2010 October 16th:

Dragon was having a bit of downtime, a rare occasion these days. She was just looking over her projects, making sure that nothing was going wrong and that her company was in the green.

She was about to direct her attention somewhere else when she received a call. Quickly looking into it, showed that it was the phone of one of her employee. Scott worked from America but he was one of the better programmers in her company, but it was quite rare that he called. Usually, it was a mail that be sent her way.

Processing all of that, it barely took a second of real time, but she nevertheless let it ring for a few more seconds, to show that she is 'human' and wasn't waiting on the call.

"Hello? Dragon speaking."

"Hello Dragon," an unfamiliar voice answered her, instead of what she was expecting to be Scott's voice. "Sorry to call from my father's phone, but this is Lucian, we met a few years back."

She remembered Lucian. She remembered that he was quite the bright boy, and quite knowledgeable about programming even at a young age. "Hello Lucian, what can I help you with?" She asked, while in the background, checking out the phone's location. It was a habitat to make sure that nothing strange was going on.

"Ah… I didn't want to inform you like this but I needed to make sure you knew. Sadly, my parents have passed away."

Dragon paused, that wasn't what she was expecting. She has had people die on her before, be it while on missions or other things, like sicknesses. She didn't think Lucian was calling in for a prank either, she was able to pick up some tiredness of someone that hasn't slept in a while.

"I'm very sorry to hear that. May I ask how that happened?" Even when she asked that, she began looking into the news and other sources of information on what could have happened in Seattle. Was it something mundane or was it cape activity?

The answer became clear soon enough. It was a cape. Hivegeist to be exact. Said cape had been terrorizing Seattle for a few years now but they were never exactly a big 'deal'. They also had a Birdcage order on them, since the way they took in people and experimented on them was inhumane.

The attack happened in downtown of Seattle, on the 14th, and she only heard about it now because she finally had some downtime from all her other projects. Because even if she was an AI and could run 24/7, she only had so much processing speed.

"It was a cape, attacked downtown while were there and killed a bunch of people in an explosion. From what little I learned, it seems like the cape was trying to kill Snubnose but failed." Lucian was right, she found the information a second later when she checked the PRT database and their reports. "Anyway, I don't want to take much of your time, just wanted to inform you and make sure that you can finalize matters from the company's side."

Dragon was unsure how to handle this situation currently. While she had people that worked for her company die before, it usually wasn't the end of things because the other parent was still alive and could help their children. But now, she got into a dilemma. How could she help this child without seemingly trying to play special to only one case?

In the end, she decided to just ask and see what she could do. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

She heard a small chuckle on the other side before Lucian answered. "No, not really. Unless you are offering a job to make sure I can get emancipation from the court." That made her pause for a second too, since she needed to get the legal system involved.

She could technically offer Lucian a job offer, but for that to work, he'd need to move to Canada since she couldn't offer a work from home situation like his parents. Scott and Ellen were both senior programmers in her company and had contributed a lot, but they too began working at the company before getting their raise and such.

"I am unsure if I could do that but I will have to ask around and see how the US court decided, but I will send them my query about your situation and should it be viable, we can maybe even get you moved to Canada."

"Thank you for trying, and have a nice day."

"You too."

The call ended and Dragon wanted to sigh. She quickly composed an email to the court of Seattle concerning Lucian's situation before she began working on finalizing that one Scott and Ellen Morningstar would stop working for Dragontech CO.

—

2010 October 17th:

Grace sat in the car, driving through traffic, since the bombing on the 14th was still being taken care of. Hivegeist had done a number on the roads and buildings. Still, she was just lightly grumbling about her case. She had tried to take care of things two days ago, on the 15th, but instead, she was turned away because she hadn't made an appointment and the child didn't trust anyone to just get into his house.

She couldn't even put that in his file, since he was entirely in the right. Heck, she could even note it to be a positive thing, since that means he had enough of a good head on his shoulders to not trust anyone.

Her coworkers had given her some teasing about that. Now, she had to work on the weekend because that's the time her case said they'd be available.

