Ok. So Sara probably should have been spending more time at the mansion now that she was most definitely going to become a team member. She also probably should have been trying to make a good impression on the mansion’s inhabitants. The problem was, she still didn’t care. Or at least that was what she told herself.

She needed time alone, and for some reason instead of wandering the countryside around one of her properties, she chose to hand out in the woods near the mansion. Sitting in one of her favorite spots. A thick branch that was a good twenty feet off of the ground and her legs were dangling from either side of the trunk for balance as she leaned her elbows against the bark. Her eyes tilted to the ground where, even though her eyes could see the dirt and the grass, she wasn’t really staring at anything in particular. She could just be alone with her thoughts. Or at least she thought that she could

Her head and shoulders shifted, suddenly much more alert with her ears flicking back and forth to pick up whatever sounds that she could. Someone was coming.

Evelyn was sort of having a crisis. A people crisis. Not a "people are driving me insane" crisis" or a "I just need some space" crisis. It was more of a "I'm putting voices in peoples head" sort of crisis. Mirror had been pretty understanding about it and tried to keep her from freaking out, but knowing kissing your girlfriend could possibly invade their head with your memories made things a little tense. It had been bad enough the images showed Sylar how scary he was, and sure, there were some training advantages to sharing her brain a little. But she felt like a mental case enough without worrying who she was sharing her brain with. Frickin' echoes. Frickin' brain. Frickin' powers.

So she went for a walk to try and unwind.

As she moved through the trees, she tried to relax. It wasn't so bad, really. She wasn't like, randomly giving kids echoes who walked past her in the hall or something like that. At least she wasn't hearing THEIR thoughts. That would be a whole new level of crazy. But she felt...invasive. She already knew the echoes were nosy, but now everyone else could hear it. When the echoes commented on how someone clearly hadn't done their laundry in 5 days, she wouldn't take it personal. It was just an observation. But heaven forbid THEY hear her thinking that. What was she supposed to say? It wasn't me, it was my powers?

She zig zagged around trees. Goodness knows what other damage they could do. She needed turtlenecks. And gloves. And warning lights.

Twisting the sai in her hands, she looked for something to focus on. Maybe she could train out here and make it worthwhile. Just de-stress, unwind. And best of all, there were no people. No one would be broken by her brain today.

Unless it worked on squirrels....holycrap did echoes work on squirrels?

She sat down and tried to remember to breathe. The echoes continued happily chattering in the robotic manner that clearly said they didn't give a crap how much trouble they caused.

Slowly, Sara pulled her legs up so that the balls of her feet rest on the thick branches bark. Her hands pushed down too so that for a moment she truly did resemble her feline counter parts in their natural habitat… Except real mountain lions don’t put up with cloths. There will be no naked WereCats wondering the streets thank you very much.

Sara’s nostrils flared when the wind changed direction. It took her a moment to recognize the other mutant’s smell. Blondie. Or rather Evelyn. Sara’s mind rattled off. Her tail twitched. Sara thought about ignoring the girl, but to be honest, Sara had spent way too much time on her own. What harm would a little bit of fun do. Right?

A grin pulled at the sides of Sara’s face as she went from resting on all fours, to crouching with her tail swaying here and there for balance. Evelyn passed where she’d been purched and Sara moved carefully around the trunk of the tree to another, lower branch keeping the tree between the two of them. The only sound she made was the crunch of a dead twig.

Maybe it was stress, or lack of sleep, but it took Evelyn longer to sense someone was following her than she really felt comfortable about. One minutes she was considering the possibility of putting squirrels in comas, then the echoes buzzed about the slightest movement in one of the trees. She was still on the mansion grounds, so she didn't feel too worried... yet.

Then again, she did give the last intruder an unwelcomed bath via sprinklers, so there was no telling what could happen out here.

Slowly getting back to her feet, she paused and tried to identify the intruder. The echoes clamored, working to aid her. For the first time since their new abilities arrived, she welcomed the noise.

Knock knock...who's there?

Evelyn paused and Sara froze for a second. She’d heard the dry twig snap under her foot and if she really was going to play with Evelyn like this, the little tell tale noises like that just wouldn’t do. Besides. It had been so long since Sara had a real hunt would it be so bad to practice and have a little fun? Even if it was at Evelyn’s expense.

She lowered herself from the branch, landing lightly on the forest floor. When she landed her feet didn’t make a sound, but the tree above her waivered from the sudden lack of her weight. She crouched from the landing, then under the cover of the night, sprinted around Evelyn’s backside. Trying to make it around the next set of trees before the girl could turn around.

At first, Evelyn thought maybe the echoes were just making stuff up. Maybe her paranoia was just giving her mixed signals or something. But then there was the branch moving, and that seemed...wrong. She listened, then slowly stood and turned, trying to identify the movement. As cliche as it felt, she called out into the trees.

"Anyone there?" If it was an intruder, it wasn't likely they'd respond anyway. But kids were known to sneak around from time to time, and they usually fessed up when someone caught them. Lack of response or clumsy attempt at a getaway would tell her how amateur the person was. If someone was really there.

Could be a squirrel.

That coma test could still happen...

Sara still wore the grin on her face. She wasn't even trying to hide her teeth with closed lips right now like she normally did. Why should she?

Despite the fact that Sara and Evelyn seemed to get along with each other now, Sara didn't really feel the need to hide her teeth around her. Not because she was being aggressive, but maybe it was because the girl had already seen Sara at her game. So there was nothing to hide.

Sara edged her way around another tree. Pausing at the edge. If Evelyn had turned around she'd barely make out the side of Sara's ducking head. Then she stalked up at Evelyn's back. Ducking right or left depending on witch direction she thought the other girl's head was about to turn till she was so close she had to hold her breath, for fear it might alert the other girl to her presence.

