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Valerie cleared her throat and dug into her briefcase, pulling out what seemed to be a small, leather portfolio. She unhooked the clasp and cracked it open. At the very top, perhaps the only picture of Chase, in his natural form, in existence. This was his file. The file contained his most recent history.

"We were introduced to the Chase in March of this year," Valerie began, folding one leg over the other as she skimmed her case study, "He was found by police, on a highway, about twenty miles outside of Syracuse. He'd been gone for about six hours, when w called the Townsend household, and they hadn't even known he was gone. This gave us probable cause to open-up an investigation."

Valerie glanced at the Townsends, at the detective, then at Miss Taylor, before looking back down at her notes.

"In our investigation, we learned that what initially drive Chase to runaway was an altercation with an older boy at school," Valerie recited, keeping her voice cool and professional, "The kid pulled a box cutter on him, he un-shifted, and consequently was pulled out of school because of the anti-mutant community."

"Also, through this investigation, we found evidence of a neglectful and abusive home environment. It have us enough reason for us to remove him from his home."

Valerie lifted her gaze towards the Townsend, who were passively keeping silent, as if emotionless statues. Valerie then looked towards Gemma.

"Questions, so far?"

===//////===

Chase and Big League stood at the base of the building, heads craned towards the second floor. The curtains were drawn so that light filtered in, but the occupants of the living room couldn't see out.

"Are you sure about this?" Chase murmured, "You aren't gonna drop me, are you?"

"Relax, I can hold ya, no problem. Long as ya don't squirm. Come on."

Chase uncertainly hugged up against Big League, frowning faintly.

"Man, you're gonna break my ribs with that death-grip. Trust me, okay?"

"Just go, Bee."

Big League shrugged, blew one of his bubbles, and the two boys began floating towards the second story. Chase closed his eyes tightly. The two of them made it to the section of roof between the first two floors, touching-down smoothly.

"There, we made it," Big League announced, "You can open your eyes now."

Chase released his friend, looking around, "So, what's the plan of attack?"

Big League hummed, "Peek in, see what we can see. See if we can hear anything. Sound like a deal?"

Chase nodded. The two boys began creeping across the roof.

The group filtered inside in a quiet an orderly fashion. It was a good deal more placid than Valerie had expected. With a school full of children, be they human or mutant, it should've been louder. But, in the distance, she could hear the chattering of kids in the distance. Good, so they'd cleared the area for the meeting.

Valerie followed Miss Taylor into the living room, which she'd done-up to look rather nice. Casual drinks such as tea and coffee, finger foods-- Valerie sighed faintly... damn, too bad she was here on official business. It was a lovely gesture, much-appreciated by the social worker, but... shoot, she had to be professional. Perhaps, when the official business was done, she'd indulge and let herself have something to eat. That is, if they were still on friendly enough terms that she would be welcome to eat something.

Valerie took her seat in a single-seater lounge chair, sitting on the cusion's edge. The attorney, and Mr. and Mrs. Townsend, sat on a couch. Valerie glanced towards Detective Cervantes, to see if he was ready, and then towards Miss Taylor. Miss Taylor gave her a nod.

Valerie pulled out a small voice recorder, and set it on the arm of the chair for everyone to see, lest she need it for later. She hit the record button, rattled off the date and the time, her full name, her location, and had all of the others who were present speak for themselves. She was just covering her back, lest someone (such as Mr. Evans or his employers) tried to twist her words into something else.

"We're here to talk about the custody of Thaddeus Chase Townsend," Valerie explained, for the sake of the recording, "In the hopes of reaching a compromise on a living situation that is beneficial to the child--" in other words, finding a place for him to stay, a place from which he wouldn't runaway. Now done with the official introduction, Valerie turned her gaze towards Miss Taylor.

"Now, Miss Taylor, to fully explain Chase's situation, I will explain what we've gathered on his case," Valerie informed her, "His background leading up to our finding him, and what we came to determine in his case before he ran, and our potential courses of action-- background, problem, possible solutions. Sound good?"

