Joseph wiped the sweat from his brow once all criminals had been apprehended, and then saluted his siblings, who he recognized as Paeter, George, and Niall. “Good to see you three.”

Paeter and George smiled at him and Paeter remarked, “You’re always the first one on the scene, Joseph! Don’t you have a life?”

George chimed in, “He’s a new model, Paeter. They’re all obsessed with work and have even less of a social life than us because they're designed not to want one."

Joseph was intrigued by their words, which was strange to him. Normally, when his brothers teased him, it went in one ear and out the other. Today, he actually listened to their words and found that it was difficult to understand them. Joseph hauled one of the criminals to their feet and asked, “Social life?”

Paeter’s jaw dropped. “Jesus, he doesn’t even know what a social life is. The poor thing. A social life is something you share with other people. You know. Fun. Have you ever heard of that?”

Joseph blinked rapidly, but had no answer. George nudged Paeter and whispered, “We’ve got another Niall on our hands--of course he doesn’t know what a social life is.”

Niall locked eyes with Joseph, and Joseph did recognize that Niall must have been a new model, judging by his silence and his focused, emotionless face. Niall turned to his brothers. “I know when it’s time to work and when it’s time to play. Now is not the time to play. Besides--I don’t see the point in wasting my time socializing. It isn’t my occupation.” 

Joseph found himself liking and nodding in approval of what Niall had to say. He regarded his brother with a smile. “Niall seems like the most respectable out of all of you. Perhaps he and I should hang out tonight.”

Paeter rolled his eyes and groaned. “Dear lord, you two in the same room together would be more boring than paint drying.” 

Niall and Joseph smiled, but did not laugh. Joseph hoisted one of the criminal’s to his feet afterward and said, “We need to throw these criminals in jail.”

 All of the Praetorian Guards nodded in reply. They hoisted the remaining criminals to their feet and began spiriting them over to the nearest prison--a chunk of gray, personalitiless concrete at the edge of the Sector surrounded by an electrified fence. The brothers were carrying the unconscious criminals on their backs, and by all right, should have been aching by the time they arrived at the prison, but their altered genome kept them strong and energetic. When they arrived at the prison, a prison guard on the inside opened the gate for them and the brothers dropped off the criminals. 

“New deliveries, huh?” the guard, Hamish asked with a heavy yawn.

Paeter nodded. “Yep! Kept ‘em warm for you. They’re all yours now.”

A dozen other prison guards approached and took the criminals off their hands. At that moment, all of their walkie talkies went off again. Joseph was glad of it, as it spared him having to communicate with his brothers a moment longer--something he found difficult and unpleasant. He saluted them and said hastily, “Well, I’ll be seeing you all.”

“Uh-huh, sure.” Paeter rolled his eyes. “We’ll probably only be seeing you on the job.”

Joseph didn’t see anything wrong with that. In fact, it nearly made him beam. “Well, I’ll be happy when we bump into each other.”

Paeter waved him away. “Just get outta here, fun-killer.”

Joseph happily obeyed. The prison guard opened the door for him and he sped outside. This time, he was off to Sector A, after receiving a police code about it. He was shocked that he was needed there; Sector A was generally crime free. He discovered it was a petty crime--a teenager stealing his parent's car--but somebody had to stop it.

Joseph arrived at Sector A and began looking for the runaway teen, but not before breathing in the fresh scent of pollen and well-kempt roses on the breeze. He looked to his right and saw something that held his attention for longer than he intended it to. It was a woman in a white dress being loomed over by a much larger man as she watered the flowers that were dazzling his nose. 

“Petunia.” the man said. 

The woman climbed to her feet, turning around and facing the man. “What is it Greg?” her hands were on her hips. “I’ve just come to admire you again. Every time I see you, I swear that five years of life is breathed into me.” the man said worshippingly. “So? How about it? Ready to go out tonight?”

Joseph shook his head, as if shaking off a spell, wrenching his gaze from the woman, intending to find the runaway teen.

“I don’t want to go out with you. I’m pretty sure I’ve made that abundantly clear several times.” Petunia retorted. “I’m busy upkeeping the House's flowers. Go away.”