Watching as the young boy sprang up into a perfect copy of himself, Nate could not help but marvel at the unique gift mutation imparted on Chase.

On a more problematic note, Chase gave Nate the impression that his own mind would start overtaking the boy if he waited too long to revert back to himself. Obviously as a good teacher, Nate did not want his student losing his identity by accident, especially when he was just showing off. On a more personal note, Nate's mind had plenty of things in it that he would prefer no one else would delve into. "Well, if that's the case, you can switch back. Little Victoria seems to have the idea now."

Indeed she did. Victoria was handling her headfirst introduction to the mutant world with wonder and amazement, which was much better than trauma and fear. Victoria offered to demonstrate her power to Chase, but given her explanation from earlier, he was apprehensive. "Well... just be careful, hun. Try not to break anything." Nate would quickly lose his tour guide karma points if he allowed a new student to commit property damage so soon.

Chase slid a bashful hand over the watch as Victoria spoke in loud excitement, and referred to it.

"Um... y-yes, usually," Chase murmured in response, "If I want to look like someone quickly and easily."

The doppelganger glanced towards his teacher inquiringly, and Mr. Holloway gave him permission to remove the watch. Chase slid it off, extending his hand to pass the watch back. He didn't unravel into the little blond child that he typically emulated until after Mr. Holloway took his watch back.

Victoria, in-turn, offered to show off her power, which Mr. Holloway permitted with the exception that only so long as she didn't break anything. Chase edged closer to Mr. Holloway, taking a sip of his water. Don't break anything? Sounded dangerous.

Nodding in agreement with her teacher’s assessment of her observation Victoria watched the time piece get handed back. Before her eyes the second Mister Holloway turned back into the boy named Chase. It was quite the sight to behold for the girl.

Victoria responded to both her teacher’s warning as well as Chase’s explanation of his quick transformation by smiling and giving soft spoken. “Ok.” She wondered if Chase had to willingly decide to transform or it if just happened when he touched something, but for now that would have to wait. Right now she needed to find a way to show her resilience.

Different ideas popped in the blonde girl’s head. Should she try to cut herself? No, Mister Holloway might not like her holding a knife. She couldn’t break anything so jumping off the back of the couch to possibly break through the table wasn’t an option. Can’t break anything…that was the dilemma right there. She can’t break…so how to…then an idea sprung up. Probably not her best idea and it would hurt but she could show her mutation without breaking anything.

Looking at her teacher and the boy Victoria smiled and gestured for them to follow her as she bolted down the hallway. “Come on! I’ll show you!” Her voice was excited as she had figured out how to demonstrate for them, but inside she was very nervous.

Running ahead of them back to the library she remembered the ladders that stretched up some of the taller book cases. A couple of them were very tall and would serve to help her exhibition. She climbed up one of the taller ladders as far up as she could go. She was scared and extremely nervous as she really didn’t want to feel pain, but she wanted them both to see for themselves what she could do. The moment they entered the room she shouted. “Watch this!”

Victoria leapt from the ladder towards an open space of the library floor and closed her eyes. She hit the floor with a loud thud quickly followed by her cries of agony as she balled up holding her head and side for a moment before slowly getting up and looking at them. “See?! Didn’t break anything.” Looking to Chase she explained as her teacher already heard her earlier. "I can't break."

Chase transformed back to the young boy Nate was more familiar with, but the teacher was still left wondering if any residual thoughts or memories entered the young boys head. There were plenty of very basic things best left away from the head of the son of a police officer.

Nate considered subtly fishing for hints or clues, but Victoria had other ideas. Something popped into the kid's mind, and she was off running.

With no desire to misplace the one student he was entrusted with for the night, Nate took Chase's hand and led him at a quick pace down the hallways, wondering where on Earth Victoria was going in a Mansion she was still familiarizing herself with.

Eventually, she ended her run at the library, which was a surprising choice, even if he was impressed at how well she recalled the trip through the halls. Before he could wonder what Victoria's idea was, an answer came when she quickly ascended a ladder.

"Um, sweetheart, you sure--" THUD!

Victoria let out some pained sounds that quickly discouraged Nate as he could see the words DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE flash across his eyes in red. He ran over to her as she got to her feet and dismissed the fall.

Nate was still uncomfortable with what he foolishly allowed his new student to do. "Um, hun? I'm very impressed that you can't break! But... um... do you still feel pain?" He was unsure whether the pained shouts were genuine or simply stunning acting for a girl her age. (The acting of a promising con, but he digressed.)

Chase glanced at Mr. Holloway hesitantly as Victoria bolted down the hall, urging them to follow. Mr. Holloway took the boy’s hand in his, while Chase grabbed his free glass of water in the other, and he allowed himself to be led down the hall.

“It’s too late to run,” Chase said with a yawn, shuffling after Victoria with his water glass in-hand. It was too late to run, but not too late to have his curiosity piqued. The shapeshifter followed Victoria as she led the young boy and their teacher into the library. Chase took a sip of his water, wondering as to what would happen next. Would she make the books fly? Or could she read super-fast?

