At first, she just thought she was busy.

The FBI arranged a meeting to update Maya on the progress of the Full Circle investigation. She'd tried to keep records and she'd tried to be thorough, but somehow they managed to find things to ask about that even she had no clue how to find out.

It wasn't like running a business had a definitive checklist. Maya had fumbled through those first few years, often finding out things had to be done only after some money was overdue.

And they hadn't liked all the donations, but at least she'd had the foresight to document and incorporate and pay taxes. Thank goodness for Aurum's advice.

She also got an update on the well being of the store (hint: so/so). And permission for a supervised visit to the apartments (hint: everything she wanted to remove had to be x-rayed and disassembled and checked for secret messages or something silly like that. What should have taken one hour easily turned to four.)

Eventually, Maya realized the business way a way to avoid the Mansion. It was still hard to meet the eyes of the children when they came into the library. Aftershocks from a very public act of violence against one of them. She wasn’t avoiding Cafas specifically, but she was avoiding Jiri. And probably his friends. And definitely Sam.

Okay maybe Cafas too. She couldn't think about that night with her embarrassment showing. It was one thing to take advantage of an offer of fun in the dark. Quite another thing to think about how that related to her family and responsibilities.

So the avoidance? Yeah, it was just a side effect of putting anything and everything at a higher priority than facing the consequences of her recent actions.

Maya was on high alert all the time. Hear Jiri's laugh coming from the kitchen? Suddenly, Rowan’s lost shoe was a higher priority. See a flash of pink down in the X-men hallway? Sudden diversion into the War Room! Was it cold in here? Go outside!

Cafas had spent maybe half an hour introducing his forehead to a door frame.

Maybe it was coincidence. They were both busy people. A few days without seeing each other wasn't unheard of. He'd told himself that a few times. He'd just... Kind of assumed they'd run into each other. He'd been at the Mansion more than he'd been home in that time. He didn't even know what he'd say. Should they even talk about it?

The fourth day he'd finally worked up the nerve to speak to her properly. There had been a small amount of liquid courage involved. He must have been to every room in the Mansion, spoken to everyone who might even slightly have seen her. Most of those had been cold leads by the time he got to them.

Even Sam hadn't seen her. Cafas neglected to tell him why he was looking for her. A few beers to clear his mind some and he'd sent her a text. There had been no small amount of "umm"ing and "ah"ing over how to word it. He settled on "Yo, wassup, can we talk about things? Coffee or something?"

Wassup? WASSUP!?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

The "Yo" was just as bad really. It was far too late to change it again though. He'd already sent the message. He'd sat staring at his phone for what felt like an eternity. He actually jumped when it rang his message tone. To his feet, phone in hand. He hadn't realised people actually did that.

Uhm. Sorry, I promised Rowan I'd do this thing, but we should totally do coffee. Just... another time.

Another time... Yeah. That was fine. So fine. Kid came first, that went without saying. Maybe her schedule was a bit jammed? That would account for that non-committal time frame. Surely it was that.

Trying to convince himself of that was the cause of the door frame's new friendship with his forehead.

She sent that text and instantly regretted it. Yeah. Rowan had her running circles in the yard. She'd promised. Didn't mean she couldn't finish up and move on.

"I'mma getchu!"

Then again... these were precious moments too... Maya stopped and turned in a flourish of wind that ruffled the hair of all within easy reach.

"Nope! I'll get you! Rawr!" Rowan and the other gaggle of youngsters squealed appropriately and scattered across the lawn.

Maybe she'd been too vague?

Maya scooped up a littl'un and the little girl squealed as the X-man swung her around in a quick circle.

Or, maybe she needed to set a specific date.

Dropping off that dizzy kiddo, Maya pounced on yet another with a gleeful cry of "GROAR!"

No. Not a date-date. Just a coffee, right? She wasn't going to date-date somebody. That wouldn't be fair to them.

The kid slipped right through her fingers. Literally. Through them. Maya had to buffer the child with a gust of wind so they didn't hit hard, and that in turn ended up knocking two more over. Their little legs flew up over their heads.

A couple caretakers came running.

She was red in the face. Kids were crying. She couldn't apologize enough.

It was an absolute relief when her X-communicator went off. Finally, something she could do right!

Cafas had just poured a drink.

He'd given up on hitting his head on the door frame. It wasn't helping any. He could use a drink anyway, those beers weren't working as well as he'd like.

