"There's a guy from my home city who has a sculpture on display here. He does this really amazing thing with drift wood... like a mix of carving and a natural eye for shape. Call it nostalgia, but I think it's the same piece one my of friends modeled for a while back. She went to school with him at one point."

Alex nodded with interest. It sounded cool enough and it wasn't likely he was going to come back here any time soon. So why not have a little fun and sneak a peak where they weren't supposed to. "Are you sure you want too? I could always come back another day..." He smirked at her worry, "Why not? It's not like they can do anything more than make us leave if we're caught."

Besides better than doing nothing with the rest of his day. Which is what he planned to do after this anyway. A little bit of fun before going to take a nap somewhere, maybe under a cozy tree. The weather was warm enough that he didn't need to worry too much about the cold at night. However, right now, he was interested in seeing this piece she was talking about.

Her bottom lip protruded slightly, and she narrowed her eyes lazily at him. Sure, they'd get kicked out and it was fine with him, but she was probably going to have to make return trips to the museum at some point. It wouldn't do to get perma-banned from the establishment.

...then again, she was pretty good at playing the fool, so she could always fake her way out of trouble. Her forced, exaggerated pout soon tipped upward into a lazy smirk. "Ah... okay. I'm in."

Standing, she grabbed her tray and deposited it on the nearest tray-collection-trashcan. Honestly, they they forced you to store them atop trashcans had always grossed her out. She wrinkled her nose at the reminder, waited for Alex, then headed off back towards the elevator they had taken to reach the food court.

"You gotta promise you aren't going to laugh at me when we get up there, though... I can get kinda crazy when it comes to stuff from my homeland." She shot a sheepish look at him and ruffled the hair at the back of her head nervously.

"Ah... okay. I'm in."

"Yes! This is gonna be fun." He got Ace back up on his backpack before picking up his tray and following her to dump the paper plates and cup he had in the trash.

"You gotta promise you aren't going to laugh at me when we get up there, though... I can get kinda crazy when it comes to stuff from my homeland."

"I swear I won't laugh. Honestly I should laugh at you saying homeland. Your "homeland" is Washington, not exactly exotic." Though, he'd never been to Washington so he really had no point of reference. However, if it was anything like the rest of the U.S. then it had far more Starbucks and McDonalds than should be possible and a culture of 'if I ignore it than it's not there.' A little cynical, yes, but it was true.

He followed her to the elevator, tapping the up button. Hopefully they hadn't shut down the elevator to prevent this sort of thing from happening. At least not yet.

Her cheeks flushed lightly, and she huffed. "Yeah, yeah... well, it sure feels like it sometimes."

The doors slid shut silently and effortlessly, and she gripped the strap of her bag in excitement. It felt light she was doing something wrong, breaking the rules... (which she was, in a minor silly way), but it was kinda exhilarating in its own right. She'd spent her whole life sticking to the rules. Even something so juvenile was a rush to her. she bounced on the balls of her feet as the elevator kicked into motion, and the rose.

"I grew up in Idaho... It was really dry, and everywhere you looked was sandy and tan. When My family moved to Washington it was like..eh..well.." Her blush deepened, and she ran a hand through her hair. "It was like moving into a story book. Everything was just so green and alive."

She sighed though her nose, and dropped the hand from her hair. "Coming here, where everything is loud, grey, and noisy...well, it's like I moved to the other side of the world."

The lift stopped, dinged, and the door swooshed open. Shelby hesitated, chewing on her bottom lip, and glanced at Alex.

Hearing her explain it kind of put it into perspective. Hell it kind of made him jolt when she said she grew up in Idaho. "I grew up in Idaho too." He gave a little nod of understanding, "Kind of ran from that place to be honest. Though, I ended up seeing mostly more farms than anything else." Most of the U.S. was made up of farmland and rural places. Big cities like this only appeared once in a blue moon.

"I guess going from there to here was more of a gradient for me since I was hoofin' it the whole way." The elevator dinged and he couldn't help but smirk. Poking his head out and looking around, he gestured for Shelby to follow him once he was sure the cost was clear. He put his finger to his lips in the universal sign of keep quiet.

