"Now you listen to me you little @$@^ I BLED for this @%$^ing city. I EARNED that badge. People DIED in the riots. I stood beside those 'legit' cops and we held that line TOGETHER."

Bailey seemed to almost shrink into himself as the Masochist turned and yelled at him. He wasn't normally absurdly tall, but he also wasn't normally all that short. Somehow, though, his body seemed to almost fold up on itself and he shrunk a good two inches, like a turtle retreating into its shell.

The teen nodded feverishly and shot a quick glance at the bot that was no longer struggling. He made a quick but very important mental note to himself to never ever make that mutant angry. Unless he was standing within six feet of him and had some kind of weapon and a death wish.

Bailey took the phone off his shoulder and addressed the woman on the other end. "Did you get any of that? Yeah, he's kind of testy. Can we get those override codes, please? Oh, never mind. The cops just showed up." Bailey's eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he realized his grave mistake. He quickly corrected himself, "I-mean-the-cops-that-aren't-already-here-please-don't-kill-me!"

"Did you phone in for help?" One of the cops asked as soon as the pair arrived on scene. Didn't ask any more questions when he noticed the bot embedded deeply into the wall. "Oh, I see."

"E-7-9-9-4-T-Y-3-G-8," the other cop read directly from a handbook she had pulled off her person. "That should do it."

The anger faded from his eyes quickly as he saw the hapless kid shrink into himself.

Maybe he'd overreacted a little. Still, it was hard not to get emotional when he thought about the Riots. He still had flashbacks when it came to that helpless feeling... That was saying a lot too, because he used to kill criminals for fun. Very few people knew that, though.

"Did you get any of that? Yeah, he's kind of testy. Can we get those override codes, please? Oh, never mind. The cops just showed up. I-mean-the-cops-that-aren't-already-here-please-don't-kill-me!"

He couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"I ain't gonna hurt you, kid."

It looked like the human cops had made it first. Thank goodness. He wasn't looking forwar to fighting Cavalry units. They were definitely tougher to deal with. The two bots arrived just after the override code was given. Saph stepped up to talk to the two. He knew them. Connors, who he'd known since the riots, and Jaques, a new officer.

He leaned in to talk to Connors. "Jesus, Mike, how many malfunctions is that this week?"

Connors looked around a bit, and replied. "5, Saph... It's bad... Brass is keeping it under wraps, though. They say it'll all be worked out soon."

Jaques walked over to Bailey, putting her handbook away. She kept it on her persons at all time. Very professional. "We'll need to take a statement of what you witnessed"

"You're going to have to write one too, Saph." The X-Man groaned and Connors chuckled. "Comes with the badge. You know that."

Yeaaah. Yeah.

"Five malfunctions?" Bailey parroted, his mouth wide open with shock. That was a lot. Even more than the deep dark corners of the internet had assumed. "That's, like, a crazy number. Aren't you guys doing anything to try and stop them? You're just letting them continue to walk around freely? That can't be good for your PR department."

He shook his head at them, trying to imagine why they would continue to use the bots if they were like that. Yes, they were likely very helpful, they saved time and effort, they could do things that humans couldn't do, and they saved lives, but...

Actually, he could definitely understand where they were coming from.
 
However, that didn't change the fact that he was still a little tickled about being attacked for no reason. "Never mind. How do I give a statement?"

"You'll have to come down to the station, kid," Connors told him, ignoring his other questions. He didn't seem all that pleased with him, especially after Bailey had just gone around questioning them to their faces. In hindsight, it likely wasn't the best move. 

"You can write it down there," Jaques added distractedly as she examined the META smashed in the wall.

The two cavalry units had arrived, and they stood like sentries behind their human counterparts. For the most part, they were completely silent until Connors moved to pass them. One of them turned its metal head and stared at him blankly.

"You are not authorized to leave these premises." It said simply before turning its head back to stare straight ahead.

"What do you mean I'm not authorized? I'm your commanding officer!" Connors nearly exploded at the bot in anger. 

"You are not authorized to leave these premises," the bot repeated. "Stand down or further action will be taken."

"That's, like, a crazy number. Aren't you guys doing anything to try and stop them? You're just letting them continue to walk around freely? That can't be good for your PR department."