Trust Sam to have alcohol just laying around.

The cap was back on the bottle, his cup was perhaps half full of liquor.

"Pssshhhhhhhhhhk. META officer requesting back-up to Tiffany and Co on 5th and East 57th. Robbery in progress, perp is a mutant."

META? It took Cafas a moment to place it. The bots were still kind of new to him. He'd been out of town for the meeting to introduce them. Weren't they meant to be the back up? It didn't matter, the request had been put through, they had to respond. With any luck it would take his mind off this whole Maya business.

Gotta get that static checked out though. Damn thing hasn't been right since the foam.

He downed the liquor in his cup. No point wasting it. It might serve to calm the nerves he could feel rising. Mutants were unpredictable in a fight. You never knew what they had up their sleeve. Cafas grabbed the communicator and started running for the garage via war room. "Roger dispatch, X-men en-route."

What're we dealing with? Woulda been nice to know...

Cafas skidded into his locker just refraining from melting the door off. He threw it open and yanked out his uniform, a baton, his shield and his sword. If it was giving the bot a run for its money he was taking something lethal. It was on and strapped in under a minute. He made the garage in a similar time. He'd have to wait to see who he was with today. They would need to drive.

Shouldn't matter, unless it's Sam.

Okay. Okay. So. She couldn't lie to herself. Maya was definitely avoiding Cafas.

She'd heard his voice as he confirmed the en route and she hadn't thought about it. She gasped into her incorporeal state with her X-suit half on and shut herself entirely into her own locker.

Her spatial senses showed Cafas fumbling into his clothes. Sword and shield too. Was he...? No. Surely not. He was off to the garage before Maya had decided one way or another. Drunk? At... what was it? 11 am?

She seeped out of the locker vents and shrugged the rest of the way into her gray and white spandex.

Okay. So she was avoiding him. Because... she didn't want to be unfair to him, right? Or maybe it was the embarrassed about things part. Maya took a moment with her head resting against the locker door to marshal her feelings. They had a job to do.

"You ready?" She called out to him as soon as she was in the garage. She fiddled with her com badge to get the location down in her head as she walked. Her heels clomped less elegantly than the ones she'd worn out as Maya. These were utility shoes, despite the added height. "Because we're going in 3, 2..." Ghost smiled and wrapped her friend and teammate in a hug before she inhaled the sweet and sour smell of alcohol. She went incorporeal first, taking as much of Cafas with her as she could in one go.

Hopefully the sword and shield were not too much added complexity. It would not do to have a wardrobe malfunction.

Hopefully he wasn't actually drunk. Ghost had already been juggling Sam and his addiction.

Hopefully this was just going to be a quick, simple matter. Subdue and sit on someone until the cops came 'round. That kind of thing.

"I will buy you a hundred coffees if it would distract you from drinking." She gave him a squeeze, the only tactile feeling left between them once they were fully incorporeal.

And then, it was off to the races.

"You ready?"

Cafas was not ready. Not at all. He was not ready to hear Ghost's voice. He spun to face her, perhaps a little unsteadily. He glanced at Ghost perhaps nervously, perhaps a little out of focus.

Dat spandex.

"Because we're going in 3, 2..."

The smile disarmed him. He didn't know quite what he'd been expecting, but a smile wasn't it. The hug also caught him off guard, not that he minded. Seemed like they should be in more of a rush than that. Maybe he'd misread the situation and she hadn't been avoiding him?

Suddenly they were air. Well, suddenly to Cafas slightly inebriated brain.

That actually makes a lot more sense...

Not a hug of affection after all, but a hug of necessity.

"I will buy you a hundred coffees if it would distract you from drinking"

Now that squeeze had to be affection, right? Friendly affection probably? She sounded worried though. Friends could be worried... Cafas just went with it and tried to put his mind back on the mission. He'd worry about it after. For now, trying to figure out this weird Ghost-o-vision was a hard enough task.

"I dun' know it'll take tha' many."

SHUT UP! Don't ruin this!

"Anyway, th' coffee's just an excuse for y'r company. It can be anythin' really..."

He managed to push through the cloud of alcohol. Brought his focus in. How long he could hold onto it remained to be seen. He felt like they were moving. Even if Ghost flight was slower than a car, and Cafas wasn't sure it was, they'd make better time not having to worry about traffic. Cafas normally would have taken his bike for a similar effect, but not after drinking.