He took the lead this time, moving slow down the hall. He couldn't hear anything going on. So he supposed whatever was going to happen hadn't happened yet. They had time to look around.

She smiled nervously. "I wasn't there very long, either. A few years at best, then we moved over to Washington."

Bitter memories. They tugged at the corners of her mouth, but she swallowed the feelings down quickly. She thought about commenting more on the transition she'd had, but decided to keep quiet as he had signaled and followed him with her hands clenched into fists around the strap of her back.

The hallway they were in was empty, and while the main lights above were still on, all of the lights for the various pieces had been shut off. The art looked gloomy with nothing illuminating the various colors and patters... at least, to her they did. It was like being in a less dusty, more roomy antique shop. Sad looking relics from various wakes of life calling out for someone to pay attention to them. She continued chewing on her lip as they walked.

...Until the lights above head flickered once, twice... and then blinked out all together. The hum of electricity all around them died all at once, as the power was cut to that floor specifically.

She has to physically shove her knuckles in her mouth to muffle the shriek of terror that bubbled out from within.

Gloomy was one way to put it. With the lighting and the subjects of some of the pieces Alex catagorized the setting as creepy. The whole place had a creepy vibe to it. Then the lights flickered and shut off entirely leaving them in minimal light. Down the hall there must have been a window or two because it wasn't completely dark. The yelp from Shelby, however, was disconcerting.

He looked behind him, seeing her vague form in the darkness. "Are you okay?"he asked. The sudden darkness made him tense but he remained unafraid. He was used to the dark, navigating it wasn't to bad, so long as he had time to adjust. He felt Ace shift nervously, the bird's eyesight not completely used to such dim lighting. Instead he could sense Ace straining his hearing to catch anything suspicious further down the hall.

Nothing yet, still, he couldn't help but feel Ace's paranoid instincts flow into him. Sharing a mind with an animal had it's downsides at times. Couldn't relax when situations took sudden turns, even when there was nothing to fear. Then again maybe it wasn't such a bad thing. Down the hall Ace heard the murmur of voices. "Hold that thought."he murmured, holding up a hand to single to her to stay. He lowered himself, not crouching but low enough to creep forward. Slowly the voices became clearer, why did one sound so familiar?

He peeked into the room and couldn't believe what he was seeing. There were three in the room, pulling down framed pieces and stacking them against a wall. Two remained unfamiliar to him, but one he knew perfectly. It was hard to forget a mutant like this one, with skin like a nights sky, pure darkness punctured by points of white that flickered and changed. He stood, unable to believe his eyes, "Void?" It had been 2 years, nearly 3 since he had seen him. Since Void had gone missing, with barely a whisper of evidence. This couldn't be him, alive, well, and still stealing like they had done back in Salt Lake City. This didn't make sense. "You're alive?"he breathed.

"Rebirth? No way! Reb, buddy, I can't believe it!" the kid, for he was two years younger than him and still very much a child. Void made to step toward him only to stop when there was a click of a gun from one man and the other man's hands lit up in electricity.

Nodding at first, then realizing that he probably couldn't see her, she muttered something quietly and dropped the hand from her mouth. She didn't like the dark... not even in the comfort of her own home. It was nearly an obsessive habit to have at least one light on at all times, if just to quiet the childish, instilled fear that something horrible was always lurking just out of sight in the darkness.

Alex went quiet, which was fine with her, she was shuffling quickly around in her bag for her phone. She had an flashlight app on it for this very reason. Before she could switch it on, however, the boy help up one hand to silence and stay and apprehension raced down the back of her neck in a cold sweat.

She watched him move off with wide eyes. Anxiety quickly took over, and she felt a flood of energy rush through her. Twitchy energy, the kind that usually accompanied running for ones life. Yet, there she stood. A dim, slowly vanishing shadow of Alex in front, and the black empty void of the hallway in back.

