Amber had barely gotten any sleep the last night, constant images of blood and Aura cutting men to pieces kept entering her her dreams and causing her to wake up in a cold sweat. Last night had been the most terrifying thing in her entire life. Men had come out and attacked her big sister Aura and Aura had fought back, killing and maiming them. There were bullets and explosions (due mostly to her friend Kaitlyn, a little girl who apparently actually could blow things up with her mind and didn't just have an overactive imagination). She never ever wanted to experience that kind of hatred and violence again but, according to Aura, because she was a mutant that's what she had to look forward to.

If all of that wasn't enough, a very profound discovery was also made that night, in the midst of all the chaos. Amber, far from being a powerless mutant teenager, actually had a power. The power, apparently, to turn into a dinosaur. She still didn't have the slightest idea how she had done it; the chaos and stress of the entire situation seemed to have triggered it, but it was indisputable that it had been done. Ameber. Could turn into dinosaurs.

It made sense, really, looking back on things. Her eyes hadn't changed until she had handled the two fossils. Each fossil sent a jolt of energy through her system, though she had no idea why at the time. And now, she could turn into dinosaurs. Or at least one dinosaur, but it corresponded with the species of one of the fossils she had touched so it made sense that she might be able to turn into the other one also. Maybe. Hopefully. Because that. Would. Be. Awesome!

Because of her profound failure to actually sleep, Amber had decided that, maybe, she should try to figure out how to use her power. Unfortunately, the only idea that she had to go on was based on Kaitlyn, whom she had found a couple of days ago trying to blow a carrot up with her mind. Carrots weren't like to help Amber so instead she sat down and thought really hard about dinosaurs and about becoming a dinosaur. Unfortunately, it didn't work. Not one inch of flesh changed to either scales or feathers, not one nail elongated into a claw, not one tooth became sharper than any other tooth. So she gave up and started wandering around Sanctuary. Which, consequently, is when she spotted the girl with the dragonfly wings. Really really cool dragonfly wings. And that was when she started following the girl with the wings at a respectable distance. Because, why wouldn't she follow a girl with awesomely amazing dragonfly wings?

Exactly! Why wouldn't someone want to fallow a girl with dragon fly wings. The question wasn't a question in Pix's mind, but a statement. A challenge to anyone Petunia Gardener experience to ponder and either agree that girls with dragon fly wings are just filled with awesomeness, or disagree and be doomed for all eternity. For to be bugged is an instant reminder to think of Pix. (And if it wasn't before it should be now.*Sage nod*)

It hadn't taken long for Petunia to realize that she was being followed. The sanctuary halls were filled with people who looked odd, but most of the time it was absent of those who were in the process of oddly looking. Respectful distance or not. If there was ever an unspoken rule at the Order HQ it was that it was fulled with different looking mutants and that staring was rude. Breaking said rule on the streets was asking for attention. Breaking said rule here.... well Petunia couldn't help the consequences of her actions. Besides. Who's to say that they would be bad this time?

Pix made her way around a corner then stopped just on the other side waiting for her follower to peak around it. Waiting to poke the tip of the following nose as it came around the corner with her other hand on her hip. "You.. .. .. Could at least say hi."

Amber wished she could simply go up to the amazing dragonfly winged lady and introduce herself and tell her how much she loved the beautiful wings. She was far too shy, however, and certain that she would be rejected in an instant if she was to do something like that. So, she simply continued to watch and admire from a distance, not realizing that what she was doing was considered to be incredibly rude in the new mutant world that she was a part of. Would she ever really get used to all the new social rules she would have to learn?

Because Amber was so busy fretting about the finer details of her new reality, she didn't realize when the when the woman stopped and almost ran right into her only managing to stop mere inches from the collision. She looked at her, absolutely horrified not only that the target of her admiration had spotted her but had also chosen to confront her. She wanted to crawl up into a little ball and simply disappear from sight. How could she have done something so stupid?

"I-I-I'm s-sorry. I-I j-just thought your w-wings were so p-pretty and I-I d-didn't w-want to bother y-you." Amber barely managed to get the words out properly and her normally unnaturally pale features turned a bright embarrassed red. She felt an itching, almost a pain, in the tops of her hands.

The girl could hardly talk when Pix let her catch up to her, and Pix liked that. She liked making people nearly speechless. They were much more entertaining than actually speechless, and they were much easier to hold a conversation with. Unfortunately for petunia, she did not notice anything other than simple stammering and words of worship coming out of this young girl's mouth.

Petunia smiled with her with her perfectly white teeth and dimpled cheeks. Her finger moved down from pointing directly at the girls nose to touch her lips and make her stop stuttering if she was going to continue. When you can shrink to the size of a house fly, you really stop thinking about other people's personal space. There for Petunia wasn't thinking or really paying any attention to any changes that might be going on in this young lady.

"Don't apologize, don't stutter, just come out and say it next time." Petunia instructed. "And if you're going to sneak around and follow someone, get better at it."

Having the dragonfly woman put her hand onto Amber's lips did not make things any better for her. Not only was she a private person by nature, but people just didn't touch her. Wrapped up in her veil and cloak as she almost always was, people were normally too afraid to get near her, let alone actually lay a hand on her and she felt the invasion of personal space acutely.