Victoria ran across the library towards ladders that were typically off-limits to students , and started scaling one.

“We aren’t supposed to climb those,” Chase whispered. He wanted to see what she was going to do, but Victoria was breaking the rules.

The girl loudly yelled for them to watch before tossing herself off the top of the ladder, hitting the floor with the thud. Chase let out a sound of horror, fastening onto Mr. Holloway’s shirt as the girl let out a cry.

“She wasn’t supposed to do that!” Chase observed in a panic, his eyes a frightened black. Whatever it was that was supposed to happen, it wasn’t supposed to be that. All at once, the cries stopped, and Victoria got up. As if she hadn’t just curled up in pain, Victoria chipperly proclaimed that she hadn’t broken anything, because she couldn’t break. Mr. Holloway, not buying the confession, questioned the girl hesitantly.

Chase, all the while, stared at Victoria over the edge of his water glass, his irises were still blackened by concern.

“If you don’t break, why did you cry?” Chase murmured his inquiry. He spoke with polite curiosity—for someone who didn’t break, she’d certainly made a lot of noise when she had fallen.

In a flash Mister Holloway was right by her checking her out. She still felt the impact from hitting the floor but it was gradually fading. The only sign of her fall was a red mark on the side of her face near her temple as if she had been lying on her side for too long. Victoria rubbed where the mark was as if doing so made the pain go away faster.

Looking at both her teacher and Chase’s expressions she instantly felt bad. She had scared them both almost to death by the looks in their eyes. The girl lowered her head in shame. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so scary.” She heard both of them ask her why she cried in their own ways. “I don’t break but I can still feel the impact and the hurt, but I don’t think I feel it as much as someone else might.”

Nate was caught in an awkward place; Victoria made some poor choices in revealing her mutant abilities to Chase and the misguided teacher, but at the same time, he did not want Victoria feeling as though her power was something to be ashamed of that she would get in trouble for. It would be the fast track to undoing all the hard work he put in for the night.

Nate got to a knee and lightly rubbed the girl's back. "Victoria, that is really impressive. I'm not mad and you're not in trouble, but next time, just let someone take your word for it." He smiled, hoping he was keeping the sting out of his advice. "Showing off is fine, but no one wants you hurting yourself just to show off your power."

Nate turned his head and attention to Chase, who (God bless him,) had just endured a wild three minutes where plenty of rule breaking certainly took place. "And Chase, Victoria's new and still learning the rules. If you could, it would be best to keep tonight to yourself." And away from Gemma and Jorge. "And I won't mention to your Mama that you're breaking curfew. We all have a hard time sleeping some nights." Hopefully the boy could understand that not every questionable event had to be shared with his parents, much less ones that would reflect poorly on a well-intentioned teacher.

Chase watched quietly as Victoria apologized, nodding his head as she explained how her power worked. It still heart, but not as badly.

“Oh,” the boy said simply. Mr. Holloway, all the while, reassured her. Chase sipped his water, his eyes slowly reverting to blue as his teacher handled the situation. He was mid-sip when Mr. Holloway turned his attention back to the nine-year-old.

Chase nodded his head dutifully, up until Mr. Holloway stated that he wouldn’t mention to Gemma that Chase was breaking curfew.

“I was just getting water,” Chase said in his own defense. Just getting water, and ended-up watching t.v. But he understood the demands that Mr. Holloway was making. He’d keep quiet.

Victoria looked up slightly so she could see her teacher’s eyes as he spoke. “I only wanted to show because Chase and yourself had done the same for me.” The girl nibbled on her lower lip nervously as she looked to Chase again making sure she hadn’t left the boy in shock. “I’m sorry Chase.”

Hoping she had mended things enough she looked back to Mister Holloway. “Does this mean I stopped the tour?”

Victoria clearly felt bad about the decision she made and how it affected Chase, and she was also sincere and had no idea she was breaking any rules. It was nice to hear her apologize at the very least; she was very well-mannered, which was somewhat of a rarity at the Mansion.

Victoria wondered if the tour should be over, and the thought was considered, but the genuineness of the mistake made Nate confident there should be no more bad choice making or leaping off furniture for the evening. The tour only had another location or two anyway.

"Naw, we can keep going. Still one or two places left it might be best you know about." Nate got back to his feet from his kneeling position, bracing himself by placing a hand on the bookshelf. "Chase, you're still welcome to tag along unless you're tir--"

Rather recklessly, Nate's hand pushed the shelf enough to dislodge a heavy book from a high shelf. The book plummeted and Nate must have barely picked up the sound, because he felt a shiver run up his spine and his body responded to the threat by shifting into shadowform almost instantaneously. By the time the book hit his head, he merely felt the pressure as it left a brief dent in his shadow.

Nate looked at his dark, semi-transparent hand; the lighting in the library was dim, so he was a lighter grey. He would have sighed, if he was still able to breathe. Thankfully, he could still talk in his shadowform, (despite his voice being muffled and no real idea as to what made it scientifically possible.) "Darn." Not knowing how to voluntarily revert to and from his forms was becoming a hassle.

