'Riot act?'

Cafas grimaced. "He reserves the right to intimidate me at all times." Cafas smiled and continued with what he did not see as a small meal at all. Although there was not so much quantity, the quality of the food was unbelievable. Really, it was the simple things in life that made it so worth it. Families who actually cared about each other, mothers who could take a simple meal and make it perfect. He really had missed out. He ate some more and resisted the urge to moan from the pleasure of the taste.

"This is actually the largest feast we've ever had for anything. We, uh, well we don't really have a lot of money. Still, how's that brisket? Heavenly, right?"

'Wow... I feel over privileged somewhat.'

Cafas looked back to Elli and frowned slightly. He really really wanted to make her feel better but he didn't so much have a way with words. Rather he would have liked to hug her better. But table manners and all. "I grew up miserable and middle class. Money never bought me any happiness. I'd trade lives with you in a heartbeat, mutation and all, but I wouldn't subject you to how I've lived. A family like yours. Well, I wish I'd had one." He did his best to smile in a manner that showed just how lucky he thought she was. He was doing his best to be encouraging. Stupid words could backfire easily though. "I'm glad I can at least be a small part of this family, no matter what the relationship. And you're absolutely right, this Brisket is divine."

'I really must get more word efficient. I take a lot of words to make a small point.'

"I grew up miserable and middle class. Money never bought me any happiness. I'd trade lives with you in a heartbeat, mutation and all, but I wouldn't subject you to how I've lived. A family like yours. Well, I wish I'd had one. I'm glad I can at least be a small part of this family, no matter what the relationship. And you're absolutely right, this Brisket is divine."

Awww.. And now Elli felt bad. here she was, complaining about how they didn't have enough money for the latest luxury item (though before she got her job they did have to get food stamps) and Cafas had to flee his home country, leaving everything behind. And on top of that, he said he had a horrible family. Well, that's just a dandy way to make Elli feel spoiled. "I'm sorry." She said, and laid her palm on his hand, on the table, for a brief moment. If Cafas wondered why she was a bit quick with the hand removal, almost as if she was jerking her hand away, a quick glance to his right would see the almost-glaring visage of her father.

Cafas almost punched himself. She was meant to feel lucky, not sorry for him. He really did hate it when he had to say things, they were never right. He took another slightly more forceful mouthful of brisket and shut the hell up for the pretty lady. well that and her father was being, from what Cafas had seen, himself. There was just something about him, underneath the threats and the gun that Cafas figured he could like. Possibly the fact he didn't hate mutants. that was a plus.

'Next time, follow instinct. Geez.'

His brain did not register the irony. instead it acted like it hadn't heard what it had said. Cafas looked at Elli very carefully, in the way one does when they are not sure if they just disarmed a bomb or rigged it to blow up faster. "Sorry, I'm not much with words, huh?" There was a well deserved hug coming her way if she liked it or not. of course if she didn't it could be potentially painful but still he could not stop to think of himself.

'But the nads are so vulnerable! Think of the nads!'

Cafas returned his slight self anger toward his food and munched some more meat like the carnivore he was. He followed them with the last of his beans and sat fairly sure that the fat content in the meat had just lowered his life expectancy and found himself not caring. He was at that perfect stage of fullness, he was feeling rather Zen. Even if he had screwed up, jut a little, with his wording he was sure he could fix it in his current mood. He looked back to Elli. "You know I didn't mean that how it came out right? I'm more of a physical comfort person y'know? Hugs and stuff."

'Explanation will hopefully suffice.'

"Sorry, I'm not much with words, huh?"

Elli smiled, and chuckled a little. "Trust me, that makes two of us."

"You know I didn't mean that how it came out right? I'm more of a physical comfort person y'know? Hugs and stuff."