"Anyone there?"

"Only us." Sara replied, nearly in Evelyn's ear. She grabbed for the girl's shoulder to try to add to the surprise and spin her around.

Wandering around the mansion in the dark was one thing. Being outside like this threw out other disadvantages. Furniture didn't change the way plants did. Weather didn't make it shift or sway, and animal and insect life was inconsistent and threw in other variables. Hearing noises was one thing, but knowing where exactly it was coming from and if it posed a danger was another. She thought she saw a flash of fur, or was it hair? The dim silhouette was hard to make out. She turned, pausing, the echoes chattering about everything from the stars to the presence approaching. Sensing, doubting...wondering.

And then the voice made her jump and her fist went flying in self-defense. A hand missed her shoulder and touched her arm instead. For Evelyn, it only gave her information about the texture of the touch that was definitely not normal human skin.

For Sara, it would be a sudden burst of information, like the world suddenly screamed "let their be voices!"

Sara's hand was aimed for Evelyn's shoulder, but when the other girl spun with her hand raised, Sara caught her by the wrist. Her claws resting against Evelyn's smooth skin as she tried to be careful not to let them break through it.

She was about to say something smart, but Sara ended up sucking in air. Her grip on Evelyn's arm suddenly tightened. Eyes wide and dilated with the sudden onslaught of adrenalin that hit her blood stream from the surprise. Then her face pinched and her eyes closed tight.

She'd clap her hands over her ears, but that didn't occure to her to do at first. Instead all sorts of voices flooded her head. There were comments on her touch. One counted how many steps Evelyn had taken from the mansion. 2,476 to be exact... no 2,476 in a half. Something about putting a squirrel into a coma. Sara wasn't a squirrel.

Sara went to pull her arm away but for some reason her hand wasn't fully operational yet. She ended up pulling Evelyn closer. Still the voices continued. The stars, the constellations, The exact shades of Sara's fur, the poking sensation from Sara's claws. The number of lights that shown from the mansion. There was more but Sara couldn't focus on them.

After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only a few seconds, Sara shoved Evelyn away from her. She fell on her own tail side, hands clapping over her ears but for what Sara wasn't sure for.

A few things happened at once: Evelyn recognized Sara, registering the general furry persona and familiar face which took a few moments in the darkness; she also recognized the look of shock that passed Sara's face. Then, there was the sensation of slight pain as the grip tightened. Yelping slightly, she finally was knocked away, watching as WereCat fell on her tail end.

Part of her wanted to laugh. But the other part winced slightly as she recognized what she was now considering an echo invasion. "Yeah, that's new..." She muttered and ran a hand through her hair. She took a step backwards, watching. WereCat was known to sort of...fly off the handle sometimes. It was hard to tell how she would respond to the invasion of information.

Sara sat there on her tail for a moment. Maybe it was two and her eyes staid dilated. “New?” Sara eyes squeezed shut and she held her head. The stimulation she felt from the voices was gone but she still felt like her insides buzzed and she hadn’t decided if that was a side effect from whatever it was that Evelyn had just done to her, or the surprise.

“I was just playin’.” Sara opened her eyes and looked at Evelyn. There was still a little bit of surprise there, and as if to visually demonstrate it, the tip of Sara’s tail flicked back and forth like a bottle brush rattle snake. “What was that?”

Playing. Somehow that wasn't exactly reassuring when coming from a giant feline. Cats played with mice all the time. Didn't mean the mouse enjoyed it.

"Not really sure what to call it at this point. Pretty much, you just heard what I hear all the time. Not so fun having voices in your head I guess." Evelyn shrugged. The echoes continued chattering and filling her in on other details about her surroundings. Unlike WereCat, there was no off button for her. She just learned to adapt around it.

An expression of remorse crossed over Sara's face before curiosity over took it. In a heart beat she was back on her feet. Her nostrils flared and her eyes dilated. Had anything else about Evelyn changed?

"When did your mutation change." Sara sniffed the air heavily around Evelyn. "Does it just work with touch? Where do the words come from? you or me? Or .... Ghosts? Are they ghosts?" Sara went to give Evelyn a quick poke with the back of her hand first. The one full of fur to see if that still worked too or if the voices had to be passed skin to skin. Then sniffed the air in front of Evelyn's face in a huff.

Evelyn was a bit overwhelmed by WereCat's sudden change of emotion. The questions weren't bad questions, necessarily, just a little surprising to hear all at once. The poke wouldn't really do much, unless the fur parted enough for their skin to touch. She wished she could see what was happening in WereCat's head instead of everyone just seeing in hers. She wanted to know how it worked probably as much as WereCat did, but she still couldn't quite recognize the signs of the information shifting.

"It was awhile back, I was checking on a friend of mine and his power change sort of sent off mine I think. And no it's not ghosts. They're the echoes. They're in my head. And last I checked no one hears anything other than what they're thinking to me." She tried explaining. Currently, they were chammering about WereCat and keeping track of her movements. she could feel them mentally following the feline mutant like little verbal radars.

Huhh. The touch with the back of Sara's hand that was covered in fur wasn't enough to share Evelyn's echos with her. So Sara filed that bit of information away. However Sara's own experimentation continued. Her eyes wide she circled around Evelyn. "It sounds annoying."

Sara shopped in front of Evelyn. Her nostrils flared as she took in Every smell that she could. Evelyn didn't smell any different other than what she'd had to eat recently. Unlike some mutants whom it seemed that their chemical make up changed completely. Suddenly Sara held her breath. Her nose wrinkled. She turned her head to the inside of her arm just in time to catch the sneeze rather than splattering Evelyn in the face with it. "S'cuse me." She said suddenly sheepishly compared to her actions a moment ago.