was moving, inhumanly fast. It was going to hit him, best he could tell. He just couldn't move quickly enough from his flat footed position. The impact never came, however. There was an awful mechanical grinding as the bot's arm came to a grinding halt within an inch of Cafas' chest. There was a pause, then what was left of the robots arms hit the ground. It was a mess of liquid metal, non-Newtonian armour, paint, and plastic.

Ooops.

"Stop resisting."

It almost seemed comical without its arms. Certainly much less intimidating.

"Congratulations Mister Johnson, you just destroyed thousands of dollars in police property."

"Cease and desist."

"Reaction, Bryant. Defensive reaction in my power. How about I don't tell the press how your robot attacked me and shock-cuffed a child, and we call it square?" Cafas turned back to the office, who looked positively livid. Cafas took a seat next to Panu and tried not to scowl. "Now, I think you were just signing some release papers for my brother here?" Before Calley got wind that he was in the building and he had to fight a tiger. Before Cafas had to explain in exactly what sense they were brothers.

Wires twisted and stretched and snapped—their signals, their information, their life dropping to the ground in heavy clunking pile of debris.

The technopath paled. This was something that was hard to do, but he put a special effort into it, because brother Thor had just torn the most advanced robot on the planet apart limb from limb without every touching it.

Panu was very very glad that Cafas was on their side. Cafas' power was maybe up there with Adapteds and EMP Ladies in things-he-should-be-terrified-of.

“Are we arrested for real now?” The Finn asked softly.

“You are under arrest for active x-genes, destruction of government property, and resisting arrest. Do not resist,” the META bot's armless torso confirmed. This was maybe Horrifying Sight and he tried not to look at it.

>> "Reaction, Bryant. Defensive reaction in my power. How about I don't tell the press how your robot attacked me and shock-cuffed a child, and we call it square? Now, I think you were just signing some release papers for my brother here?"

“Defensive reaction my--” The Officer glanced at Panu, and let out a breath. “That was poorly done, Johnson. And don't try to play the press card on me, either. This is a contained incident. Just one glitchy bot. You go out there and make a big deal of it, the blood will be on your hands. You know how easy it would be to turn these peace rallies into riots. No one here wants that.”

Panu did not correct the officer on this point. Instead, he tentatively took his brother's hand. “Can we leave now?”

“You are under arres--”

“Shut. Up.” There was not enough aspirin in the world for Officer Bryant's headache.

Cafas' hand returned to the Finn's shoulder, giving a reassuring squeeze. "They couldn't arrest you for me breaking the robot." He smiled at the boy, though what good that did was anyone's guess. Where was his camera? Oh, Bryant was running his mouth again. Cafas tended to do his best to see the good in others. The NYPD officer had worn that away, even before he'd... Before Calley and Cafas had broken up.

Panu's hand found its way into Cafas'. The X-man didn't bother turning to look at Bryant. "Yeah, I think we can. They can't make you stay unless they have reason to think you did something illegal." Cafas stood, finally turning his attention back to the perpetual thorn in his side at 24th.

Probably should be trying to maintain police relations...

"You know what Bryant, maybe this isn't just a contained incident. It certainly isn't the first META to go haywire. I think maybe the thin veneer is starting to come off your Stalker bots. This order clearly exists within their code, waiting to be activated. Does make me wonder why." Cafas arched an eyebrow at the cop. He'd much rather not have their silly argument in front of Panu, but he couldn't exactly send the young terrorist ahead.

What is my life...

“You are under arres--”

“Shut. Up.”

The bot's head lifted free from its torso, connections melted, seemingly of their own accord. It clattered against what was left of the robot as it dropped back into gravity's grip. "As for riots, Bryant, not sure what you'd know of them." The x-man took a step toward the door, stopped, and spoke over his shoulder as if he'd just thought of it. "Except maybe the statistics." The X-man continued out of the office, brother in tow.

"You okay, Panu?"

The desk sergeant was shouting orders before he was even in the door. This wasn't a new thing. “Swartz, we've got protestors blocking off Broadway. They need a mutie on site ASAP to defuse things, and the MRC's backed up.”

“I appreciate your diversity too, Nyugen,” the cat-eared beat cop said, trying not to drip as he entered the station. “But the ones over in Midtown decided to, quote, 'drench me in the blood of our fallen brothers,' end quote. So excuse me while I get a new shirt.”

The not dripping was hard, given the red. So much red. He was pretty sure it was food dye, but he'd been wrong about such things before. Never taste something squirted by a mutant, even if it had come from a water gun. Never.

MacGillan looked up from her desk as he passed, and jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “There are still bagels in the break room, Whiskers. Better take a detour if you want one.”

That was tempting, but. “I never thought I'd say this, but I'd rather do laundry than eat, right now. Save me one, would you?”

He turned a corner, just as MacGillan was staring anxiously after him. He turned a corner, just as a door was opening.

What stepped out looked a hell of a lot like Cafas Johnson escorting the secret love child of Cold Steel out of a room full of scrapped META bot parts.

…

“Never mind bagels and Broadway it is. Say hi to Ghost for me thanks bye.”

Officer Swartz tail stood straight out behind him, as poofed as it could be given the food dye.

---

With the META's head went Panu's best eyes in the room. Now he had only the black-and-white ones in the corner of the station's main rooms, and also the phone in his hoodie pocket, which was currently looking at gray fleece. He surreptitiously scooted its camera outside the fabric. Now he could see everything in front of him in color and at waist height.

The knight bot was very sad and mostly dead. Panu asked its legs to please kindly stop twitching, it made his stomach feel bad to watch.

“I am okay. Thank you. I hope it is not trouble for you to pick me up, I did not want to bother father--”

A cat officer turned very quickly on his heel and walked away. He was dripping all over the floor. Probably this is why it was a tile floor, and not carpet.

“Why is there a mutant working for police?” The boy asked.

Cafas' eyes shot wide open, pupils dilating as a familiar set of ears walked into view. He stopped in his tracks, unsure of how to proceed, and thoroughly overwhelmed by the wave of emotions that buffeted away the last stony edifices of his crumbing composure. Brown hair, blue eyes, god that blue, expression almost as panicked as his own.

“Never mind bagels and Broadway it is. Say hi to Ghost for me thanks bye.”

"Calley..." he started lamely, the red stained tail already retreating. He had no idea what to say, where to begin, how to move his legs, or make his heart slow back down. It was all just a bit too much, and the shifter was gone by the time he'd regained the use of his lungs enough to contemplate speaking. All that remained was a trail of red drips that Cafas couldn't bring himself to follow.

“Why is there a mutant working for police?”

The X-man's brain returned its focus to the real world very suddenly when Panu spoke. His gaze flicked down to the child. Cafas might, under other circumstances, have been a bit more careful in his response. He was far too shaken for that though. "Because he wanted to help people, to keep them safe." He resumed walking, fishing in his pocket for his phone. "So, back home for us then? I'm sure there are some chores that need doing."

He's not going to reply Cafas. This is dumb. Put the phone down.

His thumb tapped its way along long unused paths to a contact that he'd never convinced himself to be rid of. An empty message screen popped open. Hey, you okay? I mean... You know, that was kind of not how running into you went in my head. The phone was dropped back into his pocket as he made for the back door, realising only as he grabbed his own helmet off the table he'd left it on, that he didn't have one for Panu. That was an issue.

"We... We might have to walk. unless you can call us a ride?"