"That would be a decent idea," Ty murmured with a smile. "Though I'm not the best judge of age, heh." He shrugged lightly, then had to smile when the man broke the vase. It was wrong to laugh, but...it was funny...

Next thing Ty knew, he was holding a broom so he decided he may as well sweep. So, setting the bottle of water on the counter, that's what he did. He was chuckling as he did so, but he was at least helping, right? Then...Noel cut herself, and then....everything went to hell. He grabbed the letter opener she handed him and he paled, legs almost giving way due to both his power, and what his power was showing him. His smile had faded into a look of pure fear.

Letters. Invitations. And he could read them word for word. The events it foretold of were worse than anything Ty had ever seen. This was unbelievable...it was all a trap. And the three mutants fell for it, like lambs to the slaughter.

Ty shook his head, grabbing the counter to steady himself. "Oh my God...this....yeah...we need to leave...like...now..." he panted quietly. "Otherwise...a cut from a letter opener could be the least of our worries."

He took a step for the nearest door, but then his knees finally gave way, and he fell flat on his face, collapsing in a heap. He was conscious, but barely. His body was weak from over-exerting his mind like he had.

"Wait. What?" One second she needs a band aid and the next moment both the other post-cogs were holding their heads and eyeballing the exits. It wasn't as if she didn't believe them. She did. She had to when they both believed it themselves.

Noel stood and popped her finger into her mouth to get rid of the blood welling from her finger. She never got any information from herself even if the item that sent both these guys into shock had been in contact with herself. "If we need to leave, then move!" Noel gave the vase-breaker a little shove and it seemed to help him get himself together.

There were two fire exits at middle points in the building, an employee door at the back and the front entrance. The employee door was the closest, but probably led to a break room or a warehouse. Vase-guy dashed for that door and Noel tried to grab him. "No! Not-!" He was gone, out of reach.

She gripped her hands closed and squeezed tight in her frustration. He was a grown man. She had to let him go. She couldn't protect everybody.

Lost cause.

"Tell me." Noel gripped Ty's arm and yanked him toward the fire exit. There was something in her walk or maybe in the way she held herself that suggested of military training.

A boom echoed around the facility Noel prayed it was the sound of the heavy employee door slamming shut rather than gunfire. She did not stop. Having no idea yet what situation had spooked the two of them so thoroughly, Noel bet on threat of bodily harm. The best way to avoid that was to keep going until they were gone.

Ty struggled to his feet, shaking himself and grabbing the bottle of water to take a swig as the vase-breaker took off--into what was likely a dead end room. Taking another swig of water, he felt Noel grab his arm and yank him towards the exit.

Ty, being a street-kid, knew the sound of a gun when he heard it, and it sparked something in him, and he took off for the exit, keeping up with Noel. Funny...before today, he didn't think he or anyone else would even care if he dropped dead. But now...once again he was face to face with death, and the young man refused to give up. He'd just been depressed; he didn't want to die, no matter how much he thought he did.

"It was a trap," Ty explained, voice weak but high on adrenaline. "Mutant hunters. They lure mutants in, then have at 'em like we're a herd of wild game or something. I just hope that other guy made it out alright," He looked at her, draining down the rest of the water.

"We're in the middle of nowhere, and God knows how close behind he--or they--are..."

They ran, but the warehouse was not a small or tidy place. The aisles sometimes crowded with heaps of inane objects and necessitated a slow in their pace or a less than direct route.

A trap. Noel breathed in and out in a quick huff. This was such crap. Her power tipped her off to lies and somehow she hadn't gotten a sense from Terry, Terry the whackjob cowboy, that something was amiss. Maybe that was the problem. The persona, the accent...

"I don't have time for this." She needed to keep her head in the here and now and not go second guessing every interaction previous to this. "Show me." Noel grabbed Ty's hand and stuffed his fingers into her mouth. Yes. Into her mouth.

Ty had handled a few letter openers in his life besides the ones he'd handled today, but the one he'd handled just now... Everything was a bit confused like it wasn't solid or maybe like she was seeing it through a glass partially full of water where parts of the images were refracted at odd angles. A side effect of seeing his power at work? Or maybe that was what happened when a memory hadn't yet been committed to long term storage.

It started a slow blooming headache in her midbrain. Yeesh. Was this what Ty went through every time?

//Aaaaaattention shoppers!// Terry's voice was recognizable through the speakers, charismatic as ever. Noel ducked instinctively, but felt stupid when she realized the voice crackled from the PA system. //We are now hosting the special of the day outdoors. If you are interested in today's discount, make your way outside. Thank ya'll very much.//

Now, with the door less than three feet away from them, Noel hesitated. "Are we the special of the day?" Because that was seriously messed up.

Ty was thrown back when she grabbed his hand and stuffed it into her mouth. Sure, he'd put his gloves on, but they were fingerless, so...gloves didn't help then when she put his fingers in her mouth! Ewwwww.....

