A certain New York dwelling giant cockroach was in a strikingly normal mood on this present day, which for him meant the exact opposite of normal. He, like always, felt like doing something huge and grandiose for not reason whatsoever. Also, it had to be devious and evil. It had been way to long since there was a headline about something horrible he'd done, way too long indeed!

So, what would he do? He'd spent hours doing nothing but pondering on that subject, which was the exact opposite of what he'd set out to do in the first place! The big ol' bug reached a shaky hand down to grab his cup of joe; he'd been doing his brainstorming in a coffee shop, and five hours in a coffee shop meant a lot of the AMAZING LIQUID NOURISHMENT would be consumed, right?

He set the now empty cup next to several other similarly drained vessels. Nope. He had nuthin. He let out a loud sigh, barked at the person next to him loudly like a dog, and took a nice glance around the room as the person who he'd barked at left quickly for some reason.

And that was when it caught his compound eyes. A simple little flier with a lot of colorful pictures on it... SOMEONE WAS STARTING UP A GLEE CLUB!!!

...

...

Wait, no, it was the flier next to that one. He skimmed it quickly, and read maybe four or five words. Reading wasn't meant to happen after the fifth cup of Joe.The gist was this: someone was holding a human auction of a sort at the mansion that Russian lady had steered him to! Without caring to read the date, the details, or anything else, he jumped up, clicked his heels, turned for the exit, paused, walked to the counter, ordered another cup of coffee, waited for it, grabbed the tip jar, cursed at the nice man behind the counter, and walked out of the store!

That small sane part in the back of his mind was settled down with a bowl of mental popcorn, content that today was going to be an eventful day.

His eyes closed tightly and then he opened them quickly. He was trying to catch the people around him doing something different. However, people were just milling around and playing, nothing really too interesting was happening. The boy’s brown hair once again fell in his face, and he had to shake his head to get it out of his eyes. The boy’s bright eyes moved around, as he looked perhaps for an isolated place.

The only area he really could find was near the entrance to the mansion, where he sat down slowly. He was on the steps at the moment. The boy wore a pair of regular Levi jeans, that seemed to be only held up by a rather tight belt. His shirt was long, and the t-shirt sleeves were actually almost down the full of his arm. The collar of the shirt was skewed to the side, so his shoulder could be seen a little bit. A backpack was also on him, the thing that he really needed to have with him.

His backpack had the Leggo that he needed to build his things. He loved Leggo, and building things with the Leggo was his new interest. He took out his kit: A plastic container with the leggo all sorted by what it was inside. He smiled slightly at the pieces of Leggo in there, and then took some out as he started to build a little car.

There wasn’t really too much that was bothering him at the moment, he actually felt pretty comfortable for once. Smiling at the Leggo’s he started with the red, and then moved on to using the blue blocks. Red and blue were cool colors. He even had special black blocks that he also added on. The best part was that no one was interrupting his Leggo times.

Gregory had a lot of things bothering him at the moment! First off, he'd needed a large trunk for his master plan to succeed. This had lead to a two hour long trek through the city until he saw an antique shop with a sizable travel trunk. Second off, he didn't want to spend any of his money, so he had to eat the shop owner. Actually, he enjoyed that, but it made him very full, which he didn't enjoy in the least!

At least he'd gotten the shop owner's ID out of the deal. He would need that as well. From then on, the rest of his plan was tip top and devoid of scurvy. He would abscond from his current buffet/murder scene, and travel to the mansion via taxi, on the way getting a nice uneducated rabble voice and caricature worked out. The somewhat lengthy drive gave him time to perfect his plan, and it was super devious! By the time he made it to the mansion's front gate, he'd forgotten most of it.

Oh well. Plans sucked anyway.

The horror story creature stood at the front gate for a moment, his rather large luggage box held easily in one hand. He reached down to the comm, and pressed the button. Without putting much thought into it, he simply said the following. "Hi. I'm a mutant. Lemme in. I gotta avoid prosecution and such."

He was immediately let in, and someone came to greet him. He game them the old man's ID, and explained that he used to look like that, and the person was instantly sympathetic. Wow. That was easy. He just asked and they would give him a place to live? What wouldn't they give away?!

