It's a normal day at the base; Angel is leaning on the railing, admiring the ocean with the wind in her hair. Timothius and Liberty are playing a racing video game with Joe. Emerald is in the kitchen, taking a snack break from reading in the study. Emerald taps the com, "Anyone want anything while I'm fixing stuff in the kitchen?"

The parameter indicator informs the group of someone approaching the base (Each room has a softly blinking red light that goes off when someone enters within 100 feet of the base). The cameras show it's a little boy walking along the path that leads to the front door.

Mits had been napping face-down in one of the bedrooms, exhausted from her hectic schedule.  Her ear twitches and then she practically springs out of bed.

"YES!  Famished!...

"Proximity alert!"

She bolts for the monitors to see who's coming.

Joe's driving skill in real life is not nearly as terrible (he actually knows the brakes exist in that case).  So there has been a wildly swinging position of 'first!.... wait, wall. seventh... second-wait, other car.'

On the other hand, he somehow doubts his skill in flying space ships in video games well would translate over to reality, without some really user friendly controls or Last Starfighter like coincidences.

"What does the Stranger Danger alarm tell us, Mittens?"

Emerald acknowledges Mittens' request and begins fixing snacks for two. Then a proximity alarm, showing a little boy approaching. She coms, "Oh I recognize him. He was at the recruitment drive." She tosses a quick snack to the giant roach.

The boy looks up and straight at the camera. Then blushes and looks down. He goes to the door and seems terrified as he just... fidgets instead of knocking.

Roachface squees when Emmy feeds him.

"Lone boy," Mits answers Joe, "Elementary school age.  Too nervous to even knock.  Clearly a trap.  My guess is he's the bait at the end of an unseen tentacle connected to a giant anglerfish immune to my Spidey Sense hiding in the water nearby.  Kidding!"

Mittens scarfs a paper plate and tray full of office supplies then goes to the door.  She presses and holds the intercom button with her foot to free up her hands to work on her impromptu craft.  "If my ballet teacher could see me now..."

Mits then begins making a mask out of the paper plate using the scissors and rubber bands she found in the tray while addressing the little visitor through the intercom.

"Good morning, Mr. Phelps.  Our tech department has developed a new stealth technology so fiendishly simple that it defies all reason.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to field test the new invisibility mask prototype by infiltrating the secret base of the famous hero group, 'The Citizen's Patrol.'  Inside you will find a very hungry kitten who needs fed, a pet bug, and some children playing a racing game."

She finishes off the mask by writing, "I'm a Ninja.  You can't see me," on the face.  She then cracks open the door just enough to slide the mask out, leaves it open a crack, hurries for the kitchen, grabs a bowl, places it on the floor, plops down next to it, then begins mewing pitifully like a hungry kitten.

The boy takes the plate, looking at it confused. But, being a little boy, even as silly as the concept is, it is an abstract concept nonetheless and little boys like to pretend. He still examines it a bit before putting it on and slowly opening the door and looking around.

OOC: Posting now before going to Florida.

  "That is oddly specific and yet I still would not be surprised if it happened."

  With the Mittens Ninja Mask setup, he wonders how much of a fan of Spy from TF2 she is.  But probably not, because Spy is a jerk (granted, everyone in TF2 is a jerk).

  But he is more preoccupied with how it's now more polite to ignore a guest than greet them.  Social paradox for the guy with already questionable social skills.

Mits would likely be a fan of pyro.  Fire, and a happy outlook on life.

She smirks at Joe.  "Remind me to tell you my 'adventures' with Interpol and whatnot.  Spies are thoroughly detailed, eccentric bunch, but nowhere near as glamorous or charming as movies depict them.

"Mewmew!  Hungry, Mew!"

<Squee>"Mittens Bug left nest open,"</Squee> Roachface warns, <Squee>"Predators could get in.  Stray bug already got in.  Might try to steal our food.  Let's chase it out and close the exit."</Squee>

Emerald glances at the bug with a smile and says, <Squee>"Mittens Bug let the little one in on purpose. The little one is harmless and might become one of us. But the little one is scared, so Mittens Bug is trying to help the little one to be less scared of us. To do this... Mittens is having the little one feed HER."</Squee>

Eli did close the door. He cautiously approaches the kitchen, hugging the doorway. When he sees Mittens on the ground, he tries not to giggle. Emerald offers Eli a box of cereal. "This is her favorite."

Eli takes the box and carefully pours its contents into the bowl.

  Joe thinks this is probably the first time he's seen one of the horde of animal people he's come to know, well, act like an animal.  If even as a joke.  Though he still doubts he will suggest meowmix for Mittens unless she specifically asks for it.

  ...Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be watching the road when you-Oh god we swear he's not this bad at real driving.  Why couldn't this have been one of those car games where the point is to blow eachother up with missile launchers and robot icecream trucks?

Mittens can't help herself and laughs.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to hearing you squeak like that, Emmy.  Erm.  Meow meow McMeowmers."

When Eli starts pouring Mits' fave cereal, a custom mix of various cereals, she sits up, puts her paws up, wags her tail, arfs, pants, then buries her face in the dish to nom with more tail-wagging.  The sounds of catastrophic car collison draws her attention and she perks up and looks at the TV.

"Woof?"

Emerald giggles at Mittens commenting on Emmy's squee noises.

Eli squirms. "Um... I... here." he offers a note in Mittens and Emerald's general direction.

Emerald takes the note and reads it out loud. "Dear Citizens' Patrol, My name is Eli. I am good with electronic devices. I am very shy, but I want to help. Please let me fix something here are your base so you can see what I can do."

She looks at Eli, then looks at Mittens and shrugs. "Well there's that old fan that needs fixed..."