But this was no time to be grossed out; after all, it was life or death now. Wiping his fingers on his pants, he listened to the PA announcement, his hand reaching his pocket and clutching his knife out of pure instinct. He looked around the maze of items, fighting back the headache as once again, his body was overridden by the need to simply survive. He stopped at the door. "Possibly...More than likely, yeah. But if that's the case...we may be better off inside. We're in the middle of nowhere. Unless you wanna try to make it to the woods and rough it there. Honestly I don't think my body'll make it that far. Either way...this isn't where or how I plan to die..." His eyes grew cold, tensing as he thought. But they were wasting valuable time. And time was something they didn't have alot of...

Better off inside. For now, maybe, but that was a loosing long term strategy. Still... maybe they didn't need a long term strategy.

"Do you have cell service?" Because try as she might with holding her phone up high or low or near the door, she was getting zero bars.

Okay. Plan B.

"Jam the door." Noel jogged down the wall a few steps. She was looking for... Ah. That would do. This was not going to help Ty's headache (or her own), but what choice did they have?

"Cross your fingers that somebody is monitoring the alarms." She broke the glass around an emergency station and pulled the fire alarm that was situated at the side of the box. The alarm chirruped once and then went full force. She grabbed the first aid kit and stuffed it beneath her belt just as the store sprinkler system came to life, misting them in a light spray and likely damaging a lot of product. Not her problem.

Tripping the fire alarm also meant that civilians would evacuate. Excepting the fact that her clothes were starting to get clingy from the damp, it seemed an all around good thing.

It was hard to hear the sound over the ruckus, but if the wet splinters that went flying from the wooden vanity near to Ty was were indication, they were being shot at.

"Get down!" She crouched behind a bird bath and tried to think of other, better options for survival. At least if the door behind them was properly jammed and with no other exits in the immediate area, no one could sneak up on them.

Ty pulled out his phone, looking at it. "None." Ty grabbed...something--he wasn't sure what, and wedged it into the door handle, effectively jamming it, and ruining the...spear...or whatever it was. It looked like a spear.

Then, Ty's headache was roaring back to life as the alarm tripped, showering him and everything else in the light mist of the sprinklers. Still assessing the situation, he suddenly cried out in pain as he caught a handful of wet splinters to the face. They didn't penetrate too deep, but he felt slight trickles of warm blood mixed in with the water and sweat that was running down his cheeks. In a flash of instinct, he grabbed a nearby vase, hurling it in the direction of the gunshot before ducking behind a nearby bookshelf.

He looked at Noel, though his face was cut, and showed exhaustion, his icy blue eyes held an intensity, a rage. Even if he didn't get out of this alive, those stupid humans were going to feel him tomorrow...

If Noel were the swearing type, she would have when something large threw itself against the door behind Ty. The... whatever that was seemed to be jamming the door nicely, though, so they had time to wait things out. They might even have enough time to wait for the official types to show.

The fire alarm stopped and the quiet afterward was a jarring difference. Two seconds later, the sprinklers dried up.

"Looks like help isn't coming after all. We're going to have to get out ourselves." She whispered because it seemed appropriate after all that noise. "Ideas?" Noel hoped the blood running down Ty's face was plentiful looking because it had been watered down by the sprinklers. All the same, the memorymancer tossed the first aid kit over so he could mop that up.

This location was starting to feel less secure.

Ty grabbed the first aid kit, scooting closer to her as he assessed the situation, thinking. Taking out an alcohol pad, he winced as he rubbed it over the wounds, cleansing it, but luckily it wasn't that deep. "The main idea should probably be getting out of here alive," he whispered. "They know our general direction, however many of them there are, so we should keep moving. What we need to do is keep our eye on the time as we make our way to another door."

He leaned back against something, resting. "It would help if I knew the bus's basic schedule. We'll have to time it just right so that we can catch the bus outta here and pray the driver isn't in on it too."

Suddenly it hit him. Duh! He would have face-palmed if he wasn't already feeling like crap. "Actually...scratch that. All we need to do is get outside, but I'll need a screwdriver. Also..." He took a breath, listening for nearby movement. "You ever steal a car before?"

The intensity in his eyes was replaced by one of mischief. Heh...who would have guessed that the street kid who stole cars for fun would be thinking of stealing one because he had to?

Get out alive. Yeah. That was definitely a priority, but the bus schedule? She hadn't really been worried about memorizing it on her trip here. Now she was wishing she had. She'd been bored enough. Why hadn't she?

Noel opened her mouth to let Ty know she was no good for the bus schedule, but he interrupted her. "Steal a car?" She shook her head and the end of her braid sloshed through the standing water leftover from the sprinkling they endured. "Not my expertise." Though the look in his eye said that it just might be his.

As for the screwdriver, Noel cleared her throat self-consciously. "Would a knife or short sword work?" She did not carry a screw driver. She did carry the other things. Every day. She carried a gun regularly before she'd met her swordmaster, but had ditched it in favor of close combat weapons. Close combat was riskier, but more readily enabled use of her mutation in a fight.

Today she regretted that decision.

Muffled shouts echoed through the warehouse as at least two men started communicationg in an effort to pin down their exact location.