Then, murmurs. Voices, some sort of strange light that reflected off the walls... and the phone gripped in her hand suddenly went of. Her ringtone blared into the quiet hallway, echoed, and then was silenced as she mashed buttons and forced it silent in a panic.

It was the man with electricity sparking up his hands that spoke first, "You know this guy kid?" Void looked from the two men back to Alex, a bit concerned. "Yeah, a while back. It's been what, 1 year or so, right Rebirth?"he said. Looking at his face, nostalgia shouldn't be so clearly written. "Try 3, Void. I-" He jolted when a ring tone suddenly went off and the two men took that as their cue to start firing. Alex didn't get a chance to react. Thankfully Void did, sending up a wall of darkness to shield him. Unfortunately it didn't absorb everything, so the impact force sent him sprawling.

"C'mon guys that's enough!" Void's shield melted away and could see that they were still ready to fire on him. "You're right, kid, time to get moving."the man with the gun put the weapon away and picked up some of the art they were stealing. "But-" Void started only to be cut off by the second man. "No buts, open the portal! Now!"

Alex sat up, scrambling to his feet as Void opened up the portal. "No...Void wait!" The two men were already stepping into the portal, loot in their arms. "Sorry, Reb. We'll catch up later, promise." Void hesitated to step into the portal, watching Alex race toward him. Then he stepped in, portal closing behind him, leaving behind a blank wall for Alex to nearly run into. "No...No, damnit! That's not fair! Void, please..." He leaned his head against the wall, wishing the portal would open back up, that he could see the kid again. He had thought Void had been dead for so long, that it had been his fault he disappeared. Now the only evidence the kid had ever been here were the blank spots on the walls where the paintings had been.

The kid had been alive this whole time, alive and alone to be picked up by a pair of thieving vultures. Who knew what they were doing to him to get him to work with them. Suddenly, all food he had eaten earlier felt sour in his gut and all he could do was sink to his knees.

Shelby had never heard gunshots so close and loud before... sure, she'd heard them in news and online. She'd even been at a gun range once or twice, but the sounds had been muffled by protective ear muffs. She still tended to assume they made the classic blam blam like in cartoons and on tv. In reality it was quieter, quicker.... and a billion times more frightening. The 'pop pop pop' of multiple shots fired had Shelby instantly bolting for shelter along the wall, with her head ducked and arms up protectively around it. 

A few moments ticked by and she heard no more shots... but she realized with horror that Alex still over there. What if he'd been shot? What if he'd been killed?! Panic seized her, clenching her lungs in an iron grip that left little room to breath. Without needing to think she scrambled forward and used the wall to help guide her toward where Alex's silhouette had last been seen.

"Alex!" 

She stumbled into the room a few seconds before the... portal... thing.... had vanished. She'd heard Alex cry out something, and caught sight of him just as he reached the wall and the portal closed.

"...Wha--" She started to question, until the boy dropped to his knees. She raced across the room before the word had even finished leaving her tongue, struggling in the dark to try and see him. "Alex! Oh my god, have you been hit?! Where are you hurt!?" Shelby fumbled with her phone, and a moment later the white glowing light from her phone's camera flash light up and washed over him. She was nearly blinded too, but blinked away the spots furiously as she visually scanned him for injuries. Which he thankfully didn't appear to have...

"...Are you alright? What happened?"

He had been alive this whole time, Void had been alive this whole time?! He couldn't wrap his head around. How, how could he be alive? The kid had been so sick the last time he saw him, dying, and then he was gone. No body, no note, no nothing to indicate he had ever existed. He had spent weeks after that, looking for him, for some clue to what happened. There had been none. He as sure there had been none.

Yet, Void had been here, only moments ago, healthy and smiling at him. His mind was so abuzz with unanswered questions, old frustration and guilt playing tug-a-war with his innards, that he didn't even bother to look at Shelby, answer her fear filled voice. Nor notice the tears stinging at his eyes. Not until she shined a light on him, making him wince at the bright glare.

"...Are you alright? What happened?"

