"And here's the garden. As you can see..." Amelia noted. Her descriptions droned on in the background as the girl she was showing around lost her focus, and let her mind wander. She was oddly quiet as she let her gaze drift. Her guide's mouth kept moving, despite the fact that the person it was talking to had ceased listening, and was tuning her out.

The girl was 5'6", just a hair taller than Amelia, with a far curvier figure. Her hair was brown, cut short, in a bob, and her eyes were of a similar color. She hadn't said much during the tour. The greeter had been most helpful, but she hadn't asked too many questions. It had been easy enough to say any old thing in response to the ones she had. It wasn't that the mansion hadn't caught her interest. That would have been a lie. It was just... well. There would be plenty of time to talk about THAT later.

The morning was cold. It was just around ten, and there was still the faintest hint of a frost on some of the mansion's grounds. As they walked along, they passed rose bushes that looked ready for the winter. Weaker plants were further along, while the stronger ones stood against the cold. From where they were at the garden's entrance, not too far from the hedge maze, they could see a line of trees along one side of the mansion grounds. Leaves of every October color clung carefully to branches, or rested on the grass, ready to crunch underfoot. It was the sort of morning one wouldn't expect to find someone outside on. Indoors was usually warmer. The sky was still grey. It hadn't bitten through the morning chill. So it was all the more strange that the two girls weren't alone.

"Oh, hello," Amelia said, noticing the unfamiliar face. "Out for a morning walk?"

The brown-haired girl's eyes snapped to the boy, and narrowed imperceptibly, then softened a split second later. She nodded and grunted a 'hello.'

Cold weather. Pretty much everyone else was complaining about it, and his morning visits from that blasted bird were just getting more frequent, but in terms of comfort this was the best autumn Ai'd ever had. It almost made his emotional and societal statuses balance out on the really nice days. Almost.

At any rate, he was in a good mood for the extended circumstances and he was wandering back from his morning run. There were a few spots to his t-shirt that weren't quite sure if they should be stiff or not, but he figured they wouldn't be too obvious to anyone happening past. At least, they should be less obvious than the fact that he was wearing a t-shirt and thin pants while there was frost lingering this late into the day.

Aiden flipped his headphones off his head and around his neck as he approached the mansion, having shut off his music some time before. That was one thing about this weather; it was really easy to pop out a few snowflakes without noticing, and he really didn't want to make anyone trip with a trail of ice or water once he got inside. So! Music only while running, at least until there was snow on the ground anyway. That would be... interesting. He wasn't looking forward to it as much as he might. Yes, cold was good. Snow messed with people, though. Accidents happened.

He was shaken out of his premorbid thoughts by an unfamiliar voice. 'Hm?" He looked up, but didn't recognize either of the two women. "Oh. I was just out running," he answered vaguely. Why did some people like talking to random people with no reason?

Morning walk, no. Morning run, check. The boy had one brown eye and one silver eye. Across his face, from the bridge of his nose to his right ear, there was a scar. It was only interrupted by the off-color silver eye. Whether that was mutation-related or not, Amelia didn't know, but she was at the mansion, so odds of mutation relation were in her favor. For how cold it was, he was dressed lighter than she'd have expected. Some people, the cold didn't bother as much. Maybe he liked it?

He'd seemed surprised when she'd spoken to him. The guy had probably been thinking to himself. Somehow, she got the feeling he wasn't all too interested in talking. Some people were like that. That didn't mean she wasn't going to talk, though.

"My name's Amelia," she put a hand to her chest as she introduced herself. She'd donned a smile in the hope of melting cold shoulders. "I was just showing this girl," a glance towards the brunette. "Aria, around. She's moving into the mansion, and hasn't met many people."

Aria nodded, vague interest flecked in her eyes. She'd actually started paying attention to the conversation. Amelia took it as a good sign.

Well, now he had a name for one more weird person. It did tend to be a bit easier to avoid them when their names weren't a mystery, or so it seemed; at the very least, if people knew they were coming the specific weird-person-name could be a useful warning to everyone else. Except.. she was showing someone around? Who was moving in?

Oh, so the weird girl worked for the school. That was... interesting. So she was one of those official people who was always way happier than they really should be and somehow managed to be even worse at reading situations than he was? Those people were so awkward to deal with. They tended to go away if you just went along with their games, though, so Aiden resigned himself to the awkwardness.

"Aiden," he said by way of introduction. Huh. All a-names. That was always weird when it happened, and the happy-official-unobservant types always loved to go after coincidences like that. At least his name didn't end in an a like theirs; that would just make things even worse. He glanced at the newbie, but nothing stood out that he could see. Just another invisible mutant.