Please let this be an easy job.

~~~

"You are under arrest. Please stop resisting."

Who the bot thought it was kidding was anyone's guess. The goliath of a mutant grabbed the META knight by its head. The armor held against the titanic grip strength, but the bot didn't weigh enough to resist what came next.

"Ohm nawt gonna do dat." The mutant got out through its thick jaws. Then the bot got the old fastball special. All 7ft of bot got hurled through the armored window, through the emergency shutters, through a display case. The big mutant wasn't far behind it. Two duffle bags held in one hand were thrown on the floor.

"No'ne do anythin' stupid."

The bot, to its credit, stood back up. "You are under arrest. Please stop resisting." It did its best to stand between the mutant and the civilians.

She'd smelled it, but it wasn't until he spoke that Maya could no longer deny that Cafas was well and totally sloshed.

> "Anyway, th' coffee's just an excuse for y'r company. It can be anythin' really..."

Company, company, company. The word tumbled around in the back of her brain dryer while Ghost focused on the streets and where they were in comparison to where they wanted to be. It was tricky stuff when all the signage registered as blank.

Shouldn't have avoided him.

"You are—" She cast about for a word and settled anemically on "—valuable to me and I will be incredibly angry if you manage to stab yourself." She wanted to puncture that demand with something more, but she was already crossing a line here. Ghost would not be changing into her corporeal form if she could help it. Too embarrassing.

"We can hang out. Of course we can..." Do what? Play Shuffleboard? Make out like crazy monkeys?

Maya was realizing her mistake now. She'd convinced Cafas that he needed something more than he was getting, that he deserved more. He did. No question there. But he was on the rebound. She was on a belated rebound. They didn't have to be each other's rebounds. He deserved better than what she had to offer. She'd left him adrift at sea.

"This is my fault. I'm sorry. Can we table this for now? After this, coffee or raisins or anything." Assuming there was an after this, because they'd arrived and the mutant in question was big.

> "You are under arrest. Please stop resisting."

And there was one of those newfangled robots too. It was on their side so Ghost planned to ignore it unless it needed help or proved a brilliant ally.

Okay. time to strategize. "How impaired are you? Does brawling with a mountain sound fun or should you corral the civilians?" Because she needed to know. Now. It was time to drop him into his corporeal body and she needed to know where. After that she would be putting herself directly between the big man and the jewels he was hamfisting into his bags.

"You are... valuable to me and I will be incredibly angry if you manage to stab yourself."

Cafas couldn't say he'd be thrilled with that himself. It wasn't exactly high on his to-do list. Even drunk, Cafas was pretty sure muscle memory would pull him through. The speed of his reflexes remained to be seen. Hopefully they were fast enough to keep him in one piece.

"We can hang out. Of course we can..."

"This is my fault. I'm sorry. Can we table this for now? After this, coffee or raisins or anything."

"Tabled, but 's'not your fault." The drinking had sort of been creeping up on him for months. At some point he'd forgotten how to actually deal with his problems, if he'd ever known at all. It was a small comfort, the numbness that alcohol brought. Now he needed it just to feel normal.

"How impaired are you? Does brawling with a mountain sound fun or should you corral the civilians?"

"Mountain." He was in no state to be dealing with civilians. Cafas dropped back into his normal senses and normal body. Armor, check. Weapons, check. Shield... Shield? Cafas barely stopped to think about where it had gotten to. It certainly wasn't with him, and that's all he needed to know. He drew his baton. "X-men, freeze."

Where's Sam when you need him?

The big guy just chuckled. Cafas wasn't used to being dwarfed by someone. The feeling was novel. He threw a casual back-hand at Cafas. He ducked it neatly. The follow-up punch took him in the side of the body. A glancing blow that felt like getting hit by a car. Cafas managed to avoid the worst of it.

It can never just be a simple job.

The metal manipulator stepped inside the larger mutant's reach and let loose a flurry with the baton. With each hit Cafas got some idea of why the bot was having such a hard time. The baton all but bounced off.

So it's going to be one of those days.

Cafas swallowed hard and felt the adrenaline wash over him. He did his best to avoid a knee, got clipped, stumbled back and got swatted hard. He dropped into a three point landing, and skidded across the floor. His foot found a display. He used it to push off. Dodged past another fist, jumped, and took a backhand rising swing with his baton.