“It’s okay,” Chase mumbled, taking another sip of water, “It’s just… there aren’t a lot of mutants our age… and usually when they’re as young as us, their powers don’t always act right… I thought maybe yours didn’t work. An’- And you got hurt. Or something.”

Chase stared at his shoes again, and Victoria graciously turned her attention to Mr. Holloway, allowing for the boy to have time to stare at his shoes. Chase looked up as Mr. Holloway invited him to tag along, but he was cut short.

He was getting to his feet, using a bookshelf as leverage—and a precariously stacked book that was probably too large for Chase to pick up, freed itself and went spiraling downward.

“Mr. Holloway!” Chase shouted, though barely in-time. The book was about to make impact, but suddenly, Mr. Holloway wasn’t there.

Chase’s gaze became owl-eyed, and he glanced at Victoria. Mr. Holloway was a magician! He’d disappeared! Chase looked back to where his teacher had once stood, and it was almost as if he’d left a Mr. Holloway-shaped cloud of dust in his wake. Then the thing moved, surveying its hand… and Chase realized that it wasn’t an afterimage at all.

The shapeshifter went to Victoria’s side, carefully surveying the light grey… thing.

“Mr. Holloway--?” Chase inquired, his tone sounding a touch uncertain. His gaze began at the grey thing’s feet and ventured upwards, lingering where Chase presumed the face to be, “W-what happened?”

Hearing that the tour could keep going Victoria smiled softly and tried to push back the bad feeling she had from breaking rules and scaring Chase and Mister Holloway. She was glad he was so nice. Having him for a teacher was going to a really good thing.

Chase accepted the girl’s apology much to her gratitude. She listened to him and realized she never thought of the fact that her mutation might not always work. Yet from all the times it was needed it was there. Was it always there then?

Victoria wanted to comfort Chase as he sounded worried for her, but she didn’t get to as the boy shouted out Mister Holloway’s name. Her red eyes moved from the boy to her teacher just in time to see the book falling and then poof. There in the place of her teacher was a shadowy form instead and the book hit the floor.

The shadow uttered a single word and the girl knew what it meant. Looking to Chase and then back to the shadow Victoria noticed the boy move closer to her side as they both looked puzzled. “I didn’t know he could do that.”

Nate scanned himself, getting a bearing of what his situation was. His undershirt and underthings were close enough to become shadow with him, but his jeans and his button-down shirt were still their own entities. All he needed was a suit rather than his casual attire and he would probably look like a being from a nightmare.

Looking to the students, both had no clue that shadowshifting was in Nate's skill set, and both were reasonably confused or nervous. Hoping to explain things away calmly, he spoke, "When my body goes into 'survival mode,' it makes me into the same stuff my shadow is made of. Nothing to be worried about."

He held his hand out to the children, inviting Victoria (and Chase, if he was so inclined,) to test him in comparison to the shadow he showed to Victoria earlier in the same library.

"It'll go away eventually..." which was as much of a guarantee as he could offer, since he had no idea of when that would be. "Til then, I just have to keep to lit areas." He had no desire to step into darkness and enjoy the painful reintroduction to his normal form.

"So until then... kitchen and dining room?" The kitchenette in the common area was fine, but Victoria would need to know where she could go for actual food.

“Me neither,” Chase whispered back to Victoria, his gaze never once leaving the thing that stood in Mr. Holloway’s place. He seemed to be learning a lot of weird things about Mr. Holloway that night, it seemed.

Mr. Holloway spoke up, his voice faint, and coming for the ambiguous vicinity of the silhouette.

“So… like shapeshifting…?” Chase clarified, as Mr. Holloway extended his hand to Victoria. His curiosity was piqued, so the boy shamelessly poked Mr. Holloway the Shadow in his side. Whether or not it snagged his teacher’s attention, Chase realized that he’d just prodded at his teacher, and quickly wedged his hands into his pockets.

The boy sipped his water, quietly listening as Mr. Holloway reassured them and announced where the tour would lead.

“I wanna go,” Chase announced, adding on, “I could take my glass back…”

Even if he had retrieved the glass from the kitchenette, he could still return it to the kitchen, if only for an excuse to tag-along. Not that the child needed an excuse, he only wanted one.

Mister Holloway tried to explain what happened that caused him to turn into a shadow of himself. Chase’s question about shapeshifting sounded like a good one to Victoria. After all, her teacher’s shape did shift. “So you do this anytime you might be in danger?” Victoria could see how it could be useful. How do you hurt a shadow?

Red eyes watched Chase as he poked the shadowy form. He quickly pulled back though. “Did it feel like velvet? It’s soft huh?” Victoria remembered touching the shadow that handed her a book earlier in the tour. It was so soft and surprised the girl that it even felt like anything.

With the tour continuing Victoria nodded in agreement to the destination. While she didn’t eat like most normal people she still could eat if only for appearances. So it would be good for her to know where the kitchen and dining room were. It was also nice that Chase wanted to join them even if he was only taking back his glass. Victoria felt better that the boy was comfortable enough to be around her.