  Joe comments "It's okay Mittens we still like you even if you are a Dog Cat."  as he enters the <airquotes>Cheat code</airquotes> that let's your driver get out and push mangled wreck instead of respawning a new car.

  He's glad to hear about the broken fan, because it means nobody will smash something nearby just to give the nice kid something to fix.

"Aww," Mits comments, smiling endearingly at Eli upon hearing his note.

She giggles at Joe's teas and video game shenanigans.  "Guess it shows that I don't function well when over-worked and under-fed.  But hey!  Been doing much good for great justice world wide.  So I'm allowed a few barking kitten slip-ups."

She grins at Eli.  "Welcome to the clubhouse, Eli!  Thanks for playing along with my little game.  But since you asked, toolbox is over there and busted fan is over there.  I think?  I've been traveling a lot so locations of things hazy.  Help yourself.  And never mind the giant roach.  It's harmless."

The roach just halfway hides behind Emmy, antennae wiggling.  Mits stuffs her face with the rest of her breakfast and heads over to the video game group.

Liberty and Timothius giggle as Joe enters the code to make things more interesting. "How'd you do that?" Timothius asks. "You just hold L and R... I think?" Liberty answers before looking up at Joe expectantly.

"Thanks." Eli calls out to Mittens as she heads off. Little does Mittens know, Eli is an avid bug lover. He smiles at the cockroach and says, "I remember you..." He then looks at Emerald and says, "And I remember you were communicating with him. Must be nice to have a power like that. Can you tell him that I like him and think he's really neat?"

Emerald looks a little surprised but nods and says, "Sure.." she turns to the roach and says, <Squee>"This one is Eli. He says he likes you and thinks you are neat."</Squee>

Timothius sees Mittens approaching and asks, "So who was it?"

  "Hold L and mash all the face buttons in frustration." Narrators not, Face buttons = all normal buttons on the front, like masking ABC on a 3 button genesis pad. NERD TRIVIA.

  "The driver crying as Liberty laps him is new though."

"No problemo," Mits answers, waving over her shoulder, "Thanks for offerin' ta fix stuff."

She plops herself in the lazyboy and chuckles at the video game shenanigans.

"Lil boy named Eli.  Maybe 7 years old.  Super shy but wants to help.  Will fix our fan to prove himself.  Apparently here alone with no adult escort.  I'll let someone else deal with calling the cops.  Still waking up.  And half the cops in the city seem rather McGrrruff, erm, annoyed with me."

Liberty says, "Cops? Its not like kids can't just wander over to our base... But a seven-year-old, I guess, shouldn't be far from home..."

Eli calls over to the others, "My parents are waiting for me just outside your parameter detection array!"

Liberty says, "....well he TALKS like a smarty-pants."

Angel walks into the living room with slightly dishevled hair and PJ's, yawning and looking at the others. "I love our little clubhouse. And sleeping in on a weekend." she gives a tired smile to the group.

Eli can be heard working on the fan in the background.

  "I think Mittens is talking in the 'legal responsibilities' sense as opposed to 'acting normal' sense.  Is looking up his parents cellphone numbers not an option first?"

  Then their well rested benefactor walks in,  "Hi Angel, both things are true facts."

"Oh ok!  Good to hear.  What's their phone number?"

Mits taps away at her smartphone.

"Yeah, what Joe said.  Last thing we need is a bunch of kidnapping charges.  Even with video evidence to the contrary, public figures are presumed guilty even if proven innocent in the public eye.  Especially if they're mutant.  Isn't that right, smart and beautiful even after having just got up P.R. expert, Angel?"

"And yes.  Use of big words makes one sound smart."

Angel was mid-stretching, arms in air, fists clenched, chest out, when Mittens calls her out. Angel blinkblinks, frozen in that pose for a second. Then smirks as Mittens' comment sinks in. "...smart and beautiful, eh? Thanks for the compliments." Angel thinks about it. "And the answer is yes and no. As "mutants", you bunch have quite a few haters and enemies. But as the Citizen's Patrol, we have been gaining a lot of trust, prestige, and admirers. Colonel Bradley's a big name to have on our side, for instance. The point is; if you guys were mutants only, your chances of false accusations sticking would be pretty high. But you have a good number of other people on your side now. Buuuut.... better safe than sorry. That much, you won't hear me argue about. Just want you all to not have a heart attack over every little potential problem."

Liberty kicks her legs and says, "Wouldn't a couple of kids on the stand, including the so-called 'victim' be enough anyway? We have video evidence, both inside our club and outside of it."

Angel nods, "I would see to it the public saw the video recordings of you bunch playing video games and Eli offering help."

Eli can be heard saying, "Huh... well that was your problem..." more working sounds ensue.

  "I keep trying that Mittens, but with me I only end up looking needlessly verbose."

  He nods to Angel,  "Yeah, our job is literally to help little old ladies cross the street... We just keep ending up dealing with B movie monsters instead."  Coming soon knowing their luck, attack of the 50 foot grandma!

"You're welcome," Mits answers Angel, "And thanks for the assurances.  If I had a dollar for every accusatory question I've been asked in interviews, I'd be rich.  So I've become a tad paranoid about appearances."

Mits idly wonders about the pneumatic impact wrench and power drill sounds coming from Eli's direction.  Where was he hiding such large, noisy tools on his person?  Or is her imagination exaggerating again?

To Joe she comments, "Ironic considering it takes more words to get across the same ideas when one avoids big words.  Instead of 'verbose,' one word, you could have said 'using a lot of words,' five words.

"But on the topic of being crossing guards, it is becoming more official that our job is to deal with the godzillas.  Who of course only rampage because our group exists according to some articles.  But Angel's right.  According to the polls, the vast majority believes that the Citizen's Patrol can do no wrong and you're an unpatriotic conspiracy nut if you dare question them."