"Yeah, it ain't ideal, kid, and don't go about runnin your mouth on the subject, but figure there are thousands of these things out there... What you just saw was a rare thing, and it's not been anything the officers on the scene couldn't handle. Most people don't even know anyone that's seen one of these things glitch. This," He pointed to the bot in the wall, "Is kinda an extreme case." Jaques gave him a strange look, probably for talking so openly about this stuff. Connors waved her off.

"Never mind. How do I give a statement?"

Jaques answered, and Saph turned to talk to Connors for a second. His eyes glanced warily at the two Cavalry units. They were a little more imposing than the knights, which weren't something to shake a stick at in the first place.

He knew he shouldn't worry too much, but maybe the kid had a poi-

"You are not authorized to leave these premises."

Huh?

"What do you mean I'm not authorized? I'm your commanding officer!"

Yeah, that's right!

"You are not authorized to leave these premises, Stand down or further action will be taken."

Saph Stepped forward, edging his way in front of Connors.

"Hey, Jaques. The-The override. Can you- Say the code!" The Cavalry bot closest to him got into a dangerous looking stance.

Jaques flipped anxiously through her handbook, looking up every few pages to double check the numbers printed on the chests of the bots. "This has never happened before," she muttered under her breath. "5-3-E-T-G-4-8-9-9-Z."

The malfunctioning META turned its head to look at Jaques, but did not turn off. "Code denied. Authorization not accepted. Stand down before further action is taken."

The second bot seemed to be in the same line of thinking as the other one. It stood silently next to the other one, turning its head at each movement that any of them made. 

Bailey's hands had started to shake. The first one had been rather terrifying, but now there were two more bigger, scarier, and down right more dangerous looking ones that were not on their side, and wouldn't even listen to the police. He settled slightly as he looked at the law enforcement officials that flanked him. Surely they would know what to do, or at least get him out alive.

"You guys know what to do, right? We'll be fine? You know what you're doing."

"Kid, can you just zip it for thirty seconds, please?" Connors' face was becoming more red by the second. "I'm so sick of this," he grumbled. He pulled a com off of his belt and clicked the button on the side. "Yeah, this officer Connors. We've got two more insubordinates on Eighth. Can you get down here and bring some mor-"

Connors was cut off mid sentence as he was sent to the ground. The first cavalry unit stood with its arm straight ahead, a gun protruding from a divot in its armour.

Jaques' finger stopped flipping through her little book. "Th-that's never happened before." She managed to mumble as her face went white. Her hand moved to her com, but she instantly decided against it. She moved instead towards her gun.

Bailey had heard that the bots were customizable, but he had never heard of something like those blasts. That was definitely an add on, and one that he didn't want to tussle with.

Connors groaned and clutched at his stomach from his spot on the ground. He was in no shape to stand up, and it definitely looked like there was blood coming from his wound. Bailey's face went pale as he looked at him. If that was what happened to a well trained cop, then what would happen to him?

He desperately wanted to run, but his feet seemed glued in place. It looked like he was making the best of things as they were. Hey, maybe Connors would let him have his gun!

"This has never happened before, 5-3-E-T-G-4-8-9-9-Z." Jaques sounded nervous. She was newer, so it made some sense. To be fair, a lot of the other vets were getting nervous around these things.

"Code denied. Authorization not accepted. Stand down before further action is taken."

What. Saph stepped over to Jaques. "Hey, you readin it right? Lemme take a look." Newbies, always getting the codes wrong, right? He'd had her pegged as more competent than that, but them new kid nerves worked terrible wonders.

"You guys know what to do, right? We'll be fine? You know what you're doing."

Saph waved a hand at the kid for a second in an assuring motion, an turned to squint at the hand book. There were a lot of these things, which meant a lot of codes. Connors was speaking phoning in for back up which seemed like the best coarse of action in this situa- BLAM!

The X-Man jerked to attention as he felt the all too familiar sensation of a projectile flying through someone with his sixth sense. He spun on his axis, shocked eyes darting around to confirm exactly what his sense had told him.

"Th-that's never happened before."

His f@#%ing sentiment exactly. More than a decade of experience allowed him to jump right to action, though.

"S#*@. Jaques don't even touch your side arm. Tend to Connors. Kid- eh, Bailey, stick with her. Do anything she tells you. I'll draw their attention." He shot these sentences out in rapid succession, placing himself in the currently combatant bot's line of fire to draw it's ire.

