Dan is caught off guard by the sound of the other man’s voice and nearly trips over himself in surprise, shooting the proton gun directly into the concrete. He watches it ricochet off building walls and windows before blasting a hole through the dumpster, and nearly drops the gun from the recoil and the shock. He spins around to meet eyes with the other man and nervously chuckles.     ‘–It’s nothing to worry about! I promise. It’s just… science.’

     ‘ Science. ’   

     Michael’s a little stunned to say the least, recovering from mere seconds before when he’d been forced to duck to avoid debris from the dumpster the man just blew up. Science. Science. How the hell is this science?   ‘ Do you even have a permit for that thing? ’   A gun, it looks like a gun. But it’s hooked up to some sort of pack on the man’s back and Michael looks from tech to face to marginally trembling hands and back to the nervous smile. Yeah, bud, you look a teeny tiny bit guilty. Gotta work on that.   

     ‘ Hey! Uh, sorry--- ’   

     Probably not a great time he’s walked into but hey! call it a cop’s prerogative! A good chunk of years spent firing guns and working the streets and busts gone wrong all accumulating in a shit tonne of nervous reflexes, a tendency to jump to the worst conclusion, and a pathological need to check out anything that sounds remotely suspicious! ( Even if it’s technically not his jurisdiction. Whoops? ) But it sounded like a gunshot and even though it very clearly is not --- in fact, he’s not sure what the hell is going on here, in the alley out back of what looks like a firehouse --- he’s here and might as well ask . . . 

     ‘ ---Everything alright here? ’