One of the first things her grandfather had taught her was how to be aware.. everywhere. It was surprising how little people looked up when they milled about their daily lives which explained her particular situation. It had started off as a wonderful day. Warm without being too hot, a gentle breeze that rustled the leaves of the trees, and a perfectly sized branch for her to sit on. She hadn't even needed to use her powers to get up elderly tree. Sheer tenacity, strength and experience accomplished that goal well enough.

Her sister was busy exploring the library or the nooks and crannies the house. Himari however had felt the need to feel the wind in her hair and hear the sounds of nature the little private forest offered. There was always someone around in the city and the more isolated nature of the mansion gave it a certain 'get away from civilization' quality she currently basked in.

That was until she heard the rather anger provoking comments towards the 'weird cat mutant with two tails' that could only be her sister. Then had the further irritation of hoping they could find someone or something in the hedge maze to pick on. Eyes narrowed to slits she rolled backward off the branch and landed several feet down onto her feet with a predatory grace despite her backpack and the art container sealed up on her back. Someone was certainly going to get their comeuppance and it wasn't going to be some innocent victim. 

She trailed after her victims and removed the Shakuhachi from its place. Minutes later a willowy sound coursed through the maze. The thicket of hedges distorting the sound even further to give it a rather oppressive and haunting quality. She of course making sure not to play for too long at a time lest they pinpoint the source. It was a glorious game of chase and haunt. Until one of the boys went full freak out mode and lost control. Hedges growing over and distorting in an ugly manner blocking light from overhead. THe clean lines and rows becoming much less so. Branches snapping out and lashing at his friends and imagined enemies alike. 

"Eh?" She murmured to herself and darted away from the suddenly claustrophobic garden after the boys who didn't even know she existed until getting separated as a new hedge sprung up in her path. The two 'survivors' finding their way out, scratched and battered. Looking for more adult help.

Elizabeth turned the page in her book and clamped down on it so no errant breeze would flip it back or cause her to lose her place. Lying at her feet, Zorro, her German Shepherd, gave no indication of caring what she did, other than the tiniest of ear flickers as the brush of page upon page made a slight noise.

Liz had spent the better part of the afternoon outside, refamiliarizing herself with the mansio’s ground and introducing Zorro to them for the first time. Her parrot, Nico, was perched on the back of her bench, his wings half extended and sunning himself.

Walking the grounds also helped keep her out in front of students, so they could get an idea of who she was before the school year started, giving them as much time as possible to warm up to her.

Then she felt a note of alarm, just a moment before Zorro picked up his head and Nico started to ruffle his feathers.

“Miss! Miss! Hey, ma’am!”

Liz looked up and was glad she had a wide-brimmed hat to shade her eyes as two kids came running pell-mell toward her.

“You’re a teacher right?” the girl said breathlessly. “We need your help!” the boy added.

Liz closed her book. “Yes, I am a teacher,” she said swiftly. “Now slow down a moment - what’s going on?”

After several minutes of meandering explanations from tired, scared kids about a ghost, maybe a monster, but definitely their friend’s powers going haywire, Liz found herself at the entrance of the hedge maze, Zorro at her side and growling faintly and Nico on her shoulder, glaring at the hedge. “My, how this place has changed. Guess they stopped trimming some years back,” she half-joked. Liz sobered very quickly as she glanced back at the kids. “You two stay here. I’ll be back soon.”

“Let’s go, boys,” Liz said to her pets as she set off into the sudden woods. “Grandmother’s house, here we come.”

Himari was having the time of her life. A big grin plastered on her face as she outran, and sometimes dodged the suddenly enclosing mass of greenery as whoevers powers went wonky. The maze finally settled down some and she took stock of the situation. The tops had been sealed off, leaving the sun to feeble attempt to sift its way through giving everything a twilight feel. After a moment of looking around she shrugged and started walking to find her own way out of the maze. No skin off her nose if bully turned cry baby got himself stuck in the hedge maze for whatever length of time his freakout lasted. Using her own powers were out of the question as she wanted to keep hers a secret.

So it was now a grand game of escape the creepy hedge maze before someone could somehow remotely blame it on her. Even if she was pretty sure she could just say she was exploring and oh noes what a tragedy look what happened that poor kid. That only made her grin widen until a sudden rustling forced her to stop and ready herself. An unfriendly in this situation was going to get a flying knee kick to the face!

Was it still a hedge maze if it wasn’t so much a bunch of hedges as it was a topiary tunnel system? Still a-maze-ing though. Even without the horrible pun. The weak lighting made everything seem gothic. Or was it baroque? “Well if it is, I’m not sure we should fix it!”

Nico nipped her ear.

“I know, I know,” she said with a stifled grin. “I’ll stay serious.” Because it was serious, right? Somewhere in this garden of doom, there was a child who’s powers had spiraled out of control and could very well be in a panicked state of terror. She could relate.

Elizabeth lowered the mental barriers she used to hold back the ever-present ocean of emotions around her. It was worth a shot.

Nico’s annoyance and Zorro’s cool, steadiness washed over her, and at the edge of her psychel she could feel static-like levels of vague feelings, what she normally associated with bugs or very distant critters. Nothing in her range was panicking or displaying discordant emotions. Then again, just about anything sapient would’ve probably fled the hedge if it had come alive like the kids had told her.

“Plan Z it is,” she said, sitting down at the side of the path. She was only twenty or so feet in, but had already turned a corner. “Sentry mode, Nico,” she told her bird, who barely shifted his footing as she shifted her body.

She leaned against a hedge (which was far denser than normal) and reached out and touched Zorro.

A second later, the shadowy world around her lit up with thousands of smells and sounds. But Lizorro was looking for two in particular, the smells of the two kids. If she could find out where they’d been, maybe she could find their friend.

