"Since when is the ability to teleport anything 'common'." Darren asked dryly as he patted Valerie's shoulder before letting her go.

Chunk chuckled as he continued to look at Darren a long moment. "Sir, you are an orphan correct? You never knew your family at all."

Darren frowned. "No, I never knew them. I was a baby when I was taken in by the House. Why?"

"Well. From what lil I heard of that guys speech and from what I've heard of your voice now, they are very similar. On top of that-" He raised one hand to block the upper portion of Darren's face. "You have very similar jaws and mouths. Now given that all of this seems tied to the Gray house, I'm thinking you had a brother. Or I'm guessin' I should say, you have one in the current tense."

"What? But you have no evidence of that, and I'm static-"

"True, but not all siblings share bio-dynamism. But consider this, you are static, but a whole lotta folks at that restaurant weren't after that blast. Now I'm thinkin' that maybe miss Gray over there shielded you somehow. But I'm also thinkin' it might be possible you can't be bio-dynamic because whatever weird stuff going on with this armored guy has also made you immune."

Charlotte lowered an eyebrow, "So what exactly are you saying? Darren has a secret brother and because they're related he'd... not react to his C-K, because... brothers?"

"Something like that!" Chunk laughed and clapped a hand onto Darren's shoulder and then did not let go of the man. "I'm not one of the lab boys, but I'm seeing certain parallels too after all. Old Chunk ain't blind. I'm thinking you are just as connected to all this business as Miss Gray or Majora here. Which is unfortunate as you are at a much higher risk then they are given your bio-static status."

"I appreciate your concern but I do not think I am as nearly endangered-"

"This is the second appearance of that guy tonight and you've been at the center of it both times." Chunk still didn't let go.

Charlotte wasn't happy, but this situation wasn't un-salvageable yet.

Yet.

"So he's getting taken into protective custody, then? I'm ... not quite trusting of the custody of the B.B.R.T. just yet. Is it all right if I tag along to make sure that he isn't put in a ox with no air holes?"

Well, to be fair, he'd get treated better than she would. Darren was special. Darren was human.

Chunk grimaced at Charlotte. "No offense Miss Gray, but if my theory is wrong then that will be putting a civilian in direct harms way. That weirdo has come after you and Majora twice tonight as well. If Mr Gray here has no connection then he will be safest with us. If you are around there may be a third encounter. If you are not around and their is a third encounter then that will be very telling."

"Look, I'd really like to go home-" Darren tried to weasel his way out of this but Chunk shook his head.

"I'm sorry sir, this is not up for debate, I need you to come with us for your own saftey. Bio-static individuals getting mixed up in all this hero nonsense is very dangerous. Even more so if you bring some kind of dangerous CK radiation home to your family."

"...." Darren pursed his lips. "Well...I can't say no can I?"

"Nope."

Charlotte crossed her arms, "So you're just going to disappear him to some secret government lab for observation and I'm just supposed to be okay with that? And who's the civilian here? I went through all the training they could throw at me. I'm not just some Mary-jo fresh off the hamburger beat. I might be new at this hero thing, but I'm still in the club, I earned my stripes for eleven years, sir, and I earned them doing exactly what you do."

She squinted at Chunk, looking him up and down,"And I'm pretty sure we both know where your super-juice came from, mister. So before you start trying to pull rank with me you need to remember that I was a member of the kill team back before they were calling us Brats, so just remember what surgical horrors might be in YOUR future before you throw dirt at me for thinking I might be owed something like some goddamn courtesy."

She was not okay with where a lot of this was going, no sir.

Chunks smile faded. "What are you talking about? I was empowered via an experimental serum that killed nearly everyone involved with it." He ignored the rest of her argument about how much of a civilian she was, he knew she was kill team back in the day before she got boxed for whatever crime she committed. IT just proved his point you couldn't take any old person and expect them to succeed at what they did. She hadn't had the condition or training going in at all. What kind of soldier did that make?

Charlotte's mouth gaped. She couldn't believe it, well.. she could believe it, but it was just as awful as she expected them to be now, "Oh my god they never told you? They cut that crap out of me to put into you. I'm, like, a ninety times organ donor. When they decided that I was more useful as an organ far than as a field asset, assholes like him", she pointed very clearly at a flinching Book,"... decided to double-jeopardy me into medical torture prison for the crime I had already worked off."

She shook her head, ready to spit at Book for everything he represented, "And of course they don't tell you where you got your new kidneys or whatever from. Since then you might get the idea about what's going to happen to you once you develop an interesting enough ability. Snip Snip."

Chunk's lips tightened. "I assigned onto a empowering program, the means used to do so are not of my control." He'd thought it had been some serum they'd given him that caused is kidney's to fail. The process had had such a high lethality after all.
"As for the civilian, he is." He squeezed Darren's shoulder. "And his saftey is paramount in this situation until it is determined if the target is in fact interested in him. Keeping him at the compound not only keeps him safe, but it keeps those around him, family,friends, neighbors, safer as well. It has been determined that both you and Majora should remain in the field  but limit yourself to designated combat areas as well as your home."

Charlotte took about an hour to have a fit and think of a plan. In the end she didn't have enough information, so she had half a plan and a couple questions.

She sighed, "Fiiiinnnnne. How long is he in protective custody? His kid is still at the Babysitters. I'll play nice and stay in my designated areas, but I'd still like to be able to communicate with Darren, just to make sure that he's not under any duress."

"A few days at most." Chunk shrugged. "But that is not really my jurisdiction. The sooner we catch the Target the sooner you can go back to your daily lives. He will be kept in a fully furnished safe zone so you will be able to communicate via phone at his leisure. As for the child-"

Darren tensed noticeably.

