Claire

Claire took a deep breath after the detective asked his question. She'd come up with the story, which was almost the truth anyway, so she should be the one to do the actual sort of kind of lying to the police thing.

Before she could say a word, though, Jacob stepped up. He pointed at the men on the ground. “These guys just busted in our door out of nowhere and started trashing our house! My brother got an SOS out to our friends but... but they grabbed us. And. And they were gonna... gonna shoot us and...”

“Okay, okay calm down.” Detective Morgan moved so that he had a clear line of sight on the two men. “We're going to wait for the patrol car, get these guys out of here, and then we'll get everyone's statements. You said they were armed?”

Ryu pointed to the table where Dare had placed the weapons.

“Good, good," Detective Morgan said, "Who all touched the guns?”

“Me,” Dare said, “and him,” pointing to Ryu. “Just to get them out of the way.” He lied; Dare had put the weapons on the table, Ryu had used them to threaten the men.

“Smart. Is anyone badly hurt? I see some bruises, anything worse? I can get an ambulance out too,” Detective Morgan offered.

Claire shook her head. She didn't think the guys were hurt badly enough to need medical attention, and she did not want the detective taking too close a look at Ryu. “We're fine, just shaken,” she said.

“Glad to hear it,” Detective Morgan said. “Do you have any ice packs? We should at least get something on that shiner, son before it gets worse.” He nodded at Jacob.

“I know where they keep the ice and the towels,” Claire said. “I'll take care of it.”

“Thank you, ma'am,” Detective Morgan said, which was just weird. She was only twenty, she wasn't a ma'am yet.

By the time Claire had an ice pack made up and pressed to Jacob's face, the uniformed officers had arrived. They looked a little puzzled as to what exactly they were meant to do with a pair of very large duct tape mummies. Detective Morgan offered to unwrap and handcuff them while the officers covered him, after instructing the group to go into the kitchen and stay there until the men were escorted safely out of the house.

Claire and her friends waited in the kitchen. Dare leaned against the refrigerator, tapping his foot. Josh paced between the oven and the back door. Ryu and Claire sat at the dining table. Jacob stood a next to and a little behind Ryu. He rested his hand briefly on Ryu's shoulder, removed it, and then ended up crossing his arms and standing so that he guarded Ryu's back. He kept looking at the door to the living room, chewing his lower lip.

They didn't dare talk about what had happened; not with the police right through an open doorway. But no other topic of conversation seemed remotely appropriate at the moment, either.

“Are you two sure you're okay?” Claire asked, desperate to break the silence.

“Yeah,” Josh said.

Jacob just nodded.

Claire gave up on speaking then and studied Ryu. Looking at him, she would never have guessed that he was capable of fighting well enough to put two grown men on the ground in under a minute. She'd been facing the clock. It had literally taken less than one minute. How did he move like that? What kind of training could result in that level of skill? Maybe there was something to Dare's super soldier theory after all.

There were some slight scuffling sounds in the living room, and distantly she heard a car door open and close. Then, Detective Morgan stepped into the kitchen.

“Wow. Quiet group. Is everything okay in here?” he asked.

Claire nodded. “We're fine. Just... kinda shook up. That's all.”

“I understand that. A break in is always scary, and then you have to deal with us,” Detective Morgan smiled.

Claire tried to smile back. He was supposed to be on their side, after all.

“So, I really have to hear this story,” Detective Morgan said. “I mean, I get the call and I'm expecting to get maybe a description, maybe a license plate number out of you if I'm lucky. Instead, I find two guys wrapped in enough duct tape to make MacGuyver proud. What happened here?”

Claire looked around. Her friends stared back at her.

“Should we go one at a time, or do we need to go down to the station?” she asked.

Detective Morgan shook his head. “Nah. I'll take notes, and then you can all sign as witnesses. I will need contact information, in case we need to follow up. Whose house is this, exactly?”

Josh and Jacob raised their hands.

“Okay. You two will have to decide if you want to press charges on top of the armed robbery charges the state will be filing. There's no rush, though. Here,” he handed Claire a pad of notepaper. “Get me a list of phone numbers right quick.”

Claire started scribbling names and numbers, pausing for a moment. “My brother's phone is busted, is it okay if I just list my number for him?”

Morgan glanced around and pointed at Ryu. “This your brother?”

She nodded.

“That's fine," Detective Morgan said, "Would you real quick add a note next to his name that you permit him to sign as a witness? I'm going to guess he's a minor.”

She nodded again. Ryu insisted he was older than he looked, but no way was he over eighteen.

“Yeah, you'll have to be adult of record then. No problem, it just means I can't question him alone and I had no intention of doing that anyway.” Morgan accepted the notepad and pen back, and then turned the page and looked around expectantly. “Now, please. The suspense is killing me.”

Claire took a deep breath. She was apparently group spokesperson now because everyone was looking at her.

“Well, they broke into the house,” she said, “I have to guess this part...”

“Because you weren't here yet?” Morgan guessed. “I need to hear this from actual witnesses, I'm sorry.”

Josh spoke up then. “That's us,” he pointed to his brother. “We were getting ready for lab, which we've now missed thanks to those jerks. Hey, can you sign a note that we were being held hostage? Is a detective's note like a doctor's note?”

