X-Men: Shark Bones

One of the cops pointing their guns at Nico nodded "Sure buddy, this is just a formality. I don't think you'll get into too much trouble"

The speedster tensed for a moment. Once un-gaged, he kept trembling and looked at the cop helplessly. "Officer, arrest this man! He shot me!" He yelled.

"I was just camping with a bunch of friends and he shot me! He just appeared out of nowhere and started shooting! Arrest him! He fucking tied me up and gagged me! He threatened me! He was kidnapping me!" He yelled with watery eyes that could have meant a promising career in the entertainment arts if his life had gone a different direction. He scrambled away from John as he screamed. The cop frowned before lifting one eyebrow again.

"That kind of conflicts with the whole "consenting" part of your argument, does it not buddy?" The cop said, arms crossed.

The other visible gang-member, the metallic-looking one, who was now bald on most of his head thanks to it having been burned off by the explosion, automatically understood the strategy and yelled out.

"Forget the shooting—he detonated a goddamn bomb on me! He bombed my face! Now I can't walk two steps without falling 'cause I feel like the trees are spinning! I think I need a doctor..." one the cops nearby helped him up his feet and the paramedics from the ambulance that had arrived sometime back were finally getting to the area. The two cops who were looking for other people involved found Jack on the bushes as he realistically feigned a sprained ankle and asked one of them to help him walk. Another one of the paramedics ran to Brian to start dealing with the gunshot wounds.

"And that creep! That buggy creep of a guy followed my girlfriend here, and kicked her! He kicked my girlfriend!" Jack told them. Before Nico could protest, the green haired boy appeared and decided to chime in with the odd "yeah". Brian started talking again.

"And she's like super thin dude! She couldn't hurt a fly! And we asked him who he was and he went all "My identity is inconsequential" on us! And—and—"

"And he said she attacked first—like she could actually hurt him! She's this tall!" Jack gestured around his shoulder height, which was around Keira's height.

"Hello? He bombed this place! I think assault is a bit less important than a bomb!"

"Yeah, and we tied up the buggy one so that he wouldn't be causing more trouble and we could report him to you guys after eating some lunch—" Jack said.

"And then there's shooting everywhere! He shot me twice! He bombed Macs in the face! And he destroyed a bunch of bushes and trees!" The speedster continued, gesturing to the remains of some bushes that had been burnt in the explosion.

"And—and— he destroyed our property!" The metallic guy said, gesturing to the burnt remains of what were now his clothes, and then to rafts with hole s in them.

"And the firefly man here called us terrorists!" Jack told them, and Brian picked up from it, taking advantage of his melanin levels.

"That's racial profiling man! What, just because my parents are from the middle east, it means I'm a terrorist!?"

The gang members, to their credit, were very convincing actors. Every cop in the area was looking sympathetic to their plight.

"Now guys," The cop started. "I'm sure you have a logical explanation for those actions— just as I'm sure that you could say it just as well here as you could in an interrogation room, so why don't you come with us?"

edited 1st Oct '12 12:15:19 PM by Faramir

"'Following her' wasn't exactly major, considering that she teleported in, and as she managed to teleport out again, several times, I doubt she was awfully injured. If somebody goes to attack me, I've been told it's generally best to stop them and retaliate. And I was at the act of terrorism earlier, a few of you seem eerily familiar."

He seemed to roll his eyes at that point. "If it really matters, I'm fairly certain that your brute's reaction to my appearance was hardly appropriate force in terms of aggression." The only part of being attacked that paticuarly annoyed him was the fact that his trenchcoat was now in tatters around the tree, but he was going to use as much as he had against these people.

"And then there's equivalents in our arguments. I appeared, which I will admit was a partial accident stemming from what I deemed to be both suspicious and rather rude, and retaliated to an attempt to attack me by kicking somebody. Another of yours then attacked me even more, kind of nullifying your argument for retaliation and then tied me to that tree." He motioned to the tree still surrounded by ropes and with his trenchcoat at the base, and pointed out some extent of rope-burn on his bare chest. "This man, presumably having some information similar to my suspicions of your links to the terrorist activity, and having seen you attack and tie up someone significantly weaker than some of you, attacked you and you retaliated, although being, you know, tied to a tree, I don't have that much information on that part. There's yet more stuff on retaliation. And then he tied you up but, of course, he freed me from your lot having tied me up again first so again your actions kind of reflect those used against you."

He at this point actually paused for breath.

