Just as Astrid's crystal was about to break skin, something whizzed through the air, nicked her, and then flew straight past... Lodging itself into the arm of the woman who brought her there.

The young girl froze and brought her hand to her face to feel a little cut made by the whizzing thing. Her white finger came away with blood. Certainly not a bad wound, and far from the worst she had ever received, but it still made her incredibly angry. 

Her black eyes narrowed at the member that the woman had pointed at. She was the one with the fake camera, and she was the one who would get the brunt of her wrath.

Astrid launched herself from the ground at the woman, crystal in hand. The woman attempted to shoot off more of the whizzing things, but they were blocked by Astrid's crystal wings. They were definitely a bit of a nuisance to move with, but they made for good shields.

She didn't look back at the woman who brought her there. Astrid was sure she would be fine on her own. Besides, there was stabbing to be done.

The crystal didn't take any time finding it's target. Feather met flesh, and the table cleared instantly, accompanied by horrified screams. Astrid stepped back once she was finished and admired the contrast between the colour of the woman's blood and her skin. 

What a perfect moment. 

It had to be done. Noel regretted that it had to be so well documented, though. She had enough time to think that maybe she should collect the phones and try to contain this incident. Should was a very different thing from could.

Whatever nicked the winged girl ricocheted right into the swell of Noel's biceps. It pricked through her coat and pinned the fabric to her skin.

Oh hell. That couldn't be good. She plucked it out, but seeing it didn't help her know what the thing was. It had a little flickering light. No buttons. One sharp side that was barbed... She was going to need a new coat now.

"Get the camera." Noel dug around for a tip to leave for the traumatized barista and stood.

The coffee shop rocked violently. As if the arm that had been hit now weighed so much more than it was supposed to, it pulled the memorymancer terribly off balance. Noel took an extra step to compensate and her vision started to vibrate with the involuntary trigger of her erasure powers. She pointed those eyes at the barista who was on the phone, no doubt on the phone with 911 dispatch.

Blink.

Noel let go of the bill that was half-way in the tip jar and her hand was slow to respond, numb and heavy. A coffee cup and a little metal doo-dad occupied her other hand. She was... getting coffee?

The barista seemed confused to be holding the phone up to her ear so she pulled it away in order to make her cheery goodbye. "T-Thank you! Have a nice day!"

She nodded and stepped away from the front bar, the barista pulled the phone back to her ear.

"Huh? Oh- No, I'm sorry. I guess it's a wrong number."

The words on Noel's cup were difficult to read. They kept jumping around and her eyes didn't want to focus. Something about oil and better productivity and memory? Was she reading that right?

Once she was out on the street, a scream came from the inside of the shop that made Noel's pulse jump straight into her throat. The brunette chugged some coffee to help combat the fatigue that was spreading. Clearly, she'd needed this coffee.

And whatever was making a lady scream was really not her problem today.

Astrid knelt on the table in front of the group of weirdos with her still-crystal wings outstretched. The blood had begun to pool around her and was seeping into the fabric of her dress.

Wonderful, just wonderful. There was no way she would be able to afford dry cleaning. It would simply have to go in the garbage.

She dropped the crystal on the table with a clunk, and looked around. The woman had disappeared.

Huh.

Maybe she had only wanted Astrid for the one part or something? Or maybe she had to go get something and was coming back? The young girl frowned. If that was the entirety of the mission, then it had been a waste of a break-in.

She glanced at the blood on her hands. Well, not a complete waste.

She awkwardly shambled off the table, which was definitely not built to support a person. and attempted to stand on the slippery floor in her absurd shoes. She wiped away the remnants of her task on her already ruined skirt and looked around for any signs of the brunette.

The weirdos were pushing and shoving their way out of the coffee shop, and the barista was frantically talking to someone on the phone. Astrid couldn't make out most of it, but her voice was distraught and shaky. Humans were so weak.

The teen followed the rush out of the building and onto the street. Her wings shifted back while she looked around absently. She was directionless without the woman. Sure, she could chase down the group that was running, but that seemed like so much unnecessary effort. Other than the one she had just killed, none of them seemed to really be all that worthy of it.

Then, her black eyes fell on a familiar form. "Hey!" She called loudly and waved in the air. She beat her wings behind her and took off, covering ground so much faster in the air than by land.

She landed a ways away from where she had been; just in front of the brunette woman. "Hey! Why leave you? We being done?"

Hey? Noel turned and it felt like it took ten thousand years to get to the point where she was facing a bloodied, winged girl.

Wat?

> "Why leave you?"

Noel squinted at her. Did she-? Was that missing some words? Somehow?

> "We being done?"

"Yah. Goway." Noel flapped a hand at the girl, forgetting that her coffee was in that hand. Oily, hot liquid sloshed both at Noel and at the bloody girl. Noel hopped back out of the way a full second or two late, which of course only made a second wave of self-splashing.

Noel's head was throbbing and she couldn't get her mutation to stop blind firing. Wait. That was totally blood on the girl's hands. She made a grab for those hands to check them for wounds.

"Ohmigod are you dead?" Was not what she'd meant to ask. She'd meant to ask if the girl was alright. The girl looked alright. The blood didn't actually seem to be coming from anywhere. "You should-" Go.

Noel tried to form the word again. Go.

'Go' was the next word that she was supposed to say, but it was stuck. And her knees weren't really working all that well. Noel sort of crumpled toward the girl. This was fine. She was fine. Everything was fine.

Astrid frowned at the woman. Why was she saying that? Why was she-

Ow. Ow, ow, ow.

Coffee was very hot. Astrid jumped back just a few seconds too late, and didn't avoid getting splashed by the burning liquid. It seeped onto her dress and mixed in with the coffee, burning her legs underneath. The formerly puffy tulle skirt flattened as it was weighed down with the drink. She made a noise of absolute displeasure and glared at the woman.

She attempted to peel the heavy, burning skirt from her legs, but her hands were picked up by the brunette woman.

>>"Ohmigod are you dead?"

"No," Astrid replied in a huffed tone of bewilderment. "I killing woman said you. Is done. Blood getting by woman dead."

>>"You should-"

The woman crumpled to her knees. She didn't even finish her sentence before she fell towards Astrid.

The winged girl instinctively stepped out of the way of the falling woman rather than try to catch her. She didn't really want to catch her, and besides, she had been nothing but rude and unhelpful in the past few minutes.

"What wrong you?" Astrid wrinkled her nose again at the woman. She needed some serious help.