What made all of this more difficult was that he couldn't get near the kid... His range seemed to be kinda short, but one second without his powers could mean death in this situation. He wielding his crowbar menacingly, which turned the bots toward him, weapons aimed his way. This was gonna suck.

"NOW, Jaques!" That kicked the newbie into action. She rushed toward Connors as Saph pulled the bot's attentions. A meta had just fired on a police officer. This was big. They were in real trouble.

As if to reinforce this, the Meta aimed and discharged it's weapon at him. He caught the motion in time to aim the right side of his body toward it, and abosrb the bullet into his shoulder where it stuck in his light padded armor. Ohf@$%ohf@#$ohf$@ this was escalating quickly!

((Go ahead and control Jaques through the conflict!))

Rather than go with his intincts, he stepped toward his attacker, arm out, right had covering his more fragile areas. Cavalry units typically attacked by ramming and using their bodies as weapons. He had to keep a look out for that. Until then, a swing with his crow bar would have to work.

CLANK. Absolutely nothing. The first cavalry unit gave him a smack, which he partially blocked with his ride side, but still found him stumbling back, away from Connors, where he hoped the others would end up. The other one seemed undecided on where or who it was going to engage just yet.

After the second instruction from Saphirus, Jaques moved quickly, her training taking over. She knelt next to her partner and 'uhmed' repeatedly, clearly unsure of what to do with her hands. She quickly pulled her com off of her belt and called for medical assistance, but then went back to being unsure of what to do with herself.

Bailey had followed closely behind her, keeping his eyes moving between Connors and the bot that the Masochist was attempting to take down. Things didn't look good, but he tried not to focus on it. He was an X-man, after all. He would be able to handle it.

There was a clank, followed by the sound of flesh being hit by metal. Bailey winced for the guy and tried not to watch.

Okay, he would hopefully be able to handle it.

The teen shifted his attention back to Connors and Jaques. "I think you need to put some pressure on the wound, or something," he told her, pointing to the bleeding bullet hole in his stomach.

"I know that," Jaques hissed. "But my hands are filthy. I'll give him an infection."

"Well it's better that than have him bleed out, don't you think? Why not use a shirt or something?" Bailey shrugged and stared at her. She was a cop. She was supposed to know things like that. She was likely new. "It's alright if you're nervous. We all get nervous sometimes. I remember my first day on till, I was so nervous! I didn't know if I would be good at interacting with people, but it seemed to turn out fine. I'm sure this will be fine, too."

Jaques swung her head around so that her tight braid flipped over her shoulder, and narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you daft? This is nothing like that! My partner is bleeding out in front of me and there are two angry robots trying to kill us!"

"Yeah, okay, maybe that was a bad analogy, but you get my point," Bailey shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. He did his best to ignore what was going on behind him, but it was getting more difficult. He consoled himself with the fact that there was nothing he could do anyway. He would only get in the way, and the Masochist needed his time to shine or whatever.

Jaques fell silent as she took out a notebook filled with scribbles. Bailey assumed that she was searching for what to do next, but couldn't quite be sure. 

He looked over to Connors, who was fading in and out of consciousness. "Hey," he snapped his fingers in front of the guy's face. "Can I use your gun?"

"Not a chance, kid," Connors grumbled slowly and then coughed.

"Darn," Bailey frowned. There really was nothing he could do to help. "You're sure?" A nod told him yes. "Well... Alright, but you're responsible if that-" he jerked his thumb towards Masochist "-guy dies."

He abandoned Jaques and Connors and stood up to watch the X-man instead. It was getting harder to ignore, and it seemed more interesting than watching Jaques panic. He made sure to stay the required distance away, but only the required distance. "Hey, you need any help?"

He would have fallen over laughing at Bailey's words and actions if the situation wasn't so dire. As it was, his ribs hurt. He'd absorbed most of that hit, but man, these things packed a punch.

He didn't even feel like smiling. "@#^$s sake, Jaques you have a damned med kit in your squad car! Send the kid to get it or something!" He growled as the bot. The trunk of the squad cars always had a med kit with sterilized bandages, and... A shot gun.