"And, of course, this could have been resolved much more easily. Perhaps, say, the person with teleportation could have merely removed me from the area as soon as she realised she had accidentally brought me here or you could have actually tried to talk it out. I would have mirrored whatever had been attempted, and it isn't my fault that the girl chose to try and punch me."

It was only at this point that he actually seemed to run out of things to say.

@Replica, please see discussion thread

"I'm leaning on the boys' side, grabbing a teleporter as they're leaving a place kinda counts a stalking kid" One of the cops told Nico.

"Plus, I don't remember anything about any terrorism, what the hell are you talking about?" One of the cops said. Most of them either paid attention to local (meaning Okotoks) news, or global news. The attack merely an hour before in Calgary hadn't reached either.

Jack stood up and tensed "Well how the hell would you react if some creep grabbed you and got into your camp without permission?!"

"And of course we tied you to that tree— you appeared out of nowhere and were kicking our friend, what the hell were we supposed to think? We were gonna call the cops after lunch to tell them what happened!"

"And you came to us, 'kay? We didn't fucking kidnap you like he was doing to me! And we didn't gag you! We didn't go around shooting!"

"So wait— if we're rude that means you get to come to our camp? What the hell?"

"Plus, that seems a bit too eloquent I'd say. As if it were previously rehearsed even." One of the cops told another.

Keira appeared again, behind a few trees, and eavesdropped on what was happening for a bit before teleporting nearer to jack and the group, and running to hug him. She bruised easily, and had a very large spot on her face where almost every colour in the rainbow could be found. There was another, equally large and colourful spot on her arm.

"Jack! I'm so happy the police are here! I thought you'd been hurt!" She said and they kissed. "Officer, that weirdo grabbed me and kicked me!"

In her slightly oversized clothing, coupled with her bruises, she looked even thinner than she really was.

"Don't worry, young lady. We'll get this sorted." The cop said with a friendly smile. "Now, why don't you lot come with us like I said, and we figure all of this out?"

edited 1st Oct '12 12:44:44 PM by Faramir

"Am I under arrest? " John said as he put a hand into his pocket.

"Lets try to talk it out first, before anyone ends up in jail" The cop said cordially, waiting for him to come in peacefully to see what they could work out.

"Really, now you're claiming that eloquent speech is suspicious?" Nico sighed. "There is a reason I have no faith in this legal system, and is it not that it has failed me, Freudian excuse as that is. Think about it. For one, there was teleporting and I kind of doubt that you've been planing to check for anything that isn't local, despite how teleporting clearly makes that much more likely. I'm going to repeat again that I was using self-defence and that one of yours, who has now mysteriously disappeared thanks to that teleporter, retaliated far harder. Frankly, that was the part I'd most refer to as excessive. Pretty much any one of you except the one which, I shall say again, I attacked out of self defence could have taken me down, a hulking brute wasn't really needed." He shook his head in an incredibly condescending manner. "I swear, if something in my back wasn't damaged after that tree I'd just fly off now and let you shoot me. Would beat having to deal with this absurdity. But as, like I said, that mysteriously absent brute and the impromptu tree restraint, which I remind you again was only necessary because you over-reacted to what I will admit was not the best of actions, appear to have essentially destroyed my back for a while, I'll come as peaceful as they are violent."

"It'll fail though. I can tell that at least."

edited 1st Oct '12 1:28:05 PM by Replica

"I'll ask once more." John said as his brow furrowed "Am I under arrest?"

The cop sighed. "Fine. Be that way. Yes, you're under arrest for shooting, bombing, and assaulting a bunch of teenagers. Now are you gonna come with us, or what?"

One of the cops still holding a gun to Nico shook his head slightly. "Dude, same goes for you. And try to exercise brevity, would you? Long speeches aren't gonna get you out of this. And if you're so eloquent, find a damn synonym for 'retaliation'"

"There's something wrong with that weirdo" the speedster said as Jack went on to look for some cream to put on Keira's bruises.

edited 1st Oct '12 2:28:10 PM by Faramir

"You get absurd amounts of speech or nothing. Or you could make it easier and be a bit more formal, but that clearly isn't going to happen." It was evident that Nico was hardly fond of the legal system. "Again, I'll come peacefully but you might have trouble with the massive beetle wings."

"Don't think that'll be a problem" One of the cops said as he handcuffed Nico. "We have a van or something, right Walter?"

"Yeah, they got one of the big cars in when the report about the bomb came in"

Nico muttered under his breath. "No comment on your formal conduct then."

In terms of what was intended to be audible, there was nothing.