Suckers. Next time he would come wearing a different hat, and ask for all of their toasters.... What would he do with a house full of toasters, though? Toast stuff, probably. He walked on past some kid, and pondered the repercussions of getting a running start and kicking him... The mansion people might not like that.

My god, he had no hat! While his pink skinned greeter wasn't looking he place a vase onto his head. Good, this would do perfectly. Now, he pulled the flier from his shell compartment, and pointed behind the person showing him the way, screaming. "FIRE!" He then skittered off real fast, and soon lost his would be tour guide. From there, it became a fun little game. A people scavenger hunt! All he needed to do was find one of the people on this list, buy em, and get on out!

He opened one door. No one.

He opened another. A neked person.

He opened one more. Another neked person. Maybe it wasn't smart to search around the gym showers.

In only a few minutes he gave up, and made his way to the front door, sighing. He'd really been looking forward to buying someone and making them do silly things, like reenacting scenes from Monty Python's holy grail, or coming to terms with their own death at the hands of a giant cockroach. A little more skittering, and he came to a seat on the mansion's front porch. Well, maybe this wouldn't be a complete bust. He could still kick that kid and run off. His compound eyed wandered on over to the child, and then his antennae twitched, causing the vase to fall and his the ground.

My oh my, what had we here? He glanced down to the paper in his hand, and up to the kid again.

BINGO!

"Hah! You there, pink skinned child! Come to me! I have candy!" He reached into his shell and pulled out a piece of butterscotch, pilfered from the old man at the antique shop."You and I must speak!" He wiggled the candy about in front of him, his middle set of hands tinkered about in excitement.

He fiddled with a green block, toying with the idea of adding it onto his car, when he saw a man come forward. Well…it was something. He wasn’t sure whether the cockroach was a man or a woman, but Michael was getting used to seeing weird-looking people. Someone at the auction had a rather odd snake’s tail. So, Michael just accepted it and turned back to his work. The car was getting a bit more elaborate as well.

All while the cockroach man was in the mansion, Michael worked on this car, and then noticed that the man was coming back out again. His leggo pieces were almost gone, but he added what he could onto the cool-shaped car. Although, the colors were the interesting part. They made a really cool pattern, and gave the car something like racing stripes. He heard this cockroach man call to him, and his head perked.

He looked around, to be sure that he was the person being called and frowned a little bit. Well…they let him into the mansion, and Kat said that everyone in the mansion was nice, so he didn’t have to hide from them. He took a breath and put his precious car in his bag, along with the rest of his lego pieces, and the kit went in separately.

He made his way over to the cockroach man, blinking a little bit as he stared at the candy. He did like candy, since he had never gotten very much of it. Junk food he got a lot. But candy? Candy was the best thing in the world. “W…we have to talk?”

"Yes! Yes we do! Take the candy minuscule one, it is a gift!" The Roach skittered on over to the boy, looking down at his legos for a moment. Quaint. It was a car, and it even had a little stripe. He wondered if he could fit in his mouth. Maybe it would taste like a car. He was pretty sure that wasn't how it worked, but the thought was entertaining. Honestly, it would probably taste like plastic, but he didn't mind the taste of plastic. It reminded him of the lovely tang lead paint had. Of course, it wa- No!

Not important! His mind had to be on the task at hand! "Young man. Have you all of your teeth? Are all of your digits in tact? Have you fed recently? Do you have to go to the bathroom? What are your insights on Keplers laws of planetary motion? So you like pie or cake more?"

He eyed the boy from all directions, examining him as he spoke, answering a few of the questions right off the bat. His fingers seemed to be all there. Though one of his hands... was... tastier looking. It was a shame he was so full. His antennae twitched thoughtfully as he nodded a little, and then opened up his trunk, digging through it quickly. "Tell me about yourself. Not in too many words, though, I don't like a lot of words when it comes to property. My alarm clock doesn't speak much, neither should you." My oh my, was he getting ahead of himself a little. He reminded himself to reel it in a little. From the chest he retrieved a jar of change, with a few dollar bills in it as well. On it was a nice little bedazzled slip of paper that said 'Please leave a tip!'

He held it up proudly, and then began looking around for someone to give it to.