He shook his head, sniffling and refusing to look away from the spot where the portal had closed. "I...I..." How in the world would he explain this, did he even want to bother. He was at loss of how to put it, nothing came to mind but, "He was alive..."

He was really starting to worry her. More than normal for someone who had just been shot at, apparently by mutant art thieves. Gently, she shook his shoulder. "Hey... hey, Alex, i-its okay.. it'll be okay." Gods, she was terrible at consoling people. Especially when she didn't know what the hell was wrong, nor had she ever been in such a situation before. She had nothing to pull from, no prior past experience to help her.

Chewing on her lip, she settled on her knees with her legs folded under her next to Alex. "...Did.. did you know those guys?"

She hadn't really gotten a look at them at all. Dark shapes vanishing into a portal, and then nothing at all save Alex slumping to the floor. She assumed from the words, and from the way Alex was acting, that the guy, this...Void?... was someone he was acquainted with. Friends with even? She didn't know... but she waited patiently by his side anyhow.

Shelby's word of comfort sounded muffled in his ears, dampened by the inward turmoil as his brain frantically tried to put together this new information. Each new connection a horrible realization in just how much he had screwed up back then. He should have stayed longer, looked harder. There must have been some clue he had over looked all those years ago, something that could have led to a better outcome then this. But he couldn't find it, there were pieces still missing, information he didn't know.

"...Did.. did you know that those guys?"

He couldn't help but give a watery laugh at that. "...One of 'em..."he murmured leaning his forehead against the wall. He felt Ace pick worriedly at his hair, his companion having been a silent watcher to this whole affair and well aware of the strangling guilt suffocating his mind. The bird looked to Shelby, then back to Alex, then back to Shelby and back again. The creature silently begging for help, there was nothing it could do but maybe the human could.

A tremor rolled through Alex, old and new guilt clamouring for attention, while relief sat quietly in the corner of his mind. He should have stayed and searched longer, why did he leave a child in the hands of such criminals, why couldn't he have been faster to catch him. Thank God the kid was alive. He was supposed to be the big brother to him, he remembered the pact they had made all that time ago, the promise to stick together no matter what. It was a childish, desperate bid to survive on their own.

He bit down a sob that threatened to choke him while nausea battles to throw the precious food Shelby had bought him out. He was loosing and the sob won first, bubbling out, thick with frustrated tears, drawing breath from his lung like a punch to the gut.

She was starting to panic. Oh god, he made a strangle sobbing sound and her stomach flip-flopped. Her heart was hammering ninety miles a second and her mind was a whirl with worries and doubts. Frantically, she latched onto something, anything and went with it.

She hugged him. Suddenly, maybe a little too forcefully, she pulled him toward her and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and neck tightly... not at all mindful of the bird still perched on him. She was unsure where to put her chin, and after a few awkward seconds of switching from the crown of his head to his shoulder, she settled on his shoulder.

"Shh.. it's okay. It'll all be okay. Just.. let it all out."

... People said that when trying to comfort someone, right? It happened in movies at least, so that was good enough for her. But, she still wasn't sure how long to keep hugging him. Of if she was supposed to be quiet and let him... do whatever, or if she was supposed to try and change the subject. She supposed, somewhere in the back of her mind, that she would just have to roll with it and see what happened.

He was surprised by the sudden pull, body tensing defensively and he was fully prepared to shove her away, even if tears were burning his eyes like nothing else. But she was holding him, his face pressed against her shoulder, her chin shifting unsurely between his head and shoulder before settling. When was the last time he had contact like this? Physical contact with another human being that was comforting. A long time, too long. He felt his heart clench again, painful realization making it's self known among the already crowding emotions.

"Shh.. it's okay. It'll all be okay. Just.. let it all out."

He shivered, not wanting to give in but he was already half way there to a break down. He latched onto her, another sob racking his body. Maybe it was the reminder of this failure, or the sudden appearance and disappearance of an old friend, or the relief in knowing the kid he thought he lost was alive, or perhaps just the fact he was sixteen and alone, too really young to handle his self-imposed isolation but too old for anyone to really care.