Elli nodded, and said "I know what you mean. I'm not good at comforting people at all, just not one of my skills, that's for sure. Still, if anything is comfort food, this is." She said, taking a bite of her third helping. Her body had been on autopilot while she talked and, strangely and unlike her, she had gone through two and a half helpings of everything in the time it took Cafas for two, without even noticing it. She hoped that Cafas hadn't noticed it either, for he had seen her slow eating at their previous meeting. Man, I really pigged out. Better stop now, or I won't even be able to fit in my uniform come tomorrow morning

"So, how've your holidays been? Mine have certainly been busy, I've been working almost every day, some days I've got double patrols. We are really strained, and with New Years approaching we know it's going to be hard to keep everything safe, ya know?"

Well then, how had his holidays been? So far he had been utterly thrashed by a giant clay beast, lit on fire, thrashed some more, had to have stitches in his right hand and had travelled several hundred feet by air. Yep, that about summed it up. As for cops on patrol, well, not that they likely would have done much good but he had not seen them the previous night. Which reminded him, he hadn't seen if that tape had been retrieved from the unhelpful reporter wannabe.

'I must watch the news.'

Cafas shrugged and smiled, "Good enough, bit of a fuss last night but good all round." He brushed the big fight off as nothing. With any luck she hadn't heard about it in the few hours since it had gone down. Otherwise she would know. Knowing could be a little... well, they'd hijacked a bus and lit central park on fire. Theft and arson weren't the best qualities for a cop to assign to you. then again, nor was killing a friend or having been a part of an assault on a very angry fat man.

'Don't really get much worse than that huh...'

Alchemist observed Elli's plate. It seemed like the third time it had been filled, but having seen her eating pace previously it could have been the first. Regardless, he was stopped in his Zen stage. If he went further he started feeling overfull. "So how has policing been?" He really hadn't meant to forget to ask before, but it was hard to picture someone you were hoping to date in a police uniform without your thoughts... wandering. Especially after that gift.

'Score one me.'

"Good enough, bit of a fuss last night but good all round."

"Hope you had fun! I know a few people from High school that used to get drunk out the wazzoo every Christmas eve, and then wake up Christmas morning and have no clue where they were."

"So how has policing been?"

Elli's grin widened, and her face lit up. "Oh, it's been great! I've been getting speeders and the like, of course, but I've also started to see the stupid people that try to run during a traffic stop. Most of them have outstanding warrants, and they get in so much trouble when I catch them. I remember once, this guy ditched his car and was running on foot, my partner Gerald stayed in the cruiser to see if he could cut 'em off, and I was chasing him on foot. So finally the guy trips trying to vault over a fence, and we nab him, right? You know why he was running like that? He had a warrant out for an unpaid 50 buck traffic ticket. That was it. So now he goes to jail for running, and I'm there, like 'People are so crazy sometimes'."

Cafas had not seen Elli's face light up like that... Ever. It was quite a sight to behold. She really did love her job. he liked causing a stir. it was a match made in the devious minds of a couple of cruel demi-gods. Cafas however, could listen to her talk that excitedly for hours. If anything apparently there were some very funny stories hidden behind the enthusiasm. Cafas noted the suspicious silence before he picked up on the fact the entire family was completely enthralled in Elli's story. It was obvious how proud her father was too. Cafas however was feeling cogs turning in his brain. Even if he were to be in a relationship with Elli he would still want to have friend activities.

'Oh no, shut down mouth, I can see where this is going and it's ass-whoopin' ville, population me.'

A broad grin graced Cafas' face. He wasn't likely to listen by that stage, his mind was made up. He decided to get approval from the girl herself first however "Tell you what, I challenge you to a game of extreme tag. I run, you chase, just like if I were a criminal. Wadd'ya say? I mean, after dinner and everything, we can go downtown as I believe the term is if you like." Alchemist was pumped, although he wouldn't mind having a better knowledge of the area he was in. He wanted to do it now. Hell, he hadn't spent years running around the streets of Sydney for nothing, no it was for bread some days, like a modern Aladdin. Minus the monkey.

'You are officially the dumbest person in the world.'