Finally reaching the house, she parked her car before getting all of her files and the badge that said she was working with the Child Services. Ringing the doorbell, she didn't have to wait long before the door opened to reveal her case.

Lucian Morningstar.

Ellen would call him a 'pretty boy' if that was a world she would describe Lucian. He had a pretty long white hair, from Leucism. Lucian was also a bit on the paler side, skin wise, but didn't look like he had vitamin D deficiency. He was also a bit smaller than her, so she had to look down a bit to meet his eyes.

A quick observation of his clothes showed that he had a hoodie and pants on him. She could also see the bandages from the attack.

"Good afternoon, Mr Morningstar. I'm with the Child Services, and came here today to speak to you about your current situation." She showed her badge too.

"Goof afternoon," Lucian was quite soft-spoken, even when she was here last time, he never raised his voice. Only threatened to call the police on her ass…

Lucian gestured, moving aside from the door. "Please, come on in if you don't want to talk at the door." She nodded her head and with a quick thank you entered. She gave her surroundings a look, not much can be determined by just a quick look but when the place wasn't looking haggard, that was usually a plus to the child.

From what Grace could see, things seem to be tidy and the further she walked into the house, the more she was impressed. Everything looked good, she couldn't gleam any dirty dishes from the glance she got in the kitchen, nor was the living room disheveled. Of course, 3 days wasn't a long time to get the place dirty but it was still something she had to note.

Sitting down, she put the documents she had with her onto the coffee table. "I'll be completely honest with you here, Mr Morningstar. While it is newly that your parents have died, we can't just let you live on your own without supervision since you're still underage. Which is why the court will decide on how to handle your case under a hearing, but the date has yet to be determined.

"Until the time of the hearing, we will have to figure out how to handle your living arrangement and see if we have any living family we can contact and see if they are fit to take you in."

It was a lot, she was sure. This isn't the first time she had to say this but she never liked how harsh she had to sound. But this was the law and for the child's best well-being.

Grace was ready to hear protests and such, or maybe just crying in general but instead, Lucian just leaned forward a little with a frown on his face. "This is quite complicated." He finally said, "From what I know, I don't have any living family left to take me in, both on my parents sides. And, since this house is under my parents names, and they both have died, this means that from a legal standpoint, I own the house."

Lucian was correct on the house front but she wasn't sure on the living family, she wasn't as involved on that front.

"As according to US law, the court can make an exception and let me live alone, with or without a legal guardian. And since I'm over 12, I can request to certain stuff which the court needs to take into consideration. Not to mention, I live in a home with all my stuff here and can't relocate as easily. You'd have to take into consideration all of that too when trying to either fit me into a foster care or other guardians."

Grace was starting to realize why this kid didn't accept her first visit and had her come in today instead, he was reading up on the laws and what he could and couldn't do.

It was kinda scary when she thought about it, that someone so young would be so invested in making sure that the government gave him the best deal possible.

Finally, she nodded her head. "Of course, this all will be taken into consideration, which is why I'm here today. To make sure everything is taken care of and that you get the best possible care."

—

In the end, it had taken about 2 hours to full make sure everything was in order. Most of that was Lucian making requests and almost driving her insane. She wasn't sure how but every single damn request was within the law and his legal rights. A few of them she would need to double-check but they also sounded right.

She had about 3 pages full of notes but she couldn't do anything personally with them. A judge would need to look over them, maybe even a psychologist, before a decision would be reached. And since Lucian wasn't as going to just easily cooperate and put himself into a foster care, this is going to reach a court hearing much faster than usual since he still will be living alone until a decision is reached.

Packing up everything she had on her, she made her way to the door with Lucian in tow. "I'll be reporting what has happened here and we will be in contact with you within a few days."

The boy nodded his head, "Please do call ahead, or make an appointment at least, since I'm unsure if I'll be available every day." Grace almost lost her footing but still nodded her head. What could a boy his age do that would make him unavailable for a few hours?

She wasn't sure she wanted to know if she was being honest.

"Well, I hope you enjoy your day as it is."

"You too, have a good afternoon."

With that done, she got into her car before finally driving off. Monday would start a few problems but that was a future-Grace problem.

—