"What's your power?" Aria cut in, voice a touch louder, curiosity clear on her face.

Powers weren't something one usually talked about out of the blue, but the girl was new. Amelia assumed that was the clear cause of the status quo break. Still, sometimes people didn't like talking about their powers without preamble. For some people, their powers were a big part of them. Of their history. For some people, it wasn't easy. She knew what they said about what assuming made of you and me, but she had a hunch that Aiden was one of the people who wouldn't enjoy such a conversation.

Amelia spoke quickly, before Aiden had had a chance to answer, turning towards Aria with a somewhat disproving look. "Aria. Some people don't like to talk about that. It can be rude." Looking back towards Aiden, she added. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

And she was kind of interrupting his run. Maybe Aria needed to see the garden sooner, rather than later.

Aiden was rather proud of himself for catching the majority of his flinch at the girl's question. He wasn't particularly willing to answer that particular species of spine-withering rudeness, though, so he couldn't help but feel grateful to Amelia for stepping in before he could think of some way to pass off the question.

Being told he didn't have to, though, just made it even more awkward. He shifted his weight around. He could probably-not-actually-kill-himself and say something, or he could look like an antisocial idiot. Was this what Cafas meant by socializing? If it was, he rather thought he'd rather go back to holing up in his room and not dealing with anyone. He'd promised, though. And since Amelia worked for the school... well, there was a chance that being antisocial to Amelia would get back to Cafas. Maybe that was enough motivation.

So he looked up, and if he didn't smile - that was out of the question, even if he happened to think about it - he at least didn't glower. "Making snow." It came out a bit more clipped than he intended, but there were definitely warring desires behind his voice. On the one hand, he was supposed to at least be trying to be nice, and biting off peoples heads wasn't just something that wasn't in his nature; it was also most definitely not nice. On the other hand, he really didn't want any more questions. He snuck a glance towards the mansion and freedom.

Snow, huh? Aria had always liked snow. It was cold and pure (until it hit the streets). And beautiful. It always reminded her of herself. Her lips pulled back away from her teeth, and though they weren't, for a moment they certainly looked razor-sharp and jagged. No, wait. They were. That hadn't been a trick of the light. "Perfect," the brunette salivated, practically licking her lips.

She hadn't actually come to the mansion to live there, see? That had been a lie. A falsehood perpetuated as a cover to mask her real goal. As a mutant of the Order, she hated the X-men (and the Mansion, to a similar extent). Pesky brats who got in the way of their grand vision of crushing the humans so they could sit atop all of humanity as homo-superior, better. Stronger. Faster. Almost a Daft Punk song. The mansion and the X-men were hypocrites. Mutants who were better, and took goals to help their fellow mutant, yet worked with the humans, their inferiors, and PROTECTED THEM. It made her toothy smile turn into a vicious sneer.

She hadn't meant to infiltrate the mansion to spy on them, or anything idiotic like that. There were already better people to do that, (not that it mattered). No. It was just that the mansion and the X-men attracted so many juicy mutants, and her own mutation grew stronger whenever she ate.

It happened before either of them could blink. Toothy grin, sneer, and then she was on top of Aiden's shoulder, fangs-deep. Amelia's eyes widened as far as they could. What?

Wait.

What?

Was she eating him? What the hell was happening!? "Aria. Aria. Stop. Why. Don't. You--" She didn't normally hit students. It usually wasn't allowed. But the second they started biting into other mansion residents shoulders, she figured it was allowed. The first two knuckles of her right fist connected with the brunette's cheek, right below her lips by her jaw, and she flew. Tumble, tumble, after two rolls she stopped, nails dug into the frosty ground.

Aria bared her teeth in a feral snarl. "Bitch!"

But Amelia wasn't paying attention to her. For the moment, her concern was on the poor guy who'd gotten bit. She knelt by his side. "Are you alright?" Her words were harried and frantic. "It doesn't look like her teeth were too sharp. There isn't much blood. I don't know why she did that, but--"

...

Aiden didn't quite have a moment to ponder how creepy the whole situation was becoming before the newbie was flying at him. His back hit the ground. The impact drove the air from his lungs. That was somehow more noticeable than the pain spiking through his shoulder - no, wait, there was the pain. If he hadn't already been on the ground, he would have reeled. Where his fainting spells tended to fade quickly, though, the vibrating pain just kept trucking even though the assailant was gone. He hadn't noticed that.

Amelia's voice broke through a haze of light-streaked shadow he hadn't realized he remembered. He shook his head, tried to clear it, and the memory of spring ceded to the reality of autumn. "I'll be fine," he said tightly but without too much difficulty as he forced himself to at least sit up. He refused to look at his shoulder or the hand he had pressed to it. Why that shoulder again? It was like everything nasty thought his right shoulder was the perfect target.