To cover up his little whisper fest he asked another policing question. "Oh, tell them about that one you told me about the other night, you know, with the street racer. That was cool." Yes, he had done well and averted all strange looks he did not deserve fully. People were way too caught up in the cop thing to care what he was whispering. They thought he was her boyfriend anyway, so no suspicion of silly games was necessary.

’No, but the other thoughts might get you shot.’

"Tell you what, I challenge you to a game of extreme tag. I run, you chase, just like if I were a criminal. Wadd'ya say? I mean, after dinner and everything, we can go downtown as I believe the term is if you like."

Elli split her lips in what she hoped looked like an evil smile. Oh, she would enjoy this. "You're on, though no crying when you lose." Elli was planning to smoke Cafas. She doubted that he had the same amount of agility she did when it came to chasing people across cityscapes: she had chased her eventual partner across all of New York the entire time they were in the Academy together.

"Oh, tell them about that one you told me about the other night, you know, with the street racer. That was cool." Ahh, so dinner was finished, and now it was time for a story or two to even out the experience.

"Sure! So me and Gerald are driving along, right, and we're just looking around for anything suspicious, it's nighttime and so we're pretty wary, right? Well then, out of nowhere, this sportscar blows past us like nobody's business, no headlights or nothing, and a few seconds later, as I'm turning on the chase lights, another blows past, going just as fast. So Gerald gets on the radio and calls it in, he says we've got street racers. I dent the floor with the pedal, and we are right behind them, and then, all of a sudden, the front car gets a blowout, and spins out into the shoulder. The other car is still going, and it clips a car as it goes, and so I know that I've gotta stop it, right? So I get up right behind it, and wait. Soon enough, there's a slight turn coming up, and when they go for that, I hit the back bumper, and PIT them. So they spin out too, and I slam the breaks and jump out. I got my gun out and everything, then the door opens and out pops this woman in nothing but her underwear! She tries to run for it but I tackle her to the ground. Gerald, while that's going on, heads back for the other car, but the person driving that got knocked unconscious. Crazy, crazy stuff." Elli was smiling, that was a fun time, though she was scared out of her wits while it was actually happening.

Cafas was fairly confident anything he was lacking speed wise would be more than made up for by the fact he could lift his own bodyweight pretty easily. He was running on a battered body however. The family were enthralled in the tale of high-speed pursuit, and Cafas had to admit, he did enjoy it the second time. There was just something about running people off the road that was so much cooler than chasing them until someone ran out of fuel. Australian cops were so tame. C.J. settled back and tried to imagine how on earth he was going to outrun a cop. The truth was it was likely he would lose, he had no real training, only very basic parkour moves learned purely for entertainment and evading that unwanted attention. He could vault, he could do a commando roll and he could climb pretty well. It just came down to who screwed up first, or how fast Elli really was.

'We don't stand a chance I hope you know...'

Alchemist was quite enjoying himself. Time ticked on, stories were shared and he took a back seat to observe. Really he had no cool stories. Well he did, but still, it was a family event, no? Eventually though the predictable happened. "So, Cafas, tell us about yourself." It was always the mother wasn’t it? Well, he got a moment in the lime light after all. "Do you have any hobbies?" Well at least it wasn't his life story. "I practice kick-boxing in my spare time. I used to drum until I moved to the states, but that was really only ever for fun, never got serious." He smiled politely. "And what is it that you do, your mutation I mean." Cafas Was afraid that would come up. Luckily his wasn't an offensive power. "I can change the properties of metals, melting point and the like." General but specific, just how people liked descriptions of overly complex subject matters as far as he could tell.

'Good job too, I haven't the foggiest how to explain the full scope.'

Yeesh, and here comes mom with the questions. Elli winced on the inside, and it almost showed, for she didn't know how her parents would react to Cafas' lack of any real source of income, though the did think that her mother would like that he played the drums. She was rather disappointed that neither one of her boys had any musical talent, and the drum-playing could earn Cafas some kudos points with Elli's mom.

