Normally Shelby was not a fan of shrinks, counselors, and the like. She understood that it took years to earn the degree, and many many many classes. Blood, sweat, and tears. She knew that, so it's not like she had anything against the title itself. It was basic psychology, after all. No, what she detested was the person wearing that title. The little man or woman who sported the hat and thought themselves a fix-it-all. Like they could talk away the anguish, sweep the memories under the rug.

This was her second visit to this particular counselor, and she was not a fan. He seemed frustrated by her lack of instantaneous recovery. The fact that she still wasn't really eating, and that sleeping was still hard to do unless someone else was present in the room with her didn't make him happy. His grumpiness filtered over into her and their short sessions were often composed of him giving her tasks she deemed impossible to complete for the stage of grief she was in, and her stubbornly refusing to answer any questions she deemed unimportant.

She had requested a different counselor, but gotten shot down. She'd have to deal with his shenanigans on her own. 

As she exited the building, cheeks reddened with frustration, she shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat and hurried down the steps to where her ride would be waiting. Considering the fact that she was still pretty much under house arrest for the next foreseeable forever, she couldn't go out on her own. She had been lucky right at first that an x-man had been the one who found her, as he had been willing to take her places to get set up in her new 'home'. Unfortunately all good things cannot last and the X's were a fairly busy bunch. That meant  that the task of being her glorified babysitter had fallen down to the next rung on the ladder. The police. The unfortunate fellow that had gotten stuck with her this time around she'd never met before. She'd hardly said more than a few words at him either when he'd picked her up. She wasn't generally very chatty before forced shrink visits.

She missed the last cop, anyway. Officer Gallagher had been someone she'd met with multiple times. She'd been the woman at the scene of the crime who had tucked a blanket around Shelby's shoulders and offered to get her a cup of warm tea.

As she sidled back up to the car and her 'driver', she couldn't help compare the many differences. Gallagher was a tall, blonde, stern woman with a face like a hawk, and she could spear you with the look from across the room. It was the kind of look that made your spine unintentionally straighten and you'd break out in a cold sweat.

... She liked that woman. "Sorry I took so long." She muttered.  

"Not a problem" Linely spoke kindly to his charge, called Shelby from the file that he'd read on her. She'd had a run in with a particularly nasty mutant, she was lucky to get out alive, and of course if that creature found her again...it didn't bare thinking about.

Normally, Officer Hermione Gallagher would be doing this, but she was unwell. Of all things a common cold had taken down that woman, so it had fallen to the only officer that wasn't normally busy on a Sunday afternoon: Detective Linely.

"Officer Linely, a pleasure to meet your acquaintance Shelby." Linely spoke with as kind a tone as possible. His job was to escort her for the day and then he would be back to sorting out issues with protests. It actually made a nice change.

"So where are we going to now?" He asked carefully, he hoped that the counselling session had gone well for her, but from the look of mild frustration on her face... it was clear that it might not have done. He hoped that this job would be relatively simple, with no mutant attacks ideally.  He'd had enough of that for one week.

"Not a problem"

She blinked and deflated a little. Okay, maybe she didn't need to take it out passive aggressively on the new guy. He introduced himself and she felt a smidgen of guilt settle on her shoulders. His tone was kind. She held a hand out toward him and forced a small smile. It was time she kicked her own rear back into gear.

"Nice to meet you as well, Officer. Shelby, or Heidi now too... I guess." She was sure he already knew her name, or names, but introduced herself anyway. It didn't feel real until it came from her own lips. She hadn't decided if she found that disconcerting or not yet, the whole 'people knowing who she was before she introduced herself' thing. She wasn't used to being noteworthy.

"Eh, sorry for being a grouch on the way here." She paused, shuffling awkwardly on her feet. "Dr. Hawklins up there already knows how to push all of my buttons, and I think he gleefully tries to get all of them in one go every time." She grumbled under her breath another few short comments before sighing again.

She glanced at her wrist watch, "Well, I have a few papers that I need to notarized." Paperwork for her temporary school situation, as well as some paperwork for the case they were picking away at. It was coming along gradually. Seemed slow to her, but Gallagher had assured it that it was a normal pace for a crime as complicated as the one she was involved in.

