Camilo as Dalia might as well have vanished like a jaunter.

  To say it was like he left to destroy or save the cosmos would be an understatement. Perhaps load in a handful of timelines and macroverses, and then one could accurately communicate the state of emergency that was accompanying his combat boots bashing into the checkered floor outside.

  Joaquim willed his mask off, revealing his face to the police robot.

  "Sit down," the police robot commanded of him.

  A darker cloud by the floor-to-ceiling windows must have passed the recruitment hall because the shadows weakened around the humanoid machine. As gray moisture and minerals in the state of gas smeared the imposing glass with condensation, the condition of the machine's steel shell made it clear that it came from multiple generations of self-replicating white and blue alloys. Fractals of fictional and non-fictional faces pasted into its training data were fading faceward on its helmet. Its metal attire resembled glitchy and opaque palimpsest while the artifacts of mammal chests were undecipherable on its floating torso. Meanwhile, at a microscopic level, the sentient aluminum-flux cells must have still been trying to correct its replicating mistakes as sporadic subsections got smoother over ticking seconds.

  The reputation that preceded these law enforcement robots was inescapable within the dead silence of the sitting teenagers awaiting their security clearance. While seeking a free seat after walking away from his brother and the aforementioned robot, Joaquim knocked over a teenager with a newsboy cap. After his bottom hit the carpeted floor, tiny pieces of round metal with human faces fell out of his pockets. Joaquim's unyielding curiosity could not be restrained while he helped the stranger get up.

  "What's that on the floor? Do you want me to pick it up for you?" Joaquim asked after pulling the boy up.

  "Those are coins," the boy answered, ignoring Joaquim's offer as he threw himself back on the floor to retrieve them. "Have you never seen coins like these before? Which village are you from?"

  The entrance of the recruitment hall slammed against the wall, demanding everyone's attention. Upon entering the dark silhouette of the floating maratus spider with eight tentacles suffused to shamrock and onyx under the grey sunlight inside, the army base's hallway lights now sealed off behind the closing door.

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  "Wexil sir!" the police robot exclaimed with its self-correcting arms at its sides.

  "At ease," the arak Wexil commanded.

  "No!" the boy by Joaquim's feet screamed.

  What were called coins apparently were pulling the boy towards the futuristic beings at the door. The coins not giving a damn about any kind of gravity made his brown porridge-stained trousers look sentient. Snarling as the trousers were now forcing him to drag his dress shoes against the carpet, he seized the edge of his flying pocket and he mustered all of his might to pull it. His coins tore through his trousers, and he fell backwards on the floor once more.

  "I can hear this dumbass all the way here. You really like the floor huh?" Farouq yelled from somewhere amongst the crowded seats, his voice sounding deeper from afar.

  The coins were flying fast to the front.

  "Don't make me whoop your ass again!" Joaquim yelled.

  "Again?" Farouq yelled back from a distance.

  The coins slammed into the floating robot, the metallic screech bringing the hall to a silence once more. Meanwhile the arm the coins flew into smoothed out perfectly, ghostly seams of human arms and hands vanished.

  However, even though the youth were quiet, the muffled whimpers from the boy on the ground echoed across the hall.

  "I fucking hate this kid!" Farouq yelled.

  "I'll make you hate me even more!" Joaquim yelled back.

  "SILENCE!" Wexil screamed statically. "Put him in jail, and his little sister too."

  During the bickering and the coin debacle Gabe was handcuffed. His frown met Joaquim's. Now that it was quiet, it was easier to hear Gabe from where Joaquim stood.

  "Why? I heard I am not the first to walk the wrong way."

  "You seem to be under the impression that this is a discussion," Wexil said. "It is not."

  It was apparent that the extraterrestrial from Brennisteinn and the police were scanning for Joaquim, and he ran before they had the chance to even think of needing to extort the information out of his brother.

  "Thank you," the boy on the floor murmured to Joaquim under his grief. Joaquim climbed the convex stairs as fast as he could, tripping on the final step thanks to his dress. However, he threw his right leg forward, catching his own fall before he stumbled further.

  Joaquim panted. "You're... you're looking for me?"

  Busy from trying to catch his breath, Joaquim did not get the chance to look up at Wexil until now. His green sex-marking tentacles came into vision first, then eventually its colors blended into his black and green pattern on his torso that housed his waxy eyes. He wore a shamrock ring on one of his hind tentacles.

  So it wasn't a conspiracy theory?

  "Yes we are," Wexil said. "Thank you for making this easy for me this time."

  Huh?

  Without any notice Joaquim only heard the snap of handcuffs behind him, as if the robot was trained to stealthily arrest humans.