"Just making sure." John said as he extended both hands out for the officer to handcuff him. "Lead the way then."

Nico and John were taken to a large police carrier, handcuffed. They were then taken to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) department, and made to sit in two roughly comfortable chairs for what was looking to be the better part of an hour as all the necessary paperwork was filled out.

edited 4th Oct '12 7:12:24 PM by Faramir

"I want to speak with my lawyer." John said as he moved his hands to.tes the restraints. The day had gone from good to worse, and now there was a chance that it could go even deeper over the edge.

Nico was sitting rather uncomfortably on the chair, attempting to accommodate his wings. "I want to know specifically what I was actually arrested for. I will then complain about it."

One of the nearby cops handed John a phone while another one muttered something about multiple assault and low level stalking.

Glaring back at the officer, John took the phone and quickly dailed the number for his contact for this assignment. Expecting chastising to some degree, he listened for the tone and receiver picking up.

"It's John; I need a lawyer, preferably a good one."

"Why do you need a lawyer?" The different, younger female voice asked. "Okotoks cops barely ever make an arrest, their jails don't have space for too many people. If you cooperated and go with them and were nice, you could have gotten away with paying a fine" She said, then paused and sighed. "...you asked if you were arrested, didn't you?"

One of the cops was told something and he started leading Nico into an interrogation room.

"I can't believe this. We told you—we told you. She told you you'd be on your own if you kept at this. It's not even the end of the day yet"

Cops a few meters away were talking, and John could distinguish "Calgary" and something about a system as said several times.

"I can't believe this, first day back and there's already... Fine, you'll get a lawyer. A decent one, not a particularly good one. He should do fine. Will be there in under an hour." John could her muttering about "bloody Rasputin" before the call ended.

"Well then. Let's see how badly this'll go."

Nico was seated on a chair in front of a table, across from another chair. A friendly looking cop sat oposite of him. Forms were slided across the the table to Nico, along with a pen.

"Now, given that the other kids didn't bother to fill out a proper arrest report, and given that you look like you're twelve, we're gonna cut you some slack. Fill that out, I'll be back in half an hour, and after that we'll contact your parents to pay a fine. Then you'll be free to go do whatever." he paused and handed Nico an inked pad along with another one-page long form to fill out and put his fingerprints.

"This incident will be on your permanent record but it won't set off any red flags for any future employees or colleges. You'll only have some trouble if you get arrested in the future, but I imagine you'll do your best not to let that happen, right?" The cop, with his friendly smile and respectful demeanor, headed for the door after giving Nico that explanation.

Hanging up the phone with a frown, John did his best to not punch a hole through the office wall. "Come along and pay a fine?" He thought to himself. "What is this, Lebanon?"

Sitting back in his chair, he waited for his legal representative to arrive.

This was a bit of an issue. He filled out the forms as best he could, giving it as much bias towards himself as he could; saying that he had stopped to rest on the roof, originally ignoring its occupant, although observing some suspicious behavior, until some rather rude things were said and merely trying to reach an understanding rather than actively having a desire to follow them, only attacking her in self defense and pointing out strongly how hard they retaliated and the possible damage they could have done to him. For the sake of it he also pointed out that there had been risk of him being caught in the cross-fire of them and the other person. Very noticeably, his handwriting was utterly terrible; this was not purposeful, he had just been very unsuccessful in learning to write. It was, however, readable in most places and used language a lot more simple than his speech.

He probably would have tried to argue the charges if he actually knew anything about law, but all he really knew was that at times in his life crimes were committed against him and at times he committed crimes, and he did't care to know more. Then he waited. When an officer, preferably one who did not give him an overwhelming urge to act like an arsehole, turned up, then he would have to deal with the matter that he was homeless having ran from his parents, one of whom was in another country and the other several provinces away, both would completely deny his existence, and there was no way he would be able to pay a fine.

edited 3rd Oct '12 5:17:53 PM by Replica

The friendly cop came back and gave the forms a quick skim. He squinted once he was most of the way through his version of events.

"Wait a second—Crossfire? Those kids had no guns" He muttered, and then shrugged. Some of them had to go back later on with a few firemen anyway. After reading through the rest of the form, he came back to the start.

"So... You don't seem to have filled out—y'know, your parents' contact info and all." He said and got a phone out of his pocket. "Would you like to call them, or should I?"

"That's going to be a problem. Only one is even in this country, and I...ran away. Several years ago."

The cop frowned for a moment, then raised his eyebrows. "Okay. Why'd you run away?"