"Sir, I'm a superhero. If you'd rather involve the regular cops, they too have a phone number."

He follows the rest of the men away, mumbling something that might be about how he might just call that number.

Back to the couple. Are they Asian.

The woman might be half-asian but it's not obvious.

"Is your son all right, have you filed a missing persons report?"

"He came back last night."

The woman is taking out her phone to text someone, nervously. 

"Glad to hear it. Do you want me to leave a robot here at your house in case those guys come back? It'd be able to alert me and maybe tranquilize one."

Text text. 

"Uh, could you give me a minute actually? Sorry."

"Making sure my son knows everything is okay."

"I have the rest of my patrol to get to," she says, as one of the flock ascends to the point where it can telescopically read the screen. "I can leave you a bot but I can't stand here for long."

Lorica has mail!

My place, probably better to chat inside or later. Unsure about bot.

OH that makes sense. I will leave them alone, sorry.

Lucien shows at HQ not too long after Lorica.

"Um. Thanks."

"Anytime, sorry about your cover."

"Nothing you could have done. I'm still not sure whether to leave the bots in place given that you offering them wasn't related to my being a Ward."

"Tell it to shoo and it'll shoo," she shrugs. "I'll need to recall it sooner or later anyway, most likely."

"Mhm, mostly worried people will draw the right conclusion for the wrong reason."

"Um. Thanks for helping my parents."

"Well, I can truthfully say I would have done the same for anybody. Sorry I thought you were in a gang."

"Heh, my mom told me she almost laughed the first time a neighbor accused me of being a punk."

"You really don't have that vibe at all, but I suppose you come and go at odd hours."

"I'm a noctis cape. There's a PRT manufactured excuse about how I have a real late shift at McDonalds, but people tend to be suspicious given my parents. Um."

"Lucky. I mean, except for how it's not. But your neighbors can't be looking into your bedroom, can they? How are they noticing?"

"They notice me arriving home around 6am on weekends or leaving at 2am on weekdays, I think."

"Do you want to ask my dad to pick you up?"

"Your dad works at those times?"

"Not usually but not never."