She waited for Gemma to answer, before looking towards the Townsends and their attorney.

"Sound good?"

She recieved a chorus of affirmatives.

===//////===

Thirty Minutes Prior, The Grounds

There had to have been at least a half-a-dozen younger kids up in the tree, two of whom were Big League and Chase. They were pretending to be monkeys, which they would've frankly told any passerby, and doing a rather convincing job of it. Chase was up quiet high, on one of the highest branches possible, looking down at his cohorts in silent bravery.

"Guys, did ya hear?" Big League shouted, chewing his gum loudly, "They got some top-secret-agent stuff goin' on upstairs. I heard it from a big kids today."

"Naw, Bee, you're kidding us!"

"Yeah, secret agent stuff, my pants! Everyone knows they have that sort of thing downstairs in the basement."

"No, I'm telling you the truth, guys!" Big League protested, "That's why they closed it off! 'cuz of the top-secret stuff!"

There was a chorus of complaints and skeptic groans. Big League and all his crazy talk.

"I'll prove it! I'll show you," Big League grumbled, "We can spy on the spies, and then you'll see. Who's with me!"

"I'll help spy," Chase agreed quietly, waving his hand. He could change his appearance, which sounded like a useful skill for spying.

"You can be my second-in-command," Big League announced, "Who else is in?"

The other kids groaned, no one stepped up. Big League gestured for Chase to follow as he began his descent, "You're all a bunch'a party poopers. Come on, Chase. We can use one of my bubbles to float up and take a peek. No one'll even know we're there."

Chase nodded. They clambered down, and hopped out of the tree together when they reached the lowest branch. Chase followed Big League towards the school

>> “That’d be a crying shame.”

“Indeed,” Valerie agreed, mimicking the detective’s tone. She liked this guy already. She watched as the calvary arrived and hiked up the hill towards Xavier’s. The introductions went well-enough, and were nothing short of expected when it came to how they addressed Valerie. With a good deal more staidness about him, the Detective greeted—

>> “Afternoon. I’m Detective Cervantes. I’ll be mediating this meeting.”

Valerie smiled placidly. Good thing he had left out the Mutant-Related Crimes bit. Even if he was an unbiased mediator, if he was in the MRC, the Townsends would have immediately assumed that he was a sympathizer. They were a good deal more civil when they made their acquaintance to Detective Cervantes.

“Detective Cervantes,” Mr. Townsend greeted, “My name is Lawrence, Lawrence Townsend. And this is my wife, Stella. Our attorney, Mr. Michael Evans.”

“Hello,” Stella greeted softly, while Mr. Evans gave a curt nod. Valerie rolled her lips together impatiently, Brown-nosers.

It had to have been divine intervention when Miss Taylor opened the door to Xavier’s and announced herself. Valerie turned, wearing a smile. The parents looked uneasy.

>> “Welcome to Xavier’s School. My name is Gemma Taylor, I am the school’s guidance counselor. Thank you all for coming, it is our pleasure to have you here. Please, come in…”

Valerie led the pack, climbing the stair assuredly with the detective and company in-tow. The Townsends kept close to Detective Cervantes, looking as if they were marching to their death, and Mr. Evans followed them, expressionless.

Once to the top of the staircase, Valerie stopped before Miss Taylor, extending her hand for a handshake.

“Miss Taylor, Valerie Skinner—so nice to finally meet you.”

Once Big League had finished rambling about his family, he shifted gears to a different topic of conversation.

"So, hey, are you almost done with your tour?" Big League demanded, "Because there aren't a lot of kids my age around here and I'd love to play a game or something. Would you play a game with me? Can you? We can play anything you want. Anyways, tours are boring."

Chase blinked, and nodded, "I should ask them first."

He wasn't too sure how to ask such a thing, though. He meandered back to Aedus and Agnes. They seemed to be locked in conversation, so Chase waited patiently for them to stop. It was his habit to ask if he could play... shades of a child asking their parents the very same question. He didn't catch any of their conversation, but assumed it was very important, and they were glancing towards him as they spoke.