And Cafas' explanation of his power, though it simplified the thing a bit, was probably spot on, though Elli understood that it was more complicated than that. All in all, Elli thought that the dinner was going remarkably well, and certainly hoped that the rest of the meeting would continue in that fashion. "Cafas can use that to make sculptures, it's pretty cool." Looking around, Elli could tell that everyone was winding down, their bellies full, and were ready to sit down a rare fireplace fire and just talk. That was, of course, after Elli opened up a can of whupass on Cafas. "You ready?"

Cafas couldn't help but feel someone was bragging about their artistic friend. Why oh why did she do that? He wasn't even that good at it. Well, maybe he was. From one of his rather deep pockets Cafas pulled an unmarked cardboard box and gave it to Kaine "Could you possibly watch that for me while your sister and I have our game of tag?" Kaine nodded and took the box, not opening the sticky tape that held the lid closed. That was good, it wasn't his present. Cafas looked at Elli and smiled confidently. "Very." He stretched out his muscles as best he could while sitting down. Mostly his upper body. It was no good to run off cold muscles, you damaged things.

'Hehe if nothing else this will prove fun.'

"I trust you have a mobile on you? The game lasts until you catch me or I hide from you well enough that you give up. Hence the mobiles." Cafas stood as the rest of the family did. He stretched out his legs and took the bandage off his injured hand. It wasn't like it was gross or anything. In fact it had only been put on to catch any residual bleeding from the stitches. "you can choose if you want to go into the city a bit more or start here. Either way we start twenty metres apart, sound fair?" Alchemist assisted in the taking of dishes to the kitchen. It was mostly a courtesy, old habit. The mansion hadn't beaten him out of it.

'Going to get thrashed.'

"Apart from that, no projectiles and no other rules."

"Could you possibly watch that for me while your sister and I have our game of tag?"

Ah yes, that was probably a good idea, so after she aided in the taking of dishes, with a thankful flash of a smile Cafas' way for the help, she emptied her pockets on the table. It wasn't very impressive, just her piece-o'-crap phone, a few bits of spare change that she always forgot to put in her jar, a thin wallet, and an old receipt. The only reason she had brought her purse, really, was so that she could have a good place to stick Cafas' present where he wouldn't go nosing about. She knew that he could sometimes be the curious cat.


"I trust you have a mobile on you? The game lasts until you catch me or I hide from you well enough that you give up. Hence the mobiles. You can choose if you want to go into the city a bit more or start here. Either way we start twenty meters apart, sound fair? Apart from that, no projectiles and no other rules."

And the phone went back into the pocket, and Elli started stretching as they walked outside. "Don't worry, mom, we'll be back soon!" When they were outside, Elli said "You're the one getting chased, so just start running when you feel like it, I suppose."

---

Kaine had retreated to his room, and he was angrily pacing the room, his brow furrowed in frustration and bad memories.
Damn mutant... I thought Elli had more sense than that! Who knows what kind of funky stuff he did to this thing! Kaine thought, holding Cafas' present in his right hand. After considering it, he went to his window, opened it briefly, and threw the metal object inside the box into the inches of snow, then carefully resealed the sticky tape.
Maybe this will help things along....

The teenage mutant warrior primate registered the slight goad in Elli's reassurance of her mother. Really? not long huh. He'd show her. It was amazing what running from things all the time could do for one's ability to strategically, to use the technical term 'Run like all hell' and utilise cover, technically known as 'Hiding in dumpsters'. It wasn't a glamorous lifestyle really, but it was fun. Then again the battle with the clay blob the previous night Cafas had thought had been fun to start with. Alas then things started (again to use the technical term) 'Blowing the f** up' like busses and the odd mini eight foot tall clay blobs.

'Who do I have to kill to get a decent night's sleep around here.'

