Something was wrong. The rescue-lawful-good people weren't supposed to look stressed. Aiden couldn't see very well, and his Reading Body Language score was publically abysmal, but Mirror didn't look happy.

And then she disappeared. That was really not good. He was just the backup, the kid who knew squat and was just going to mess things up oh Mirror was talking to him. Electronic communication things were good when a member of your party merged with the occasional piece of reflective furniture.

Wait wait wait wait he was backup, not run in and do all the legwork. What was he supposed to do? Oh. His feet at least knew to do as they were told and get him inside. The general people sprawled everywhere in perfectly acceptable and understandable abject terror were, fortunately, more than happy to spring back to their feet at his gesturing. The police got to deal with the desperate dash, and Aiden tried not to walk over Mirror on his quick way to grab the kid.

What was he supposed to do with a kid? He picked up the basket gingerly, and may have held it as much at arm's length as he could without looking like it or dropping it, and got out of there as quick as he could. Um. The police were kind of occupied. WHAT WAS HE SUPPOSED TO DO WITH A BABY. He stared at the little squished face. It looked more like an alien than pretty much any alien he had ever come across in any medium. Were they sure this was actually a baby, and not the larval form of some vicious, planet-destroying monster? Because he did not want to be responsible for saving the life of such a thing.

The woman did not give up. No, she had to twist and yell and try to hit Maya. Maya, on the other hand, had just found out that she was the possible father of a baby in a basket, and she had no humor or patience for brawling with women who looked more desperate than housewife.

Pushing Angela out of the mirror, they both landed on the floor. Maya used the momentum to roll them over and ended up on top, thank you Sam's training, one hand pushing the woman's face into the tiles and one knee on her back.

"The police is not getting in here until all the hostages are out." she hissed "I am not the police. How ****ed you are depends on what you say next."

Cue a very, very pissed mirrorwalker.

"Where did you get that kid, and how do you know it's mine?"

Apparently X men--or X part-time men--could fight. Which was not surprising, really; that was the point of the baby after all. Which hadn't worked at all, and Angela was not remotely happy with the fact.

Angela, on the other hand, couldn't fight. Which didn't mean she stopped squirming; at least, not until she was somehow on an actual, real floor, which the X-not-man was trying to break her face on. Then she resorted to kicking, which was equally ineffectual since she couldn't actually reach the father girl holding her down. Maybe if her skirt got tossed up enough it would distract her?

In the meantime, Angela was also quite pissed, and not very inclined to be helpful. Threats weren't very impressive; after all, what would an X man do? Angela had already been caught, and the girl from the goody two shoes organization was hardly going to dare hurt her. "From its mother, obviously. Shouldn't you be keeping slightly better track of your family?"

...Some preventive measures might be a good idea, though. In case this was actually a fake X man, and not a real one. "And she's perfectly fine, I only had her put to sleep for a few hours."

It was really nice when people didn't need excessive direction. It was infinitely less nice when they then went and filled up all the available qualified assistance.

Why was he stuck holding onto this thing that was only possible human/mutant/some form of earth-based life form? Is this really what being with the X-Men meant, babysitting random species and hoping that they didn't die/destroy all life on earth as probably appropriate? If that were the case, he might have to have a little awkward chat with Cafas.

Alternately, this was what being a trainee meant, and real X-Men got to pawn off sucky jobs like this off on you. That wasn't very nice, but at least it suggested it might be temporary. Maybe they just needed enough even newer people so that he could delegate.

... who was he trying to kid, exactly? Him tell other people what to do?

Yeah, he'd just behave himself and convince himself that this was indeed a living thing worth saving and not break anything. From what he could see, Mirror might be at risk of breaking things. Probably with a great deal more intent than him in his current situation.

And then the thing gave a weirdly mighty ripple, shot him the nastiest and most cunning glare Aiden had ever seen (really! including in animated and drawn works! it was sheer evil, it was!), and opened its creepy tiny mouth.

OH DEAR GOD MAKE IT SHUT UUUUUUUPPPPPPPP!!!!!

He didn't drop it.





At least, not more than a few millimetres.