"Big League wants to go play," Chase explained softly, "Can I?"

>> "I turned seventeen in August."

"Wow, seventeen," Chase mused, his eyes widening, "You're... nine years older than me! That's a lot of years old."

>> "Almost out of the single digits. Looking forwards to your birthday?"

Chase grinned and shrugged, keeping pace with the older boy. While age was a big deal and something to boast about, birthday's had never been so important to him. Any celebration of Chase's birthday had really been focused on his twin brother, Russell, while Chase was just sort of there. He'd learned not to get too excited about birthdays.

And, now that he was staying at a school with so many other kids, he figured that birthdays were even less of a big deal.

"I guess," Chase hummed, as the two of them continued down the sidewalk. Who knew, maybe Miss Gemma would help him make a cake.

Another car came up the drive and parked beside her own. This car was not one that had been in her caravan, thus Valerie watched the approaching man closely, surveying his appearance as he approached. Dark eyes, salt-and-pepper hair, relatively tall. Valerie was about an inch shorter than him in her wedges. He was either a visitor, or the police officer that was keeping an eye on them.

>> “Afternoon-- Ms…Skinner, I take it?”

Yup, it was the police officer. Hopefully he wasn't a hard-ass. That was the last thing she needed. A no-nonsense cop to go with the pushy lawyer. Valerie smile and replied, "Please, call me Valerie."

>> “Detective Jorge Cervantes, MRC.”

"It's a pleasure, Detective," Valerie replied. Okay, he seemed chill enough. The detective offered his badge for Valerie to read, which she surveyed casually. The detective had a legitimate badge, too. Good to see. A casual smile touched her face. They'd have to kill time until the rest of the entourage turned up.

"Mr. and Mrs. Townsend, the parents, and their attorney, Mr. Evans, will join us shortly," she informed Detective Cervantes, "I'm afraid that they aren't accustomed to the city traffic, so I might have unfortunately lost track of them on the way over." She continued to smile wanly. Accidentally. Right.

Contrary to popular belief, she was on the Chase's side. She wanted what was best for him, and was totally sold on the pro-mutant, let's-send-him-to-Xavier's mentality. But, Mr. and Mrs. Townsend were very powerful, and there all these technicalities and legalities, and a bunch of hoops to hop through. It was all very befuddling. Valerie had to go through the motions, especially when it came to such high-earning people as Mr. and Mrs. Townsend. In fact, the only true purpose of their pressence today was to make sure Valerie didn't say anything she wasn't supposed to. And, if things turned out the way that Valerie hoped that they would today, for consent.

Speaking of the devils, two more cars wound up the drive, joining Valerie's and the Detective's vehicles. Valerie sighed and adopted a more professional posture. The first one to get out was a short, wiry man with straight, black hair and a sharp face.

"Mr. Evans," Valerie informed the Detective, "The lawyer."

From the second car emerged a couple of people, a man and woman. The woman was a lank, auburn-haired woman with a pretty face. The man had short, thinning blonde hair and an attractive, nordic features and a fairly muscular build.

"Mr. and Mrs. Townsend," Valerie rattled, "The parents."

The trio came up the hill together, and paused at the base of the steps hesitantly. Valerie donned a warm smile, inclining her head.

"Mr. and Mrs. Townsend, Mr. Evans," she greeted. They were well-acquainted, she didn't need to introduce herself, "Good afternoon."

"Hello, Ms. Skinner," they chorused. Mr. and Mrs. Townsend had managed a fake polite tone, the attorney sounded sarcastically polite. Yeah, they didn't get to call her Valerie.

>> "So Chase, how old are you?"

Chase kept pace with Locke, and gave a proud, "Eight-and-three-quarters. I'll be nine in January."

Three-quarters made a big difference to Chase, probably more of a difference than it did to Locke. The next door they came to had a bowl out front, blatantly declaring to only take one piece of candy. Chase did as instructed, combing through the candy with his eyes, before picking out an identical Tootsie Roll and depositing it into his own bag.

"How old are you?" Chase returned the question, still trotting about excitedly.