Cafas cracked his knuckles and neck once more outside looked around and thought to himself a little about his path. Well his obvious advantage would be his physical strength. So, his ability to lift things. Like himself. Climbing, there it was. He moved to the pre-designated distance, held up three fingers. Two. One. He was off as fast as he could, headed toward a two story house nearby. He was headed into the city. It may be a couple of miles, but he was sure he could make it. He jumped an grabbed the overhang over the porch. His height coming in hand, he then hauled himself onto the rather snowy roof, which was apparently very slippery, and headed off along it. There was an antenna but it didn't pose much issue. In fact, none as he was running pretty much on the gutter.

'Run jump hide.'

The distinctive crunch of snow under his boots sounded good. Also tiring. He had a feeling it would thing out the closer to the main city area they got, but is the suburbs it was a relatively thick layer. He jumped at full speed from the roof he was on to a one story roof next door with a brick fence around their house. From their roof he jumped onto that fence and began sprinting carefully and awkwardly along it. The fence continued straight onto the fence of another house, but the one it ran onto was separated by a narrow alley. Dropping into the alley Alchemist made a very quick judgement call and headed down to the left to get closer still to the main city, where he really needed to be.

'If I can get there I can lose her, there is too much open space around here.'

Elli smiled as Cafas held up three fingers. Chasing was something she could certainly do, especially with all the practice she had trying to beat Gerald in races. Those races were dangerous, done in the blistering heat and icy cold, along rooftops and alleys and even, occasionally, through buildings. Gerald hadn't been beaten yet, but Elli knew that she could do it eventually. For Elli, however, the chase she was about to face had it's own unique set of problems. How would Cafas feel if she won? How would he feel if he won? Elli didn't have the answer to either of those questions, but she hoped he wasn't like many men on the force were. Not only did these men think that women were too soft to be police officers, they resented it when Elli was better than them. They couldn't see that she had to be better than the men, had to have something that they didn't, just to earn a modicum of respect.

Worse still were those who saw only a female body, and not the person in it.

Cafas shot off, and Elli was hot on his heels, her much more sensible than flip flops sneakers shredding snow as she pumped her arms and legs. She followed Cafas, knowing that she couldn't get him that early in the game, and so stayed a reasonable distance behind to cut him off if he tried to turn anywhere. Elli, rather than just leaping up and grabbing the roof, continued to run, until the last second when she transferred her momentum upwards with a foot and ran up the wall a few paces, and pulled herself the last few inches over. While Cafas ran by the gutter, Elli ran on the peak of the roof, watching as Cafas moved. He's not so bad at this... Graceful, sometimes...

When Cafas leapt down onto the fence, and then to the alley, Elli continued on to another roof before she moved to the fence, running on it a bit behind Cafas. "This the best you can do?" She taunted.

He could hear her behind him. His boots weren't as good for the task as her shoes and she was also faster. He could tell because while his pace was a little off beat, hers had perfect rhythm. She was holding back. Damn. She was even taunting him. He assumed it was to force him into making a mistake. He sucked in a big breath and pushed himself the little bit faster he needed to be going to give the impression of trying to speed up along the straight line. There was, however, a very tall fence just ahead of him. It was taller than him, and the speed would help. The metal manipulator's arm shot out, near full extent, and grabbed the top of the wooden perimeter. His entire body pivoted around that point of contact, his speed providing the force to throw him upward in the necessary manner. To assist the process he scrambled a few footsteps up the wall while he drew ever closer to horizontal. Rolling over the top and landing on his knees. That ought to throw her off at least a small amount.

'I need a denser environment stat.'

He figured that over the fence was a good place to respond. "Why let loose when a GIRL is chasing me?" His tone was joking, he even laughed as he took off again, despite his lungs protests. He just needed to make it a matter of strength somehow. He could think of nothing, so he continued in the hope her muscles fatigued faster than his. He pulled himself onto the single storey roof and set off again. The rest of the fences were shorter, which made it easier for him to take a leap of faith across to the next house, a double storey building almost twelve feet away. He managed to grab the lip of the roof and haul himself onto the building, before very quickly dodging behind a chimney, breathing hard. He'd hear if she knew where he was and he supposed see her fly past if she didn't.

'Good thing that edge is so close.'