It impacted the goliath in the jaw, Cafas' knee found its chest and a follow up swing hit it in the neck on the way back to the floor. The big mutant just laughed. "Tha' all you gawt, X-man?" Yelled the brute, as he came in for another flurry. Cafas was really starting to wish he was sober.

I'll show you all I got you son of a...

> "Mountain."

Okay. She didn't hesitate. He chose and she just had to trust that he actually could handle what he'd decided. Being a member of the team, she had to just let him do his thing. He could call for help if he needed, but with innocents on site, she couldn't afford to split her focus just yet. Someone had to clear the space for a proper subdue.

The robot was standing between the civilians and the mutant brawl that was unfolding, but it was doing nothing to help them and from what Ghost could see, something had been totally smashed through the security. Shrapnel, bits, and bobs were everywhere and the small group of three was huddled just on the far side of an obliterated jewelry counter.

"Anyone hurt?" She called past the sounds of battle and tried to get a close grip on the air around the group in the least claustrophobic way possible so that she could see the details of the situation.

"Some cuts."

"Couple bruises." Another supplied. "I think this woman probably needs a doctor, though. She got clocked when that thing came through the window."

"Mutant." The Robot supplied helpfully after, Maya assumed, it has scanned her. "Checking status. R-registere-er-er-erd. Thank you X-man Ghost."

"Yep. That's me. X-man Ghost." She smiled. No one saw it. She was a bundle of loosely associated cloudy air. She could just as easily have stuck out her tongue. Some habits carried over whether no one was looking or not. "Okay. So we're working in conjunction with the police. Can I come back and help you evacuate?" She addressed the civilians and the robot, not entirely sure who needed to hear what. They'd had the official rundown in training, but reality was a very different beat.

"Uh. I dunno about moving the lady."

"I can help." She'd said she wasn't going solid this time, but a need was a need. Maya touched down, ducked a wild elbow from the brawl and scooted around the robot.

Only, the robot scooted to keep himself between herself and the civilians.

"Mutant thr-reat, identify."

Wait. Didn't they just do this? "I'm registered. X-men. Please let me pass." She tried again and was blocked once more.

"Identification not r-recognized. Back up en r-route."

"X-men identification Ghost. I'm registered." Maya tried, once more with feeling.

"Unauthor-or-orized command." And he moved so quickly that Ghost hadn't really time to see what he did exactly. She saw a flash of matte black and somehow ended up on her back out of breath, coughing.

"You are under arrest. Please stop resisting."

Cafas had fought brawlers before. They tended to have the same tactics, the same moves, it was practically its own fighting style. So why was ha having so much trouble avoiding this guy's blows? Really there was only one explanation.

I'm going to call you Brute

Cafas ducked under one of the two left hay-makers he saw coming. Unfortunately he picked the wrong one. The blow clipped him on the side of the head, sending Cafas stumbling into a display. He tried to regain his balance and failed as a kick took him in the ribs.

Damn it, move faster Cafas you idiot!

Cafas slid off the display, ignoring the worst of the pain in his chest. Just in time. A two handed hammer blow shattered the display where his head had just been. Cafas used the opening to take a swing. The baton impacted the side of Brute's head. Brute reeled, Cafas went on the offensive. He had the upper hand and he wasn't about to give it up.

He unleashed a furious flurry of attacks. He caught Brute in the chest.

"Mutant thr-reat, identify."

Brute moved back out of the way of Cafas' second strike, but the third strike landed on Brute's knee.

"I'm registered. X-men. Please let me pass."

A fourth and fifth strike followed in a blur. The impacts jarred Cafas' arm, but the repeated strikes were starting to tell on Brute.

"Identification not r-recognized. Back up en r-route."

Cafas' strike missed by a wide margin, distracted by the robot. Not recognized? Back up? That sounded bad to Cafas. Hopefully back-up would recognize them.

"X-men identification Ghost. I'm registered."

Brute was less distracted than Cafas. He was hurting, and his fists weren't nearly as effective as he'd like. He hefted a stanchion, shaking loose the velvet rope. Cafas' attention snapped back to him too late to stop the action.

"Unauthor-or-orized command."

The blur of movement in Cafas' peripherals caught his attention, but not half so much as Ghost hitting the floor did.

"You are under arrest. Please stop resisting."

Cafas only saw the incoming attack at the last moment. He parried it as best he could, driving the blow into the floor. Brute swung the metal pole upward at him, and that he couldn't parry in time. The blow took him straight in the chest armour. The clang was deafening. The blow threw Cafas onto another display bodily.