"I d-don't th-think I c-c-can s-stop s-stuttering." When she was nervous her stuttering always got worse and right now she was definitely nervous. Oh, how could she have done something so stupid as follow someone around and just assume that she wouldn't be noticed? How could she have just assumed that they would be fine with it if she was noticed? She wanted to disappear.

Amber's nervousness enhanced the itching pain in her hands and it began moving up her arms. When it became to strong to simply ignore she looked down and let out a surprised shriek. Dull brownish green scales had begun appearing on the back of her hands and were quickly spreading up her arms. Claws had started to grow out of her fingers. She was definitely not trying to transform and tried desperately to reverse the process but as panic built because of the unwanted changes, it only seemed to accelerate the situation and make it worse.

Petunia kept her hand up on where the girl's lips would be. She didn't see a reason to move away and personal space was never at the front of her thoughts. "Of course you can stop." Petunia began. She paused as her green eyes stared straight into where she could see a little bit past the vale and mask. She had the desire to see what was hidden however for now she resisted the urge to peak.

"I suggest thinking things through right now." Petunia said. Both intending to point out how her speech could improve and how she was going to have to handle meeting other mutants. "Breath and...." petunia leaned back so that she could straighten her arm, though this didn't take her very far back from the other girl. Just far enough that she could properly view the other girls hands.

That was interesting.... Petunia dropped her hand from the other girls face. Forget stopping the stuttering. This girl had the potential of being a lot of fun. Much like mother nature, the mutant goddess among insects sensed a weakness and she intended on taking full advantage. The smile on Petunia's face grew and she glanced back up at the other girl. Swaying slightly so she could look through her vale.

Petunia let her skin begin to crawl. Just to see the reaction. Just as she was standing there her skin wiggled as if there were fingers poking at a plastic bag stretched tight. then the bugs wiggled free dragon flys wasps, and horse flys flew up between the two swarming the girl in the vale.

Amber tried to concentrate on what the girl with the dragonfly wings was saying to her. Just breath and be calm and maybe it would all go away. OK, so maybe the be calm part was added only in her own head, but that seemed like good advice anyway. It was hard to concentrate through the pain but she began to make progress as, first the scales stopped in their tracks and then, very slowly, began to recede, disappearing back into whatever ether they had come from to begin with. She wasn't about to question that part of it, she was just relieved that she seemed to be winning.

Unfortunately, just as Amber was starting to become more herself again, the dragonfly woman had to do something even more disturbing and frightening than she had all ready done. Her skin began to wreathe and squirm and bugs started burrowing their way out of it. If Amber had thought she was starting to get used to some of the oddities of the mutants around her, this display proved her very much wrong.

With another scream, this one of real pain, Amber completely lost the tentative control of her power. Green gray scales erupted all across her flesh, sharp teeth and claws reappeared and she began shrinking at an alarming rate. Through the pain of dying, twisting flesh, Amber watched in horror as the world around her got larger and larger until it finally stopped growing and she found herself, no larger than a chicken, standing in the midst of a pile of her robes. She chirped in confused anger at the girl far above her.

oh a scream and not just of fear, but of pain. Even from her fellow mutant, Petunia marveled in the sound. The rest of what was happening, Petunia wished she had a video camera for. Why the transformation was fascinating. Even if much of it was blocked from her by the vale.

Petunia turned into bugs all of the time. She had always liked the idea that she could do this, and would sit in movie theaters where there were movies of people turning into things, morphing is what the movie industry called it. only Petunia would critique how the special effects artists had done it. it was one thing to Morph into something first hand. It was a completely different thing to see it done.

Again, Fascinating.

What was left before petunia was a dinosaur the size of a chicken. All be it, much more rotten looking flesh, but petunia paid no attention to weather meat was rotten or ransid these days. To answer the true question. did all meats taste like chicken? This cute little thing was now the right size.

The chirp of confused anger made Petunia's smile widen and crease her cheeks. She reached out to grab the small thing by what would be the back of it's neck. Her bugs that she had made, just circled around the two of them as Petunia kept the insects swarming just in case the dino girl had other surprises.

"You really could have just said hi."

Amber did not like the dragonfly-winged woman at all. Clearly it had been a mistake to follow her around and now she was paying for that error in judgement. If only she had more experience in her current form she might be able to fight back. She knew she had some pretty vicious little teeth and claws. The difficulty lay in the fact that her control of her dinosaur forms was still rather shaky.

Amber let out another angry chirp as the now much larger woman reached down to try and grab her. She skittered out of the way, barely managing to avoid the outstretched hand. She was pretty sure she woudln't be able to keep up the agile dodging for long, however. Then there were the swarming bugs which weren't any more pleasant from down there was they had been when she was human sized.

What Amber most wanted to do was run and find a place to hide until she was able to regain her usual form. Her clothes, she was pretty sure, she could come back for later. Or on second thought, maybe she wouldn't want to come back for them later because who knew what the bugmancer might do to them. She let out a louder chirp, hoping that someone would come and rescue her.