A flicker of movement. Aiden turned his head to see Aria on her feet and coming back. What a day to go running. He should have at least been working with his batons. Then he could at least try to trip the maniac. His alternative was to stare in horror.

... And she was coming back again. Again. Why was this happening? Though there would be plenty of time to ponder that mystery later, for the moment, action took precedence over reverie. Aria was flying, teeth bared, gums cutting a mild line of difference between dangerous fangs and lips. A picture of a big white Mario style glove appeared in her mind as she drew back her arms, sleeve ends dangling through the motion. Then, she forced the image and her arms forward in a hard shove. A white hand, vaguely see-through, like morning mist, thrust forward at the oncoming girl's chest.

The blow hit her directly in the chest, and pushed her backwards as hard as if the dark-haired girl had hit her again. Air escaped her mouth in an angry hiss, and she shook herself, working up to another profane enunciation. She let it rip viciously. Amelia was unimpressed.

The white hand continued to hover, cartoonish, in the air in between them. It was still white, still vaguely see-through, and slightly larger than your average hand.

"Stay back," the words came out of Amelia strained with stress. "I'm warning you."

"Stupid girl," the Aria-Monster sneered. "Like THAT is going to happen." She wiped a line of spittle from her chin, and tilted her head slightly in a grin. "My, but your power looks tasty, too."

A hand went down to Amelia's pocket, for her cellphone. She held it backwards without turning, pointed towards Aiden's chest. She didn't take her eyes off the attacker as she insisted. "If you can, make a phone call. Get the X-men. We need to handle this mess." He was injured, sure, but it hadn't looked so bad. Unless he was delirious, he should be able to make a basic phone call. "If you need the number, I'll tell you." She added. Just in case he was completely out of sorts.

Apparently even getting bitten by some psycho muttering about tasty powers wasn't enough to make Aiden give up entirely on being surprised by mutants. Floating see through hands punching people. That was... different. And kind of reminded him of Mario's gloves, but that was beside the point. With Amelia holding off the attacker, he pushed himself back to his feet. His shoulder seemed to be settling down a little bit, but the quiet litany of 'what the hell' running through the back of his head was as strong as ever.

Phone. X-men. Yes. Hopefully it was Cafas on duty right now. He forced himself to breathe. Phone number. He knew it. It was one of the few phone numbers he did know. He'd made himself learn it. It was.... got it! "Uh.." He poked at the phone, then looked for the power button. Pushing it, or pushing and holding it, did nothing. "I think the battery's dead," he said hesitantly, still poking things on the off chance it was just a really weird design. It was awkward too, since he was still holding onto his shoulder and trying to keep blood from getting on the phone, which meant balancing it far enough away to be clear but close enough that he could still see if anything popped up on the screen.

He grimaced. Wrenching his fingers around trying to meddle with the phone was pulling on his shoulder, and the throbby achiness was threatening to spread further down his arm. Couldn't the crazy girl give up on this already and just go away?

Phone dead? Her's? "Christ!" She muttered, at no one in particular. When it rained, it poured. It must've been low the night prior. She hadn't checked. She'd been too busy with homework for college, and... a sigh escaped her as she held her hand back for him again. "Give it back."

She felt the cell phone's plastic against the skin of her hand as he pressed it into her palm. She slipped it away, back into her pants pocket without a word.

Her eyes focused back on the brunette, just in time to realize she hadn't been the polite fighter she'd thought she was. The girl hadn't stopped attacking, just because Amelia had been putting away her phone. She'd been stupid, dropped her eyes for a second, and in that second, the girl had closed the gap.

Her arms came up in front of her in a defensive posture, blocking the first punch. Knuckles smashed against her forearms hard enough to leave bruises. One strike hit, then another. She moved her body to minimize the impact, and brush the blows away. Like a dance, she side-stepped and slipped closer to her opponent. Down and around, her arms moved defensively. The other girl wasn't a martial artist, just a common brawler, but somehow, she got around the guard and locked with Amelia. Their hands both somehow found their ways into either girl's hair. Then, it was a hair-pulling match. Amelia struggled to get the upper hand, as both girls screamed and spat names.

Perhaps the phone thing wasn't such a good idea after all. It distracted everyone but the crazy rabid girl.

Oh god, what if she wasn't just crazy but was actually diseased? He didn't want to die. He definitely didn't want to die of something like rabies. What did he know about it? The foaming at the mouth and going bite-crazy was common knowledge. Was rabies really lethal in itself, or did you just go along infecting other people until someone pulled out a gun and put you down?