"Gotta go to a bank, or the courthouse to find a notary. Either place will do, really, so I guess we just have to choose."

Of course, neither of them had no way of knowing that both places were the target of two very different crimes that day....

"It's part of a counselors job I suppose, I've had to use them before..." he trailed off, probably best not to mention the fact that he killed a man with his mutation in a conversation with a human that had every reason to be utterly terrified of Mutants. Why on earth had they assigned him to this charge? Sure he could take down pretty much anyone stupid enough to attack them, but she'd be terrified of him from the moment he used his powers to do so!

"Courthouse it is then" that would make the most sense, they could wait for ages if they didn't get there sooner rather than later. Lawyers were always pretty busy, and there could be a serious problem for her if she didn't get her legal documents on time. "You can go to the bank any time, best not to be bothering lawyers during their lunch break." Plus courthouses had better security than most, he thought to himself. It would likely take a while as well, which would help the day go by.

"Get in the car and we'll be on our way" Upon her entry, he put on the sirens and blue lights (that way they wouldn't get stuck in traffic or be easily carjacked) and set off; hopefully there wouldn't be a problem when they got there.

Unfortunately, there was.

"Land sharks." She muttered, nodding along with his sentiment. She climbed in on the passengers side, buckling herself in, and immediately shrank into her seat when he hit the lights and sirens. "Woah!"

She'd never been in a police car that was actively being... police-y. The few short trips she'd taken back and forth with Gallagher had been spent in terse silence. This was a welcome change.

She laughed, sitting up in her seat and relaxing as she edged her shoulder bag onto the floor by her seat. The sirens were pretty loud, so she didn't bother trying to talk over them. She didn't feel like wearing her voice out and sounding like a frog for the rest of the day.

But, when they had reached their destination and pulled up along the sidewalk, she eyeballed the small courthouse and unbuckled. "Do you just wanna wait here while I go in? It's pretty boring. I have to get them to stamp a bunch of papers to prove that i'm who I say I am."

She glanced at him momentarily as she set about getting out of the car. Whatever his choice she needed to go in, and thus prepared herself for it.

She had no way of knowing that there was already a ruckus going on inside. A mutant by the name of 'Barney' was scheduled for court that same day, and while he wasn't exactly well known his punishment was sure to be a lifetime sentence in prison. See, he'd robbed a small convenience store a while back, desperate for even petty change. While that wasn't enough to throw him away for life by itself, the problem for him came in the details. He'd opened fire at the clerk, who had reached for a gun behind the counter. In the chaos that had ensued he'd shot and killed a kid by accident. He was being put away from that. It didn't help his case that the attorney he had been assigned was a crackpot, in his opinion.

Thankfully Barney had some friends who weren't exactly willing to let him get sent along to a secure mutant holding facility for the rest of his life, and thus a plan to break him out had been formed.

They waited until he had been taken in for the trial before they made their move. One of them, Peck, had the handy ability to change his appearance at will. From hair to socks he could alter his own appearance and sneak into virtually any situation. Considering that Barney was flanked by two Meta's and three officers, they had needed someone on the inside to feed them details. Thus, earlier that day, Peck had made a visit to one of the officers homes and.. eh... taken over for him for the day. His new face, Officer Brown, allowed him to infiltrate the trial on a whole new level. It helped that brown was also a mutant; the bots that were standing guard at the trial would recognize him as mutant, but weren't sophisticated enough to be able to tell mutations apart.

He was in the courtroom as the proceedings were going on, surveying the situation silently. A little camera that had been hidden on him was doing all of the talking for him, feeding information about how many cops there were, civilians, and entrances and exits. When he deemed it time he tapped on the mic twice in rapid succession, a signal for his buddies to move in. Two more joined in then, one a large hulking figure stalking down the hallway, and the other a smaller regal female slinking along beside him. The smaller one lifted a hand as they neared the doors. There were two officers were stationed outside the doors, both of whom were instantly on alert as soon as the two strangers approached. Unfortunately for them the woman had the power to bring the heavy wooden doors behind them to life. Wooden arms groaned as they lashed out and made quick work of binding the officers to the doors. They hadn't even had the time to each for their guns.

