Joseph found himself becoming uncomfortable in the presence of this concept he knew little about, but that he also knew was something… naughty by the way his brother talked about it. He squirmed in his chair, wanting to leave.

“I demand you ask your House to come out with us tonight. We’ll show you how nicely girls and alcohol can mix.” Dawkins suggested cheerfully. “You’ll do well with them. Heck, we all do. I mean, we’re all made to be seven-foot-tall behemoths. What girl wouldn’t go for us? But you have the additional virtue of having those cool blue eyes.”

Joseph shook his head. “No, I don’t think I’m interested. I’d rather get to bed early so I can be refreshed and ready to work tomorrow.”

Dawkins sighed, pursing his lips and taking a long sip of his coffee. “Well. If you change your mind, the rest of us will be having fun at the Everest tonight. Geez… am I glad I was created with blazing emotions, unlike you.”

Joseph was about to reply when his walkie talkie finally went off and he was called into action. A subtle smile spread on his face and he said to his brother, “See you later!”

He put his walkie talkie to his ear and listened to the Praetorian code telling him where to go. He was needed in Sector D; they were being ganged up on by a crowd of both enemy Erulanite soldiers and revolting humans. Joseph bounded through the city, looking like a speeding bullet to those he passed by, creating a gust of wind wherever he went. He rushed passed cars, buildings, and humans, ruffling the clothes of a woman and her baby as he passed her by. He came to a stop when he crossed over to Sector D; he had the layout of each Sector memorized, and he took a moment to absorb his surroundings so he could point himself in the right direction. In front of him, there was a grocery store called “Healthline,” to his right, there was an ice cream shop called “the swirl.” both stores were brightly colored, and had anthropomorphic characters as mascots; one was an ice cream swirl with eyes, the other a pill with eyes. He didn’t know why, but he found himself gently smiling at the insipid smile of the ice cream and the pill. In a moment, he shook his head and shook his smile away with it, and then began dashing toward the street where the fighting was apparently taking place, which was to the west of the health store and the ice cream store. 

Let’s see… an alleyway on Bonderland and Gruu… he thought to himself as he sprinted up a sharp inclined street and onto the cross street he was thinking of. From there, he just had to follow the sound of screaming. He followed it down the sidewalk, and then turned his head toward a filthy alleyway where enemy Erulanites and local, human ne’er-do-wells were fighting. Some of his brothers were already there and attempting to apprehend the humans while simultaneously defending from the enemy Erulanites. 

Three of his brothers had built up a barricade with their riot shields in the narrow space of the alleyway, and were firing at the Erulanites with their free hands. They would have been making contact if not for the fact that the Erulanites were holding their laser fire still with telekenisis.

As if he were a robot, Joseph quickly analyzed the situation. He took a risk; he launched himself into battle against on of the Erulanites, who saw him coming from his peripheral vision and seized Joseph with his telekinesis--holding him still in midair where he had launched himself. Simultaneously, the Erulanite had to stop another beam from a raygun that had been fired from a different Praetorian Guard.

Though suspended and frozen in the air, Joseph smiled when he saw the Erulanite start to sweat. He knew that the alien could not simultaneously hold him still and hold the beam at the same time. Erulanite gasped in discomfort and released Joseph, focusing his attention on the beam that was fired instead. The alien redirected the beam at the brick wall, which it burned a tiny hold in. Joseph took the opportunity to seize the gun at his holster and fire three beams at the alien; the first made him grunt, the second made him scream, the third caused him to collapse to the floor, dead. The other Erulanites had been disposed of--they had focused their attention on him instead of his brothers as he thought they would, and therefore left themselves open to a hail of gunfire from his brothers--by the time he was unsuspended, and he turned his attention to the apprehension of the humans afterwards.

Three of them were knocked out, but the other seven were still firing their guns without pause at the Praetorian Guard. The shouting and gunfire would have been deafening to anyone else’s ears, but to Joseph, it was more beautiful than even the most stirring piece of music. The humans were firing at him, but they were clumsy with their shots and easy for him to dosge. He took advantage of their poor aim, pushing himself off the ground by the balls of his feet and becoming a bolt of lightning as he slammed a fist into one human’s stomach, doubling him over, shoved the next human into a wall, sweeping the feet out from under the next, and then weaving left and right until he managed to get behind the next one, slapping cuffs on him. The other Praetorian Guards assisted him by changing their rayguns to stun instead of kill.