The X-man's baton rolled across the floor, his chest armour constricted his breathing. He pulled himself to his feet and began a stumbling run, drawing his sword. The metal hardened and toughened as the swing came in, assisted by muscle and mutation.

The metal on metal screech was almost unbearable. The blade bit deep into the bot's shoulder, despite all its armour. Cafas' shoulder impacted it next, but the bot barely budged. Cafas reefed the blade back out of the bot. Under the exterior coating he saw the shine of metal.

"You are under arrest. Please stop resisting."

The pounding he received made Brute seem a walk in the park. Cafas felt every blow, though they came in impossibly fast. His boots slipped a small distance backward with each blow, and Cafas barely retained his footing.

"You lay so much as a finger on her again I will reduce you to a pile of slag." Cafas managed to grunt. His left hand found his chest plate, which melted away. He heaved a breath and steadied himself.

Three way fight and I'm drunk... Damn it.

Cafas came out of the display case he'd landed in and made a bee line for the bot.

It was practically impossible to breathe and speak at the same time, but Ghost tried.

"Ca-" And failed.

Instead she ended up squeaking and rolling out of the way when Cafas charged the robot. It didn't go flying as she'd expected it to. That gave Ghost time to roll onto her hands and knees and look up in time to see the brute ready to take advantage of a distracted X-man.

"Switch!" In retrospect, she was impressed, how confident and authoritative that call had sounded from someone on the ground and out of breath.

Ghost hit her x-communicator, but wasn't able to call out that they needed an ambulance over the sound of the sudden rush of wind she was already streaming at the Goliath.

He had his stanchion in both hands, the metal pole swinging down with all the force he could muster while Cafas took the brutally efficient pounding the META knight was handing out. Ghost hit Brute with a wide swath of sheer wind power, pushing the man back and off-balance mid-swing. The x-man pushed up to her feet.

She was irritated that she'd gotten bowled over. Irritated that the robot had broken her trust when they were supposed to be on the same team. Irritated that Cafas hadn't trusted her to take care of her own problem. But most of all? Ghost was irritated that Brute was here. Robbing a jewelry store. Now. Because he'd started this whole thing.

Ghost pushed hard enough that she'd been trying to knock the man over. He was huge enough and broad enough that the most she managed was to slide him back several feet until he tapped up against what used to be some kind of store feature display but was now only so much rubble. The metal disk that supported the pole impacted the ground in front of him with an almost lazy grace. With his target now stolen from him, he didn't bother to finish the swing at full power.

His eyes flicked between Ghost and Cafas. He was clearly more comfortable fighting Cafas.

"No." She knocked at the hamfist that kept hold of the stanchion pole with a gust of air and followed up with something like a wind slap to his face. "You don't get to fight any more." She took a step toward him giving him full on mom voice, now. "You tried the whole smash and grab." She gave his abandoned loot an air shove when he dared look away from her for his bags. "You tried the whole punch an X-man."

That earned Ghost an eyebrow when she took yet another step closer, putting her a mere lunge away.

"Wha'ddya gon do 'bout it?"

"Arrest you. Doi."

She did not get to see his reaction because on her next inhalation Ghost became incorporeal and streamed toward Brute’s face. He was bigger than anyone she’d ever tried to control before and this was not an ability she’d ever used offensively before. But today? Here? Now? It felt appropriate.

"Switch!"

Cafas barely heard it, it all became awfully peripheral as the black blur came in. His brain tried desperately to react, but it couldn't get the message to his body in time. Luckily for him the bot was obviously damaged. Its arm made a grating noise and barely moved. Cafas did not get so lucky from there.

The blows rained down hard, Cafas dropped to his knees, took a hit to the face and dropped to the ground. He rolled with it just enough to avoid any expensive dental bills. He lashed out for a leg sweep on the bot, but it dodged easily. Cafas pushed himself to his feet and struck at it. It dodged his drunk strikes easily.

"You have assaulted an officer with a deadly weapon, cease and desist."

Uh oh.

Something definitely snapped in the assault. Cafas tried desperately not to think about it. He felt like he was only still standing from the adrenaline. The final blow swept his legs out from under him. He hit the floor hard again. He was very certainly injured, if the red spatters on the ground were anything to go by.