The scrappy mutant already had another attack his way; the transferred his crowbar to the right hand, and blocked a boot that could shatter spines. These things weren't being gentle, either. Somehow their non-fatal limitations had been removed. This wasn't a glitch. Someone wanted everyone here dead.

The X-Man saw the other bot take a step toward Bailey, and opted to cut it off, feeling a void in his sixth sense just behind him. He would have to fight both of them for now. Jaques had her hand full, Connors was out for the count, and Bailey was inexperienced and weaponless.

"Get her the med kit, kid. I can handle this." He wasn't sure if that was true.

They started their tandem attack on him. One sent a barrage of blows his way, he shielded himself, feeling the other run back into the alley to get a head start. He had it figured out. The other would jump out of the way just in time for the second to attack with a full running tackle. They worked well together. Scary. The tingling in his left side was creeping past his wrist, climbing up his arm with each blocked blow from the cavalry unit that was attacking him.

A swing bypassed one of his blocks and he flinched inward, taking enough of the impact to lose his breath for a moment. A burst of energy from his foot launched him back far enough that he could recover. Just then his opponent darted to the side, and a silver blur rocketed toward him.

Pure instinct had him ducking and lashing his hand out at foot level.

The charging META's feet lifted from under it, an it soared over the X-man, momentum sending it tumbling through toward the alley's exit, past Connors and where he'd told the kid to go, and into a car parked onto the street. The bot would climb out of the car pretty much none the worse for wear.

He had to be more careful with his energy. If he could take out Hull, he could beat an army of these damned things! The first engaged him again. He would block carefully, this time.

Jaques' face formed into a sort of 'o' shape as she was reminded of her med kit. A stupid slip up, to say the least, but Bailey figured that she was still learning the ropes and stuff.

"Yeah, go get the med kit. I'll stay with Connors," Jaques instructed with a little wave of her hand, acting as if it had been her idea all along.

Bailey rolled his eyes and stood up. The car was so far away! Plus, he had to figure out how to get there without being killed by one of the bots, and avoid stealing the X-guy's powers. How did he even get himself wrapped up in all of this?

He glanced at the ground for a brief minute before he sprinted along the pavement. He ducked quickly, narrowly avoiding a swing made by one of the bots, and passed by the Masochist. He just hoped that he had gone fast enough to not mess too much with the guy's powers. He really didn't want to have 'killing an X-man' on his conscience. Plus, he was likely the only thing keeping the three of them alive.

"You are not authorized to leave this premises," the bot repeated once again. It turned to follow Bailey as he ran, not putting down its arm. "Stand down."

"Yeah, yeah, you made that clear," Bailey muttered under his breath and he approached the cop car at top speed.

The bot shot again from its arm gun, this time at Bailey. The teen ducked behind the cop car just in time, and screamed a little. 

Why did he keep getting almost killed? He was a good guy! He hadn't done anything to anyone! Alright, maybe that one woman with the breathing thing, but otherwise he hadn't done anything to deserve the horrible treatment!

He raced around carefully and attempted to open the trunk of the car. He frowned deeply as he jiggled the handle, only to find that it wouldn't budge. "Wh-" he was cut off by another shot taken by the bot. He was forced to duck behind the car, wincing as the shot took a good chunk out of the car. 

"Jaques! It's locked!" Bailey screamed screamed from the opposite side of the car at her.

"What?"

"Locked! The car's locked!"

The bumper lights on the car went off as the remote key was clicked. Bailey let out a quick breath, only to suck it back in a moment later. The blinking lights had only made the bot angrier. More shots were being fired repeatedly, and he was forced to chose his timing very carefully. 

He kept his head low as he forced the trunk open. There, he found a med kit and.... Was that? It was! He found a shot gun!

The boy's eyes lit up as he grabbed both items from the trunk and ducked back to his hiding place. He was holding a real shot gun in his hands. He had never even held a pistol before. Being from Canada, where gun laws were much more strict, he had a difficult time even remembering seeing a gun.

Now, he had about thirty seconds to figure out how to use the thing. He stood up and held it like he remembered people holding it in first person shooters, and attempted to aim it at the bot.