Michael hugged his backpack tight to him, and he looked up slightly at this cockroach man. He said nothing for a long while, merely letting this man-bug speak. After all, he was saying a lot of things. He frowned as he went back and tried to figure out what was actually being said. He didn’t know what half the words were, or what a planetary…thing was. Something about a law of a planet. He looked into his bag with the leggo and zipped it up tightly, that way nothing would fall. Then he attemted to speak. He didn’t know what digits were, so he did a lot of estimating.

“I…I’m nine and my teeth are still little…Um..” He looked at the candy now in his hands and fiddled with it awkwardly. What else did he ask again? Oh yeah. “I had…I had food this morning, and I don’t think I haveta to pee or anything.” However, he stopped for a moment when he realized that the man-bug was talking about an alarm clock. The conversation certainly moved faster than he had anticipated it would. Michael looked at his feet, and wriggled them together a little bit, his brown hair falling over his face again.

There weren’t any places in the rest of his talking that Michael felt like he could intervene, but after a small stretch of time, he did ask a question. “What…what are you doing?” He didn’t normally hold conversations for this long, so he was being pretty brave, but it also meant that he had no idea if this was a normal conversation or not. When he talked to Sam the conversation seemed to be different, though. Sam spoke to him a lot, and Michael responded pretty well, because he knew what to say. He didn’t know what to say here at all.

“I…I kind of like cake a little bit maybe…” He said it quietly, just trying to fill up a conversation. After all, a conversation had to take place between people, not with oneself.

The Giant Roach half listened as the boy struggled to answer his questions. It was clear he wasn't a social flower by any means; the kid didn't seem to have a grasp on quick conversations... Oh well, he didn't want him to talk. He wanted him to dress like a chicken and be his villainous sidekick of doom, or jump from something really high. He couldn't remember which of the two was more appealing to him. It didn't matter, though. "No love for Kepler? How unsatisfying."

The bug transferred the jar of jingly coins and green paper to his smaller middle set of arms, and turned to the boy once more as he asked what he was doing. "What am I doing? Simple, my boy, I am procuring payment. Isn't that obvious?"

He turned back to his chest for a moment, and the child finally answered the last, and most important question

.“I…I kind of like cake a little bit maybe…”

It was timid, but alas, the answer what the one he wanted. "Of course, child! Pie is for Cretans and weak minded fools who cannot comprehend the simplicity of baking a mixture, and covering it in some sort of frosting! Now, you are going to stay still, and I am going to take you and place you into my chest, because yo are now one of my belongings. Alright?" And with that, he reached out to grab the kid, stuff him into the large trunk, and close it. He then looked about. He certainly couldn't leave without paying, right?

The person who was showing him around earlier came through the front door, and smiled widely. "There you are! We have to get you signed in." the nice woman said. The giant cockroach grabbed the tip jar from his middle set of hands, reached back, and flung it at the person's face.
"This is my payment in full!"

Without turning back to see if the coin jar had hit(though a loud shattering and screaming hinted that it did), he placed the trunk over his shoulder, and skittered off quickly.

The kid would probably experience lots of shaking, and movement, and the next time the vessel opened, it would be...

Next to a table in a coffee shop? The Roach was sitting at one of the seats, his legs crossed, with a small cup in his hand. "You may exit the trunk, boy. Have a seat."

Michael was rather confused at this point. The giant bug man was supposed to be nice, right? And he’d gotten a bit of candy from the giant bug as well. So why was it the bug-man decided to put him in a box? Michael wasn’t thinking about the consequences of such a thing at first, he was thinking about what made the bug-man get all upset to shove him in here. He looked at his own piece of toffee as the boy was carried through the air in such a trunk.

Michael’s eyes closed tightly, and he tried to not get scared by all the shaking and jostling of this container. Gulping, Michael held himself, curled up in a tight little ball. This was starting to get a bit scary. He slowly moved forward. Just a little bit, and he slammed his head into the front of the trunk. So he decided against doing that again, and just stayed tightly to the back.

Soon, they came to a stop, and the trunk opened to reveal some kind of coffee shop. The bug-man invited him to get out of the trunk, and instead, he just kind of peeked out. He didn’t feel a need to get out fully, because he was kind of freaked out, and afraid other people would see her. The boy looked down at the floor a little bit, and he tried to figure out whether or not it was wise to go anywhere near the bug-man again.