Morgan chuckled, “I'll be happy to give you a note and a copy of my card. That should be enough.”

“Thanks,” Jacob said.

“Okay, so. We were getting ready and there was this pounding on the door. Then they shattered the window, just punched right through it! And then they kicked in the whole door.” Josh pointed. “The big guy was the one that did that, I think, not the bald one. Is that important?”

“It might be,” Morgan said, “All the details you can remember will help, thanks. So they broke in? Were they armed?”

“Well, yeah, you got their guns,” Josh said.

“I have to ask. It's procedure," Detective Morgan shrugged.

“Oh. Well. They didn't have the guns out right when they busted in,” Josh said, “but they did have them. They drew them when Jacob asked who the hell they were. They shoved us up against the wall and shouted a lot of crazy stuff, stuff about... some boss' property?” Josh sounded genuinely baffled, although he had to know the 'property' in question was Ryu. “I don't know. They slapped us around a bunch and then they tied us up. Jacob managed to text SOS to Claire and Dare. I do not know how he did that.”

“It's a quick message program,” Jacob replied. “I programmed their numbers and the text to go out if I tap out SOS on the screen in Morse code.”

“Impressive programming,” Morgan said. “You were able to do that with your hands tied?”

Jacob nodded. “I got lucky, I had my phone in my back pocket and they taped my hands behind my back. I wasn't sure it'd work.”

“Okay. So. You three got the messages?" Detective Morgan turned to Claire, Dare, and Ryu. "Where were you?”

“I was in class,” Claire answered. “My brother and Dare were hanging out.”

“Introducing the runt to retro gaming,” Dare piped up.

Claire was curious if that was the truth. It sounded like how Dare would spend an hour with a complete stranger who might, in fact, be a magical creature.

“So we got the message, and we drove over here to see if they were okay,” Claire shrugged. “I expected, like, the stove to be on fire or something. But the door was busted so we snuck in, to see if they were okay.” She shuddered. Here was the part where it got dangerous. “They had their backs to us, and they'd put the guns away, but... but they were big. And armed.”

“And you didn't back out and call us?” Morgan asked.

“I was afraid they'd hurt the guys, or that they'd hear us, or... who knows what. I thought, they had their backs to us and we had one chance. I pointed to the bookshelf and we kind of tackled them into it. It seemed like a good idea a the time...” she shrugged, embarrassed. The story sounded ridiculous and dangerous out loud. He wasn't going to buy it.

“The bookshelf fell over on them?” Morgan guessed.

“Yeah. It's really heavy,” Claire said. “I guess it stunned them? They weren't moving anyway. So while they were out, we moved the shelf off them and Dare wrapped them up. And then he and Ryu took their guns and put them out of reach, and then we called, uh, you guys.”

Morgan nodded and glanced up. “Ryu?” he pointed the back of the pen at him. “Actual name?”

Ryu nodded.

“Cool. I thought this said Ryan is all," Detective Morgan said, glancing back at the paper.

“My handwriting is awful, I'm sorry,” Claire said.

“No worries,” Morgan said, “I can read the numbers, that's good enough. Here,” he handed her the notepad. “If you'd just sign below my notes? And then pass it around. You go ahead and sign too, Ryu, even if your sister is technically the one who has to sign for you. Never hurts to cover all the bases.”

Claire signed and handed off the notepad. Ryu hesitated only a moment before signing his name as Ryu Alexander, in a flowing, intricate script. It looked bizarrely elegant next to Claire's own scrawled signature. The others each took their turns.

“There we go. Wow but you kids got lucky,” Morgan said. “I won't say you did the wrong thing. I'm not sure I could leave a friend behind in that situation either. Just. If anything like this ever happens again, call us first. Okay?”

Claire nodded. She wouldn't, probably, but she figured it was better to agree.

Detective Morgan pocketed his notes. “All right, I think we're about done here. You might get a phone call in a couple days if we need to clarify anything. Do you need any help with your door? It's cold out, and that busted window will let the heat right out.”

“We've got some tarps and plywood out back,” Josh said. “But thanks.”

“Okay then.” Morgan stepped out into the living room. Claire followed, with Ryu close on her heels.

Morgan glanced at the bookshelf. “Those guys are lucky to be alive, this thing coming down on them.

Claire very pointedly did not look at Ryu. They were lucky, but not for the reason the detective though.

“Here, let me help you get this thing upright. I feel bad just leaving with everything a mess like this.”

“You don't have to,” Josh protested.

“I like to feel useful,” Detective Morgan smiled and grabbed one side of the shelf. Dare moved to stand next to him, and the twins took the other side. With four people lifting, straining, and cursing, the shelf was soon upright once more.

“You weren't kidding,” Morgan grunted. He stepped back. “Well. I think we're done here.”

“Thank you,” Claire said. “You didn't have to do that.”

Detective Morgan grinned. “Protect and serve, right? Besides, I am gonna have the best story around the water cooler this week. A handful of college kids take out two bruisers big enough to go out for pro wrestling? Man, no one's gonna believe it!”

Claire held back a laugh somehow. He couldn't believe the whole group had managed? Imagine if they'd tried to tell the truth!