"I really wish they wouldn't paint you..."

Cafas flipped onto his back, silently apologized to his sword, and fired half the blade off at mach speed.

The METAbot was fast. Very fast. They were tough too, armoured, layered with non-Newtonian fluids. They could stop small arms fire.

Unfortunately for it, it was not "Point blank mach-speed" fast, nor was nearly a full pound of hardened, sharp steel "small arms".

"You are under arrest. Stop resis..."

The sonic crack was painfully loud. The razor sharp blade section took the bot in the chest. It blew out the other side and into the ceiling. There was a fizzling, a grinding sound and the distinct smell of burning electronics. A viscous liquid seeped out the hole in the metallic carapace. Frozen in place, a huge hole blown out the back.

I kind of expected it to like... fall over.

Cafas scrabbled to his feet unstably. His head hurt like hell, his ribs were most certainly broken and that shot had taken a lot out of him. He looked around the room, trying to get his drunk and rattled brain around the situation.

"Maya?"

He was turning purple.

From the inside, Ghost couldn't tell. She was stretched thin, possibly thinner then she'd ever tried to stretch before. And working her hardest to keep him from moving anything more than his own eyelids.

> "Maya?"

Her vision was so limited, she'd missed what had happened with Cafas and the Knight. She hoped that loud crack wasn't Cafas ruining it. The bots looked expensive.

"Cuffs?"

Brute tried to say something and surged forward half a step before Ghost wrangled him back. He was strong. So, so strong. His muscles corded, veins protruding with effort to fight against his own body. His voice was sounding in his own mouth, but his jaw was clenched tight. She didn't trust him an inch.

"I can't— Please." Ghost tried to be calm and strong, but there was a hint of panic in her voice. She was stretched too thin to see far. She was holding too tight to do anything else. This was the best they could hope for: a calm moment to get control back. Then they could worry about the three civilians.

"Cuffs?"

What? Cafas' brain took a moment to process the word. It sounded a lot like his name, didn't it? At least a little. It came from the big guy, who looked disturbingly close to having a stroke. He moved half a step and stopped again. It was enough to snap Cafas' brain back into gear for a few seconds.

"I can't— Please."

Right! Cuffs! "On it! Sorry![/i] Did he have any? Nope. The bot did though. He could see them. More accurately he could see three, all swimming into and out of each other. Big chunky ones that looked perfect for holding big chunky Brute. Cafas grabbed them and ran over to the goliath-esque would be robber. They looked like they worked the same as any other set of handcuffs.

Hope they fit his wrists...

Cafas man-handled Brute's arms behind his back. He closed the first cuff with some difficulty. It had a blinking light. what did the writing say? Armed? Cafas blinked right back at the light as he started putting the second cuff on. Armed... It seemed important. Between his splitting headache, the booze, and the building migraine from coming so close to his mutation's limits, it clicked right as the second cuff did.

These are the mutant cuffs... Aren't those pretty much tasers?

He guessed he was about to find out...

"Huauuuuuuggggh"

Ghost didn't know if it was registering her power or his, but in her incorporeal form, luckily, she didn't have any feeling. Control was ripped from Ghost as his muscles spasmed out of either of their control.

Well. That was probably her exit cue. The X-man started to extricate herself from his body. Like most parts of her power, the first side was quick. The exit was trickier. His near constant cry of pain outlined a nice exit path, though.

"Make sure the ambulance is on its way at least?" She would have asked him to help with the civilians, but she knew better. Sam was a PR nightmare when he was inebriated. She wasn't about to open that door with Cafas.

Whoever the cuffs were registering wasn't turning their power off.

A whiteish mist seeped from Brute's nostrils and mouth. It took her longer than was pretty to get herself out and then reconstruct herself. By that time, back up META bots had arrived: 1 speed scout and 2 cavalry. They seemed to be playing nice as they assessed the scene. At least, none of them tried to arrest her as she found her weight and made sure that her spandex re-solidified on the outside of her skin rather than under it.

Maya went straight to the civilians. The civilians were suddenly very not okay with her help.

"Mutant. Registered."

Maybe they should deactivate the cuffs...? These robots could probably handle him if he got rowdy again, right?

Too worried about making yet another mistake, Ghost decided to take Cafas outside and wait for the ambulance. She tugged on his arm. "We're leaving as soon as they unload the gurney and before they think to test your blood alcohol levels."