"I will have protective services pick her up and she can-"
"Stay the fuck away from my kid." Darren spat sharply. "She can stay with her babysitter."

Chunk raised an eyebrow.

Charlotte turned her eyes to Darren, "Do.. you want me around her? I can keep an eye on her for you while you ... oh my goodness."

An Idea had occurred that might save Darren, "Is your work going to be okay with you going missing?"

"Probably not, but they-" he motioned his head towards the BRATS, "Already know that."

"This is for your own saftey Sir." Chunk insisted. "If you have a caretaker in line for your child, that is fine. You will also be able to communicate with her and anyone else you'd like to call freely." Chunk had yet to let go of Darren's shoulder all the meanwhile. He clearly had his orders.

"It's ok." Darren looked to Charlotte. "They won't hurt me. They wouldn't gain anything from that. I'm sorry this is how tonight is ending, I'll call you as soon as they settle me somewhere."

She zipped over to give Darren a hug, "I'm not quite okay with this, but I'll abide by it. Gimmie a call when they let you. If I haven't heard from you in a few days, I'll start grilling folks."

She planted a kiss on his cheek, "Okay, but serious, gimmie a call."

He took the peck on the cheek and in return gave her one on the lips just to see the disgusted look on Book's face. "I'll be ok."

Chunk just frowned to himself, half listening to Skipper in his ear and half thinking about the kidney's he'd had replaced after the serum caused them to both acutely fail. He would ask Langley the truth of it, and if it was his place to know he'd be told.
"...Verdant, I'll have someone drop your car off out front for when you finish." He said at last. "Book, Let's go. We need to get Mr Gray to saftey. Majora." He nodded his head to her in farewell. "Miss Gray."

Charlotte idly wondered why she was Majora while he kept calling her Miss Gray. Probably something to do with seniority. And respect.

She waved one last goodbye as they all assembled for transport.

And like that her boyfriend was gone, held in the clutches of a evil governmental kill team. At least they thought he was human.

Majora looked at Verdant who was dutifully removing the bug from the living room. "Your partner is an asshole." She growled as Sarge came charging into the area where the agents had been barking gruffly. "He's lucky to be alive with an attitude like that." She handed her phone over to Charlotte. "I'm going to down the rest of that Vodka, excuse me."

Verdant continued to remove the bug, twirling the wires between his fingers into a small braid after he was done, pausing in his work to think before finally saying, "His bad habits were not so... apparent in our previous assignment."

He placed the microphone into his pocket, nodding, "Perhaps someone else would be better as miss Gray's supervisors. Though sadly, his attitude is popular within our organization, perhaps this is best for now."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:45, Wed 22 July 2015.

"Doesn't it bother you?" Valerie asked as she sank into the sofa and picked up booze bottle. "I mean, your dad is meta right? He is a leashed bio-dynamic just like me or Charlotte. Does he get the same crap treatment even in the lab?"

"If you must know, it only bothers me when his ire meets the noncriminal elements such as yourself or miss Gray. Unfortunately my silence seems to have meant assent to him, given his recent treatment of the. My father is... productive enough that he hasn't run into the worst of my organization, though he is not without his detractors."

A few snips and a fingertip-deployed screwdriver removed the hall bug. One more to go.
This message was last updated by the GM at 21:46, Wed 22 July 2015.

Valerie took a swig of her sweet vodka as she looked Agent Verdant. "That is how it is with them isn't it? If you are a dutiful little pet and make them enough presents you don't get hit with the stick so much. But where is the carrot? Where is the benefit to any of this shit? Fame? Please. Tom is a nervous wreck because all of the attention he gets and people rather tell me I'm fat or mannish then actually respect me. We are a joke. All of this is a joke. For the good of mankind my ass, we stopped getting to be a part of mankind years ago."

"Who is 'Them' in this situation? Where does 'Them' end? The Bureau? The government? Humanity? Biostatic and Dynamic alike? Would that the situation be so easy as to find the responsible parties and stop them. However, your and my kind have spent the past so many years training everyone to see us in the way that the popular media would present us."

He pointed around the room to Charlotte (who had dove back into the ice cream) and Valerie, "You are the celebrity protector, she is the repentant sinner, Chunk is the loyal soldier, and I am the dutiful follower. Many of us will simply accept these roles without examining them. Others might reject those roles outright and, because they are in the minority, will be viewed as an aberration which must be stopped."

He sighed a hollow exhalation, "I empathize. I really do. But my job is to police the aberrations and exert the will of the popular party. So there is not much that I am capable of doing outside the system."

Despite thinking it, he stopped himself short of saying 'if only there was someone who could' without taking apart the final bug.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:20, Wed 22 July 2015.

"A system like this isn't sustainable." She sighed as Sarge finished his barking spree and climbed up into the sofa to sit in her lap to calm himself down. "If nothing else is place when this all comes tumbling down things will be all the worse for it." She took another long drink from the bottle. "...that's why you guys never arrest Dr Crab isn't it? It's not that his legal team, or his money, someone is banking on him solving this whole mess..."

Verdant smiled, but continued working, "I wouldn't know. Arresting the good Doctor isn't my department..."

Snip, All the listening devices removed.

"...But I'd believe it, were I to hear it."

He turned toward the two of them, placing the final bug in his pocket, "So, is there anything you ladies need before I find my way back to the headquarters?"

"Am I being monitored by any other means I haven't agree to?" Majora asked and took another long drain off her bottle of Vodka as she stroked her grumpy dog. She wasn't expecting an honest answer, but it was worth asking anyway.