A plain faced, almost ugly looking student rounded the corner in no particular hurry. Himari eeped at the sight of him, cause he wasn't hostile nothing to do with his face, and used a bit of her power to flip over and land on the other side of.. Mr. Calm.. yeah that is what she was going to call him in her head.. for now. Himari was amazed at how calm the boy looked. Granted she was relatively calm too despite the situation, but she was a fighter quite unlike most of the students in the mansion.

Alright Himari first impression time in the middle of a mini crisis. You got this. "Hi! I'm Himari you ok?" As was her usual manner making sure her English was heavily accented on purpose. She wasn't about to blow that cover quite yet! The student turned slowly to regard her with a blank face before nodding. Then that was it. Oooohk. She leaned in closer to the boy and gave him a brief sniff then realization dawned. He was made of earth materials! The face was an impressive mix of pigmented rocks that made him look almost normal. Speaking seemed to be a bit out of reach for him or he just wasn't in the mood too Himari figured. With a shrug. "Ret's go!"

The pace was slow as they made their way to somewhere within the maze. Rocky sort of shuffling along in no particular hurry. Then again she wasn't either. It seemed all the mutanty stuff was do- Then a rush of rustling limbs as the maze displayed its apparent anger. Followed by a rising low rumble, pinpointing the source coming towards her she tilted her head as a wave of foot tall gnome creatures made of plant materials charged at her. A slow heavy hand tapped her shoulder and moved in front of her and the wave of green crashed into the immovable rocky. Little leafy gnome hand scratching and attacking like a band of rabid piranhas to little effect.

Not to be outdone Himari started to smash the creatures apart into kindling with her skills. It seemed to take forever, but with effort they managed to beat down the green horde. Himari pausing a moment to give her companion a complementary "Hmph!" Flashing him a dazzling ear to ear smile before shrugging and continuing on to whatever the maze held next.

Liz rifled through Zorro’s recent memories until she locked onto the scents of the two children who’d summoned her air. Their unique smells burned in Zorro’s mind and opened up a wealth of information, including the tell-tale signs of fear in their wake. Placing their nose to the ground, Lizorro began searching for matching trails.

It wasn’t hard to do. Zorro’s nose was powerful. ”This is it,” she thought to her dog. She could feel his attention shifting and focusing in on the scent. ”Attaboy.”.

Liz severed the connection and heartbeat later was back in her own body. She opened her eyes. “Nico, cease sentry mode,” she said briskly. She pulled herself to her feet and ensured she had a tight grip on Zorro’s leash. “Zorro, follow the trails,” she commanded, lacing her words with determination and urgency. Zorro immediately began to move.

The trio started moving deeper into the maze, backtracking the kids’ path out, but the further they got, the more disturbed Liz grew. So many of the branches and leaves were rattling and rustling, as if they were shuddering with fear. At one point, Liz had placed her hand on a shrub and had barely snatched it back when a series of short vines burst out to try and snare her. She’d been careful to keep Zorro away from the walls from then on.

Even when some of the walls began moving.

And then Liz heard a piercing scream.

Despite the overgrown foliage the scream echoed up into the air. Rocky even took a moment to pause his slow.. slide? To look in the direction of the scream. Himari felt herself sighing some, didn't anyone know how to take care of themselves? The chances of it being a smaller kid notwithstanding everyone in America seemed so helpless. It was rather.. irritating. Not that urban Japanese were any better, but.. ugh! Of course it could have just been the tiniest bit of guilt at being partially responsible for the whole mess. Very minimally.

She tapped the earth spirit teen on the shoulder and made a punching motion with her hand and towards the scream then made a parting motion with her hands at the hedges in the way. Mazes were fun, but not terribly conducive to saving time in emergency situations. If they had been attacked by angry hedges there was no telling what other people were dealing with. Several heartbeats passed as the quartz eyed student pondered her hand gestures before doing a bit of a bownod and rumbling up into the hedges. Coarse vines lashed out at the stone student doing a fair job of polishing up some rougher bits and messing up some of his close before wood groaned and gave with a rent of splintering wood and leaves falling he shoved his way through. Himari almost literally on his heels. Picking up some momentum the next plant wall was easier.. and the one after that even more so until they were making good time in the direction of the scream. The walls entwining themselves back together even as they passed through. In minutes there wouldn't be any trace of their violent passing. 

The scream made Elizabeth’s blood freeze. It wasn’t the scream of some kid getting a gift or meeting their teen pop hero. It was the scream of mortal terror, a sound from her nightmares.

Cold sweat broke out all over the empath. The stakes were even more serious. “Faster, Zorro,” she urged her companion, even though she knew he was going as fast as he could. Still, she layered urgency and impatience into her tones. Zorro began to pick up his pace to the point Liz was having to power walk to keep up.

As they walked, Liz had time to process. There was supposed to be a ghost. Two kids agreed on the story. Was that what was causing the chloromancer’s powers to lash out like this? Liz wasn’t an expert on mutations, but she recognized what was going on around her. Total meltdown. No conscious control and no ability to focus. Possibly pure panic.

Liz remembered such things well. And she was going to do everything she could to help this child.

She reached out with her mind to Nico and pulled on his innate pride and lack of concern. She formed a wall with it to section off the memories and the fear. No, there was a solution here.

Somewhere.

But first she had to find the kid. And the other one. Which one had screamed? What power did the other child have?

So many questions and not enough answers and--

A surge of excitement spiked form in front of her and Liz glanced at Zorro. She knew even before he whuffed that they were close. The scent was so strong. And the walls were getting closer together, and sharp thorns could be seen jutting out.

And finally, they burst into an open area. And Liz froze.