‘Oh, I guess that the chocolate bar was too heavy for the table. Or the backpack, I appreciated the thought though. Thank you for returning it to me. Could I please move now to pick it up? I’m not completely clear on police procedure.’

Duke smiled at the police officer. He was trying his best to be polite given the circumstances. Under all situations involving other humans, he was to follow the rules that the professor had educated him with. He didn’t want to disappoint his mentor.

‘Sir, you are free to leave. You can pick up your belongings and I’ll ask a janitor to check out that table. We don’t tolerate violence here though. Are we clear on that?’

‘My mistake Officer.’

Duke considered that if there had been a recording of him inside the room all it would have shown was him talking to the middle-aged woman with the eyepatch, stressful body language and then a mysteriously self-collapsing table.

He had not used any visible physical forces on it so clearly there was no evidence.

‘I think I will leave soon. This type of room brings back ancient memories.’

The young police officer just nodded as she walked over to the remains of the table and roughly dumped in into a corner of the interrogation room. The chocolate bar was near-crushed so she picked her up and tossed it with the rest of the broken furniture.

The small green backpack, banana and bottle of water were completely untouched so she zipped open the side of the pack and placed them inside before putting them next to Duke’s chair where he remained seated.

‘Sir, I need to remind you that you are free to go. I’m sure that someone at the front desk can verify this. This is not a visitor centre, this is a police station. Respect our authority please, and please take your belongings with you.’

Duke nodded and crossed his legs and arms. Recording or not he was still going to get in trouble with the Professor once she heard about this. Her friend, the loud one earlier, who he considered an aunt would let her know directly.

Or the General as she preferred to be called by both civilians and officials.

‘Of course. I just…need a moment longer to make sure I’m settled. I had…a shock. Yes. A moment longer if you would please.’

Limited use of power in response to a stressful or difficult situation was permitted only under the circumstances that it was not done under a forced situation. Causing a minor discomfort or shock to a fellow human being was permissible but nothing that would cause any physical or psychological damage. It was against rule six.

I promise and I stick to them. But I’m getting bored now.

The police officer nodded her head sharply in response before slowly moving towards the open interrogation room door with one hand on her closed holster before she became self-aware and realised her action. Her hand dropped away quickly. Unconscious instinct had caused her to react. Whoever had heard of a suspect being left in an unlocked room with no supervision or even being formally arrested. Something was wrong with this whole situation.

She had been warned about the particular dangerous environment that could occur, and her tactical training gave her some insight, but she had been one of the unlucky few uniforms to see the biological mess left behind in the alleyways in person. The memory of it still made her stomach turn.

‘Hello?’

Duke saw that the young police officer was still standing by the doorway watching his movements. From her eyes she appeared to be thinking deeply about the situation.

‘Officer? Excuse me?’

She ignored the words of Duke, her mind stuck in her own thoughts.

Any suspect could be considered friendly until they were entirely proven innocent. They had all been briefed by the station Captain who had told them under all circumstances not to talk to a specific individual who was entering the station but was not under arrest. They were to be understanding towards his needs and the undisclosed agents that would be responsible for him.

The hag with the eye patch had been a headache for her. She was old and dressed like she was trying to be younger, but she held authority on some level. At least according to her police captain. Inter-service cooperation he had called it. A training exercise in which they would all be evaluated and checked against their service records.

If Duke showed any signs of discomfort on the pale face of the hesitant police officer, he failed to show any form of emotional recognition or understanding. He decided to be considerate once more and asked the uniformed officer her name.

‘Hello, the other officers refused to talk for some reason, but might I know your name please?’

He tried his best to give a bright smile once again and rested his body in a relaxed position.

The female police officer paused for a moment. This was not correct procedure, innocent or otherwise the suspect had been brought to a room to be interrogated for a crime or otherwise. The whole situation was odd in her eyes but a higher authority was in charge right now.

Duke muttered words under his breath so quietly that any living being would have struggled able to clearly recognise what he was speaking.

‘One polite police officer, check. One scared human, check.’

The young woman turned, one hand resting gently on the holster of her sidearm, fingers lightly tapping on the hard case.

‘Well, it’s not usual to tell a suspect the name. But you are free to go. For what it’s worth I’m sorry about the table, we might have a ghost in here.’

She chuckled at her own attempt at humour as a deeper smile was returned by the young man sitting in the metal chair. He looked like he was trying his best to be polite and accommodating in her eyes, crossing his arms and legs the way he was and his clothes made him seem cute even in a way.

Chris thought for a moment and considered her options. He’d not reacted with any extreme violence or shown a harsh temper and it wasn’t as though he’d been brought in on murder or any other charges that she was aware of.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Letting him know her name wouldn’t hurt. Would it? As long as he didn’t expect her to give out her contact details, she was still a police officer after all.

Her dark skin glistened under the lights as she adjusted her uniform slightly by the doorway. She looked Duke directly in the eyes. Unafraid. She’d either heard his comment or decided to ignore it and confront him anyway.

‘My name is Chris. Officer Chris. I’ll get you your chocolate. Be right back.’

‘Thank you.’

Duke smiled at her with what he considered his best social smile.

The one he most often used during his work in the museum and when he needed to interact with colleagues that he was unfamiliar with. Just a hint of teeth and allowing his eyes to relax.

She smiled back brightly back at Duke before she left the room, her face showing no signs of annoyance and instead patience. Her movements were slow and steady.