The speakers crackled to life. "Come out, come out wherever ya'll aaaare."

"Sneak around to a different door?" She kept her voice low and indicated the next nearest door, the back doors where they had just been. It was that or the front...

"Not mine either, really. But...let's call it a hobby," he muttered, quietly looking around the pile of merchandise. A smile crossed his face when he found a screwdriver just like he was looking for. "I might not need it, but I may need to hotwire it, which is what the screwdriver's for."

He got quiet when he heard voices, nodding at Noel and motioning toward the door on the other end of the store. His headache was starting to reside, but he still felt like he'd ran a marathon. Quietly, the redhead started crawling, when suddenly another gunshot rang out and a mirror right above him practically exploded and he found himself showered by broken glass. Great...someone had brought a shotgun.

"Jesus...I thought I left all the rednecks back in Georgia," he muttered to himself as he scrambled away, around a corner.Then, another gunshot, and a headboard burst into splinters. Soon he found himself in an even more cluttered part of the store, but the gunfire had stopped.

But when he looked around, Noel was gone. The only sounds he heard were footsteps, people murmuring about which way they thought the 'freaks' went, and the sound of his own heartbeat thundering in his chest.

Hobby. Right. If Noel had time to make friends who weren't criminals, she would apparently have no friends. Was no one innocent anymore?

Ty indicated his choice in doors and Noel nodded her confirmation. The front door was as good as any.

And then they were crawling. Noel craned her neck to see if she could get a clue to where their enemies might be prowling. Something. Anything would be better than watching Ty's soggy butt as they made their way through the puddles.

Then, CRACK glass was everywhere. Noel reared back in a gut reaction that raised her torso just over table height. She saw them. They saw her.

"Over there!" Noel dropped down to a crouch rather than a crawl and pushed her thick braid aside in preparation for drawing her sword. Ty took off and there was another gunshot in his direction.

She didn't want to kill them, but this was getting seriously hairy.

The enemy slogged through the water toward her. Not exactly stealthy when the ripples and sound preceded him. She waited, pressed against a solid piece of furniture until she saw a leg and then attacked. Quick as a whip, she flicked the sword out and crashed it into the man's knees. He simultaneously took aim and shot.

It wasn't a good angle for either of them. His shot went wide and, though this type of sword was good for crushing rather than cutting, two knee caps were harder to break than one. They didn't naturally bend that way.

Still, he dropped the weapon and reached for his legs and Noel was up and sprinting, back the way they came toward the back exit. Maybe she could draw some fire and Ty could get out and...

Wait. Was she really relying on the morally questionable one to come back and rescue her? Stupid, stupid, stupid. She dropped to the wet floor and slid, baseball style until she was between the glass cabinets.

Ty heard some commotion in the distance, followed by another shot. Then, he heard footsteps coming towards him. Suddenly, he jumped out of his hiding spot, pocketknife in hand, and sank his knife into his attacker. Out of reflex, the shotgun went off, and the two bodies collapsed to the floor. The shot had luckily missed the redhead, but they were at least pursued by one less hunter.

The shotgun was a bit much for the pickpocket, but the pistol on the fallen man's belt would do nicely. Claiming that and the spare ammunition, he cleaned and pocketed his knife, now navigating the warehouse much more confidently.As he made his way back to where he last remembered seeing Noel, a gunshot rang out. But this time, the mutant returned fire, ducking behind a dresser and moving on.

Suddenly, it was quiet. Too quiet. No movement was heard but the sound of him crawling amongst the puddles and the rubble, retracing his steps. He stopped to rest beside some glass cabinets and reloaded.

As fun as the slide had been, Noel realized her mistake as soon as she looked toward the back exit. The door was propped open with the body of the man they had been working with earlier. He was face down in the standing half inch of water and the back of his head was a bloody mess. That wasn't even the scary part.

"Gotcha." The voice echoed over the speakers as Terry leveled a shotgun in her direction. He had to drop the microphone to steady the gun which gave her a moment to react, but it wasn't enough. Even with him halfway down the hall, it wasn't enough.

She rolled at the same time the gun went off.

The pellets clipped the door and sent wood and buck shot her way. They felt like bee stings. Her shoulder, one bouncing off her face and a more than a few along her back.

She wasn't a screamer, but her voice was ragged when she called out. "TY?" She didn't need more than that. She was in serious trouble and she knew it.

Noel curled in on herself close to the glass cases, for what little protection they could give her.

Ty heard the shotgun, and he peeked out of his hiding spot just long enough to fire off a couple of shots in the direction he thought the sound was coming from. Then...he heard the voice, loud and clear.

The redhead took off as fast as he could, sliding and avoiding gunfire any way he could, until he reached her. And...catching a glimpse of their former fellow-employee...

"We need to get out of here...like now..." he panted. "You okay? And..." He held out the gun. "Please tell me you're a better shot than I am..." He kept his voice quiet, always expecting some unexpected surprise. Or a gunshot, which was far from unexpected in this setting...