If he did end up getting rabies from this, he suspected he'd appreciate dying a whole lot more.

Oh god, the girls were screeching at each other. Terrifying things, girls. He should... just stay out of the way. In case he was now infected. Spontaneous insanity and attempts to bite Amelia probably weren't welcome. If he stayed out of the way, he could at least maybe give her some warning... or maybe direct his insanity into running the other direction?

It was a battle without honor or humanity. There were claws. Hissing. Spitting. Elbows and knees. While one girl raked at the others eyes, the other one tried to get a good foot-hold for a rising knee. Amelia moved her head out of the way of the downward slash, but a nail caught her chin. She sucked in a hiss of air as her right foot found placement. Weight shifted, and her left knee came up at the girl's gut. Unfortunately for someone (and Amelia wasn't sure who), the brunette shifted at the last second, and it came in low.

A grunt of pain bit through the cold morning air as Aria stepped back, doubled over and clutching at her stomach (even though the pain was lower). Sweat was on her brow, and a single drop of a tear was in the corner of her eye. She swore viscerally, when she could manage it. "You witch!" She added, less viscerally. "The hell was that?!"

Usually, it was men who didn't like getting kicked between the legs. But hey. It hurt on ladies, too. While she was doubled over, Amelia took the initiative. It wasn't like the girl had been a sportsmanlike opponent. Fighting dirty was a fair play. Her right foot rose in answer to the cursing girl's query. And she put her boot through the other girl's face.

... Maybe not through the face. That might've been extreme wording. But what she did do sent the other girl down on her butt and clutching at her nose. Red dripped between the heel of her hands and her chin. Her boot hadn't been clean, either. There'd been dirt and mud. It showed.

"Just stay down," Amelia said, contempt mixed with disgust and boredom in her voice. "Are you still okay?" She directed the question towards Aiden, without making the mistake of losing focus to turn away. The guy hadn't said much, since he'd given her back the phone. She lobbed in in the bag with reactions normal people have to being bit. Shock or panic. Or letting the big girl fight while you licked your wounds. It sucked that she'd had to take the matter into her own hands. Why couldn't her phone have been charged, so the X-men could have 'saved the day'? She was mad at herself over that, more than anything. She wasn't a freaking X. There was zero reason to act like one.

A hand idly ran through the tangled mess of her hair. Jesus, she needed a comb.

Extreme sympathy briefly overcame paranoia, and Aiden promised to himself that he would never get into a fight with Amelia or anyone like her. At least, he promised himself that once he stopped cringing quite so badly. That was low...

And the face. Why the face? But nope, he wasn't going to react to that. Lifting his arm involved flexing shoulder muscles. So not doing that. No. No exacerbating the rabies-bite. Oh gooooddd he was probably going to die. Even if he didn't really have a whole lot of awesome stuff planned he didn't want to die. He didn't want to be dead.

He may have stared at Amelia for a few moments before he stopped wailing in his head about not wanting to die, and then he stared for a bit at how calm and disheveled she looked. ... was he sure it was the crazy one who'd bitten him? Because kicking people in the gonads and face and then calmly fixing your hair was not normal. That was what the crazy people did shortly before sloooowwly turning to look at you with a creepy little smile and then ripping your guts out.

Okay, breathe. Amelia probably wasn't crazy. Maybe she was just more used to... beating people into the dirt... than she looked. Yeah. Right. Because that wasn't worse than being crazy. He'd still take it. It was less likely to be contagious. "If she doesn't have rabies," he said, a little weakly. Please let her be clean.

Rabies. Good point. "Do you think that's something we should worry about?" If it was, that'd be one big needle in his future, just to be on the safe side. The girl wasn't fighting anymore. Maybe they could just bring her along and get HER checked. Long sleeves, Amelia noted, as she took the whole of the crazy girl in. The white hand moved, as if suddenly being remembered, and drifted down to clamp around the girl's forearms like a big set of cuffs. It wouldn't be perfect, but... for now, it kept her in place.

The girl's pupils dilated as her eyes widened at the sudden imprisonment. It was muffled, but Amelia understood the girl's first response.

"Your mother must be proud of your vocabulary," she sighed. The white hand tugged the girl to a full standing position as Amelia muttered "Get up." They were going to the main mansion building. She was going to miss out on the garden due to her bad behavior. She might even get arrested.

Amelia looked at Aiden where he sat on the ground. "Do you need help getting up?" She asked. Softer, she added. "Do you want me to call anyone? Doc Prof, maybe? He might be able to help with that bite..."