Duke didn’t like it when he was wrong. It made things out of order and made him feel annoyed. This game had gone on too long now. He felt tempted to take further action but all of his movements were being monitored right now.

Unless he decided to change the rules of the game a little. A few wiped memories and security cameras would be a small price to pay rather than him losing his temper.

Duke considered his options for a few more seconds before he stood up from his chair and waved a hand at the one-way glass. It wouldn’t do much but for now it would gradually weaken until it broke. That would serve as a reminder for trying to keep him locked up against his will.

The funny part was that it would only shatter with a certain amount of impact. The next time that they had a suspect in this room who threw a chair or their body weight against the glass from the inside it would immediately shatter.

Duke decided that since they had been so kind to leave the door opened he needed to step outside and have a quick view of the place. As long as he acted accordingly it was doubtful that he would be assessed.

One of the tricks that he had learnt from his mother had been that as long as you acted if you belonged in a place than it leant you an air of authority. Not even close to a real magic trick but he figured that he’d spent enough of his time locked up inside a room against his will.

He had no desire to make it last even a few more hours when he’d experienced centuries of boredom. Duke needed two things right now, chocolate and mental stimulation. He did wonder what types of chocolate that police stations stocked and if they were any better than the small convenience store.

Walking over to the door he suck his head outside to see several uniformed police officers walking seemingly in a hurry while they paid no attention to his interrogation cell.

He watched as they headed towards a set of stairs and judging by the sound of their footsteps they headed up. Looking out through his door he saw a corridor with several locked doors on alternate sides before they ended with a set of stairs going upwards at the end.

‘Basement interrogation room. Check.’

He walked out into the corridor, with a mild feeling of surprise that there had been no guards standing by or anyone to watch him. There should at least have been an armed escort to take him outside of the chamber or even single officer to direct him towards the exist.

Given his security clearance level within the organisation, this situation wasn’t making a great deal of sense in his mind. Yes, he recognised that the woman with the eyepatch had clearly overstepped the bounds of her authority and the General had been called in to deal with it.

He followed the rules and didn’t cause a fuss though. Even inside the convenience store he had shown one clear trick which although confusing would have occurred instantaneously. The store cameras would have been unable to detect the change.

‘Police escort out of the building and to the relevant authorities. No check.’

For one thing, this wasn’t meant to be how an interrogation was meant to go according to the movies. There should have been a higher level police official watching over him while several police took turns shouting at him.

The unlocked door should have been a sign for that. Duke wondered if there were any other suspects imprisoned in the other rooms or if they contained anything interesting. Indirectly providing their freedom and opening their own doors as his had been could be interesting as long as he did it discreetly.

He was a curious sort of person, if lacking in social skills but he figured that if anyone had been kept isolated for a long period of time they too would become the same out of sheer boredom.

‘Imprisoned for ten thousand years. Check. Or it feels like it. I’m bored, time to go back to work.’

Duke considered granting the gift of freedom to other prisoners. Not arming them obviously, this wasn’t a slave revolt against a tyrant. Time hadn’t been kind to Duke.

All he had wanted was to walk from his job within the cities history museum and then go into the nearest convenience store to purchase a certain brand of chocolate. Still. He had not been given a formal apology nor explanation, a few more little magic tricks might teach them a lesson not to disturb his peace of existence.

Duke knew that his mother, the Professor would have done far worse with her temper if he had been ill-treated. He decided the safest course of action was to return into the waiting interrogation chamber but this time he would close the door behind him.

He would try out a few magic tricks which had been on his mind in the simple confines or the room once he disabled any monitoring devices and wiped them. To change the viewing screen into only showing blurs would be a simple enough trick and after breaking a nice quality table and chairs it would only be fit to rebuild them.

Into a slightly more advanced form, the room itself could do with a little light decoration.

The room would have dirt that came from outside shoes. Dirt that would contain seeds and the possibility of plant life, even outside microbes.

The alternative being the lone, unripe banana that remained inside his backpack. Duke had been most fortunate that he had been left with the one essential that living plants needed, a supply of water in the form of the small bottle.

According to the rules he was permitted to reform matter as long as it was non-organic in nature and not applied to either sentient or living creatures above a certain size.

Some greenery and scents would make it a more refreshing environment. Duke smiled at the thought, a little use of the wood and metal along with a fresh banana tree would surely be a pleasant surprise and the alteration would not be too extreme.

Just enough to make it more accommodating towards its next guest but not enough to cause serious change. With luck even, it would be considered a prank or a practical joke which police officers on their off-duty hours would deign to consider.

Mixing the remains of the mushed chocolate bar and its contents with the banana to create a new type of plant would go against the rules of nature though. Banana plants could be shipped in, but too may changes would get him into more trouble that he already was.

Besides, Duke was bored and idle hands and minds would create chaos unless he was able to channel his energy. Better to do friendly tricks than let himself get consumed with annoyance.

The room would be fit for a Princess after his hard work. Duke prepared himself mentally before stepping back into the room before focusing on the door and fusing the lock with a simple touch before he began.

‘Cameras and monitoring devices. Check. Transfiguration according to strict guidelines, check.’

Duke mused to himself if the friendly police officer would appreciate this act. He doubted that anyone would believe her if she came out with any theories but he would ask the Professor to make sure that she didn’t get in too much trouble for his actions.

‘And all I wanted was a bar of chocolate. Soon.’