The second attacker went after Bailey with little hesitation after it's missed charge. Saph cursed under his breath as the Cavalry unit in front of him began it's attack anew, flinging itself at him. He blocked with the crowbar, halting the machine's forward progress with ease. It lashed out again, aiming to take him down with a barrage of incredibly quick hammer blows; lucky for him it was attacking his right side.

A crooked grin formed on his face as he felt his inner batteries gather the energy from the attack and amplify it. "That's the spirit, buddy!" The bot paused for a second, as if it were a human, confused about why that attack hadn't worked.


The crowbar switched hands, and Saph prepared to attack in the moment of hesitation, but a tingle from his sixth sense told him the other bot was firing away at a blank spot in his sense. It was attacking Bailey! Every fiber of his being demanded that he save the kid before dealing with his own problem. The crowbar craned back, and the launched it away, pointing after it to steer it around the corner, and to where the META was standing, aiming it's gun.

It had lined up a great shot after the kid popped out with a shot gun; right between the eyes to neutralize the now armed mutant suspect.

CRJANK! It stumbled, barely maintaining its standing position as the lightning fast blur of a carefully steered crowbar smacked into it's chest armor below it's extended arm, sending several plates and a strange liquid flying about. The meta stood tall again, assessing the damage. There was now a large hole in it's front chest plate, revealing it's fragile inner processors. It was still in perfect operating condition otherwise. It continued normal operations, aiming at Bailey once more.

Meanwhile, Saph got tunnel vision whenever he steered an object in flight, which meant he couldn't see the META before him attacking until it was too late. A kick to the ribs sent him flying into the brick wall with an "OOMPH!" He fell to the ground, thankful that at least his right side hit the wall. Holy hell, though... He tried to catch his breath as the META approached him once more. Jaques cursed and aimed her gun, firing at the bot to cover him.

The bullets bounced off and deflected from it's armor, and it turned to aim it's gun at her. She pulled the trigger until the gun clicked, freezing as she saw her life flash before her eyes.

A tinny sound was heard as Saph kicked the back of it's leg, buckling it for a moment. It turned and reacted with a wide swipe, catching the winded mutant in the right shoulder. Saph grinned and used the force from that to push the bot against a dumpster.

"Alright you dysfunctional POS... Let's dance." And so began rock em sock em robots with only one robot involved.

"Yo," Bailey gasped and over-extended the 'o' sound of the word. The Masochist had sent the crowbar straight at the bot attacking him, and it went directly through its chest.

There was a clear view of the internal processor, but the bot didn't seem to be too bothered by the ordeal. It simply raised its arm again and continued to fire at Bailey.

However, the second or two it had been distracted had given Bailey the opportunity to attempt to figure out the shot gun in his hands. It was locked, loaded, and ready to go. He lifted it to shoulder height and shot it off, feeling the kickback against his shoulder.

The shot missed by a good foot or two. Instead of hitting the bot, it hit the side of the building next to it and took a good chunk out of the brick. Pieces of rubble went flying and simply bounced off the bot, not even making it turn its head.

“Crap,” Bailey scrunched up his face. The bot seemed angrier somehow after seeing him shoot off a weapon. It wasn’t like it could display facial expressions, but something in its movements suggested that it was like that.

Could bots actually feel emotions? That was definitely something to look into. Something to look into when he wasn’t GETTING SHOT AT BY A KILLER ROBOT, that was.

Bailey frantically attempted to reload the gun, and felt a swell of pride when he heard the little click that told him he was good to go. Once again he raised it and attempted to aim the thing, only that time he went a little off from where the bot was, hoping that he would manage to hit it instead of the X-dude or one of the cops.

The shotgun kickback threw him off balance, but he did his best to keep his head up to watch the outcome. To his relief, the shot hit the bot. The already exposed processor suffered a fatal blow and fizzled in his chest.

The bot swayed and toppled to the ground, making contact with the pavement with a loud, hollow thunk.

“I did it!” Bailey shouted to everyone and no one. “Didya see that? I just took down a freakin’ cavalry bot!”

“I did it! Didya see that? I just took down a freakin’ cavalry bot!”

Saphirus shook his head briefly as Bailey patted himself on the back. He had bigger problems. "THE MED KIT!" He gritted through clenched teeth as a metal fist flew in toward his face. His reflex kicked in, spinning his body to catch the blow. He played off the momentum to throw in a body shot, which had zero effect, having been thrown with the right hand.