>>"From its mother, obviously. Shouldn't you be keeping slightly better track of your family? And she's perfectly fine, I only had her put to sleep for a few hours."

Maya was probably more tightly wound and this point than at any other point in her career as an X-man, haunted houses, clay elder gods and bloodthirsty amazons included. The woman did not stop squirming which made her want to punch her face into the tiles, but the police was on their way inside now, and beating a suspect into a bloody pulp was definitely not good for X-men PR.

Hauling her to her feet, Maya tossed the woman at two of the officers, who proceeded to handcuff her.

"She is a mutant, I would take her straight to MRC if I were you, although she probably does not have combat abilities. Tell Detective Cervantes I sent her for his special care. Oh, and add kidnapping to her list."

She walked over to Aiden who was holding the wailing basket as far from himself as anatomically possible.

The thing in the basket did not look anything like Maya. Or Becca, for that matter. It did not look like much of anyone, really. The only was the mother's identity could be determined was the fact that Gawain only had one person on his one-night-stand list within nine months. That he remembered.

"The kid is probably a mutant" she sighed, glancing at the officer "We'll take her to the Mansion. Let me know when you found the mother."

"I am not sure that follows prot..."

"The kidnapper claimed the child is mine."

"But wouldn't you..."

"I'm the father. gender shifting. Read field files sometimes." Maya said, increasingly irritated "C'mon Aiden let's go."

Oh pleeeaaassseee make it stoooooppppp.

Aiden was starting to think of the things he would do to get the kid to be quiet. It wasn't a very creative list, and he was not very fond of most of the things on it, but it was the thought that counted, right? Especially the I-wouldn't-normally-do-this thoughts. Those had to be worth something. How many did he need? If he only knew he'd trade them in on an instant!

It seemed quite appropriate, at least to Aiden, that Mirror should take the kid and deal with it now. Mirror was the boss. Bosses dealt with things, especially things that were at a very high risk for driving people both insane and deaf. He hoped that the deafness came first.

Except that he wasn't freed of his burden. Talking to the cops was more important. And apparently necessary to make his head hurt even more. They were taking the baby with them? And...

And Mirror was apparently the shrieking thing's father.

It might be time to just give up on being confused. Or maybe on ever not being confused. Either way, the world should just go on in one big blur. No more details, no more noise, stuff should just happen. Ideally without throwing him into awkward situations like the current world seemed to adore. He was happy to get out of there, though, even if it probably meant coming as close to throwing up as he had the first time.

God the kid was loud.

Maya winced as she looked at the basket over her shoulder. Even in her female form, she did not feel a lot of maternal instincts surging up. The police shrugged and noted that at least they knew where to find them. The baby wailed some more, and Aiden looked about ready to throw up.
As the adrenaline in her system receded, Maya was staring to realize that she was way. Way. In over her head this time.

"I'll take this." she said, grabbing the basket away from the X-kid's shaking hands "You can get a ride back to the Mansion with the officers, or call a cab."

She assessed, rightly, that the last thing she needed was two kids throwing up after a trip through the mirrors.

"I'll see you back at the Mansion" she said, patting the boy on the shoulder "Good job."

Mirror finally freed him from the screaming baby!

And then she left him standing by himself in the dust. It was really quite literally.

How was he supposed to get back, exactly? He had no clue where he was in the city and didn't have a phone or the money to call a cab. He could theoretically do as suggested and bum a ride from some of the cops, but they were really all busy taking the last few statements from victims. Some of them were already taking off.

So… should he try to find some sort of landmark he recognized and try walking back? It wasn’t as if he was running out of daylight or really had anywhere to be, although lunch would eventually be nice now that he wasn’t going to have to deal with mirror-travel again any time soon, so as long as they weren’t insanely far from the mansion he could probably make it back fairly easily. Plus he had a feeling he’d have a lot of explaining to do to Cafas if he couldn’t handle even that much physical exertion…

Best to start walking, then. Hey, he’d walked across most of the city before. He gave his sunglasses a tap; it had been a bit of an adventure, the day he’d acquired them. Wow it felt nice not to be holding onto a wailing infant anymore. Sure he could find his way back from wherever he was! It couldn’t really be that hard, could it?