The kid had yet to leave his former transportation unit, and the giant bug supposed he understood why. Perhaps it struck the child a bit odd that he'd been purchased in such a rapid manner? He had been a bit abrasive perhaps, but he was a busy bug; it wasn't like he didn't have other things to do with his day.

Normally people would begin to stare at this point. They didn't. That was nothing new, really, but around this area, they had learned to mind their own business, if they knew what was good for them. He was, after all, in order territory. The boy peeked out at him just a little, and he was reminded of a nervous puppy arriving in a new home. D'awww... His antennae perked up as he glanced up in thought. The shy look would have made him hungry if it weren't for the fact that he'd eaten that store owner earlier. It was about time for a snack, though. That thought pulled him from his musings. He looked to the child once more.

"Don't be shy, pink skinned one. You must be famished from such a perilous journey. Surely you wouldn't mind a drink, and something to nibble on?" He motioned to the seat once more. Because of his status in this area, the boy might be comforted by the fact that not a single person would dare look their way for too long. In fact, most of the non-mutant customers were in the process of making themselves scarce.

"Tell me, little one, what services do you provide, as property and such? What do you do that is... special?" He leaned back and grabbed his coffee cup as he asked the question, tilting his head up toward the ceiling in thought once more. He really hoped this child would be worth what he'd spent; he really didn't know what this kid could do. Gregory gave himself a mental slap on the wrist for spending without thinking; even he had to splurge some times, though, didn't he?

He looked up at the giant Roach as he was spoken to. A pink skinned one. He hadn’t ever heard anyone call him that before, but then again, he could understand it. It was logical because this Roach Man probably saw him as something weird...and himself a normal. Michael looked around at his little containment box and then he started to move into the area. Those around the cafe seemed to make a mass exodus, although one person thought to call the police as they left and report that a little child was crawling out of a suitcase, though they didn’t stick around for the real conversation to be heard.

He moved and sat on one of the chairs in front of the table and looked at it. There was some water on the surface, and so he started to nibble it a little bit on the glass as he sipped it. Things here were definitely different from in Maine. Exploring the city had never been a primary objective for him. He survived on figuring out how to talk to people, and how to interact with them in an appropriate way. The first few days, Michael had just kind of looked at people with a funny expression for a brief moment before he ignored them when he decided he didn’t like them.

This time, he was making an honest effort. He might not like the person in front of him. No he as scared of him, and the Roach seemed to be giving him eyes of some sort. It would make sense, seeing as he had many. Michael didn’t really know what to say to the man towards the proposition of food. There wasn’t any food there at all in front of him. Instead, he stayed silent until the matter of what he could do was addressed.

What should he say to that? Did he mean...oh...lots of people said something like that when the matter of his mutation came up. He looked at his gloved hand, and then he looked at the smooth surface of the table as he spoke. “Sometimes...I make things explode.”

This kid was strange. That was okay. Roach liked strange; he could identify with strange. The shyness wasn't so great, but he was a giant cockroach, so he could tolerate it. That was, after all, what cockroaches did best.

Besides, he could probably just beat it out of him or something, right? The roach reached a tiny chest hand up to grab his chin in thought, lifting the coffee to his face and sipping with one of his larger ones. "Well, now. Shall we go over our contract? I do believe it pertinent that we should get the small details out of the way before we proceed. After all, we are going to be getting rather familiar with each other." The roach uncrossed his legs, sitting up and setting his coffee cup down before reaching back into his shell, and producing a folded up flier.

He set it on the table, and fished out his monocle, which was really just for looks, he could see perfectly fine. "According to this binding document, I have purchased you..."... wait, what was it the piece of paper said?

Oh dear. It was an auction, yes, but... for a date and nothing more?! Oh dear in deed!

He looked down at the flier, up to the kid, down once more, and then tossed the flier to the side.

"Did I say purchased? How foolish of me. I meant... Befriended you! Yes, of course, you and I are now the best of friends. And... Friends often put friends in large chests and carry them to coffee shops such as this as a bonding experience. Yes. That is what we are doing here. Bonding. So... Hi."

The roach awkwardly sat the for a moment, and then reached a slightly shaky hand to his coffee cup, jamming it into his maw, and draining the whole things.