It did give him some more energy, though. That was his focus in this fight, blocking and striking with his absorbing side until- CRANK!

He delivered an uppercut with the force of a MAC truck, taking the heavy bot off of it's feet and stretching it's neck out, breaking several connections within it. It landed, an attempted to stand, waving it's gun arm about ineffectively for a few moments before slinking into a slumped position. Saph took a deep breath, and then gave it a small shove, letting it fall to the ground.

He hobbled quickly to Connors, waiting for the kit to arrive so Jaques could stabilize him.

"Hang in there, buddy. The ambulance is on it's way."

"THE MED KIT!"

"Right." Bailey nodded and looked down at the kit at his feet. He had grabbed it before, but completely forgotten about it in favour of the giant shot gun in his hands. It was so cool! It made Connors' punny little hand gun look like a children's toy.

It sort of served Connors right for not giving Bailey the gun. He had just proved that he was both capable and responsible, and now he had done something cool! All without the cop's help.

He took one more second to admire his work there before picking up the med kit at his feet and sprinting back to where Connors, Jaques, and the Masochist were. 

However, it seemed that he did not do an excellent job of locking the gun back up before taking off. It shot off accidentally with a loud bang sent a bullet straight into the sidewalk, only inches from Bailey's awesome socks. 

"WHAT THE %#$@," Bailey yelled and dropped both of the items he was holding, causing the gun to go off a second time. The bullet travelled straight into the leg of the second META and dented its armour. The kickback from the blast shot the gun backwards on the pavement, and it only stopped when it hit the wheel of the police cruiser. The alarm on the cruiser went off right as the shot gun crashed into it.

Within about thirty seconds, the scene had gone from the basic fight sounds to the sounds a frantically swearing teenage and an aggressive car alarm.

From an outsider's (and an insider's) perspective, the entire scene was complete chaos.

Well... That went about as well as it could have. The kid even showed a fair bit of usefulne-

BLAM!

"WHAT THE %#$@,"

"Ohshi-" BLAM-PTANG! REEEEE-OOOOOOOREEEEEE-OOOOOO-REEEEOOOOO

Saph moved to cover the wounded cop and his partner as it dawned on him what was going on... He sighed as the alarm on the squad car went off loudly in his ear.

"...Really?" This little mutant anti-thesis just really couldn't have a solid moment of coolness before he shoved his foot in his own mouth, could he? Jaques stared for a moment, reached beeped the alarm, and grumbled as she successfully managed to staunch the bleeding.

"I just... @#$^ really? How do you do it?" He gave up trying to talk, and brushed past the Bailey, walking over to retrieve his trusty crowbar. It was a bit worse for wear. He would have to bend it back into shape later. Still fit in his holster, though. That was good.

As he made his way back, the ambulance arrived, and right behind them, the news vans. "@#$^... Not wolf news. I hate those @@#holes..." The medics got right to work, and the reporters tried to get in before any tape could be put up.

"Sorry," Bailey mumbled in a hushed tone. If his ears could go down, they would have. He couldn't even begin to conceive how he'd managed to screw that up so royally. All he had to do was take the med kit over, and yet he had created that horrible scene.

"Masochist!" A young, eager reporter in a blue suit pushed through the crowd. "Is it true that you purposefully provoked the META bots? And that they had to call in reinforcements to tone down your fit of rage? Is this the kind of thing that the X-men endorse these days?"

More reporters shoved each other aside to get a comment from the famous mutant, stepping wherever they could to get better footing. 

"Did you hunt down the META bots?"

"Is it true that the police had to be called in to stop you?"

"Did you kidnap that boy?"

"Who are you dating?"

The sheer amount of terrible questions flew right over Bailey's head, and he was at a loss for what to do. He carefully attempted to slide away without anyone noticing, but he was stopped by a reporter.

"Who are you? How were you involved in this?"

"I uh-" Bailey's eyes grew wide, like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Don't pester him," a cop pushed his way up to Bailey. "You need to come to the station to give a statement, kid."

Bailey nodded in relief and gladly followed the cop through the crowd. "Doesn't the X-dude have to come too?"

"Yeah, but just give him a minute," the cop grinned slyly as he watched the Masochist be grilled by reporters from the outside of the group.