Her heavyset companion then lifted a foot and kicked the doors in, blowing them right off the hinges. The Meta's were instantly on alert.

"ATTENTION. STAND DO-"

He lurched in and grabbed the closest one in one large hand, then casually started to crunch it into a large metal ball. The other primed itself and opened fire while it's human controller turned to Barney. Peck grinned, not even bothering to deal with the last meta, as he moved over to where Barney was and dug out the keys that would release him from his electric cuffs.

Meanwhile civilians were ducking and running for cover, Barney, once freed, threw his hands out and a sheer, solid bubble of energy formed around the bot. He lifted his hand, lifting the bubble as well, and the with as much force as he could muster he threw the ball across the room. It blew through a wall and into the next room over, while he and he turned to his partners. Peck shifted back into his own face, twirling the keys on one finger. "Well, shall we go?

Shelby walked into the building at that exact moment, was was met with a surge of people stampeding toward her. She threw herself out of the way before they could trample her into the door, pressing herself up against the wall.

"Sure, I'll wait in the car for you, just stay safe and try not to upset any bloodsucking lawyers while I'm gone" He laughed at his own bad joke. As far as he knew there weren't any bloodsucking lawyers in the firm but with the X Gene you never could tell, you got all sorts after all.

Linely saw a large crowd of people burst from the courthouse, damn near trampling Shelby as she tried to enter the courthouse, they looked positively terrifed...oh boy, time to get into action. He called on his radio for backup, hopefully some would arrive, out came his pistol.

He got out of the car, the crowd had already dispersed in every direction, leaving only a couple of doors and a rather shaken looking Shelby. He walked up to her , carefully. "You stay here, while I deal with whatever's inside." A head round the door and he saw the indivuduals , four of them.

One was a stern looking lady, another heavy set and obvious mutant, one who appeared to be a police officer (though probably wasn't )... and the criminal scumbag that he had arrested after killing a kid! This was going to be fun. His nervous system tingled...the woman had some significant amount of pain within her, as did Barney. Heavy set guy would probably go down to a few well placed bullets, and fake cop... melee would work for her.

He went into the building and began his onslaught.

"You stay here, while I deal with whatever's inside."

She nodded, watching as people scattered on the streets, then turned to look back at him. "Hey, be careful, okay?" She hardly knew him at all, but she'd never seem a flock of people run like that before. She'd heard about it, from various snippets of news stories. Generally wide spread panic like that only ever had to do with mutants of some sort. 

She was more than happy to stay out of his way though. She wasn't foolish enough to think herself any kind of a hero. She stepped back a ways, staying near the doors but also leaving herself a clean exit should s&%@ hit the fan.

Inside, 'Officer Brown' received a neat little bleep on his phone. The sound of a notification on his borrowed phone. Lifting it,  he spied the live tracker for activity in their area. "Fu--." Turning to Barney, moved to draw his gun. "Someone was able to request backup."

Barney nodded, holding the containment bubble in the other room to keep the other bot busy. "Well, we will just have to gone before they get here. Let's git."

The woman stepped forward and raised her hands toward the hold in the wall, using her power to grow a patch from the wooden beams that made up most of the support for the wall. It would keep the bot out at least temporarily should Barney need to drop his bubble. Then they turned and started to head for the door, fully intending on heading out the front doors. Little did they know they were more or less walking into an ambush.

Peck hung back from the group, shifting his face back into Brown's. He headed for a different door; the side door that the judge normally entered through. He was more useful in the shadows, away from prying eyes...

So fake cop had moved out, he would have to leap on her later. The three remaining mutants walked nigh straight into Linely, who looked more or less like a man in a suit. Except that he had a gun.

Barney swore colorfully as he recognised the man that had arrested him a few days before, that was just as his vision swam with pain as Linely triggered a particularly nasty spinal fracture he had suffered when he was ten, he fell unconsious pretty quickly after that.}

Linely smiled as the heavy set guy looked in astonishment at the simple collapse of his friend "you did that didn't you? You bastard!" He charged at Linely , only to be met with a few inexpertly fired gunshots , they were meant to be non-lethal, and certainly Linely hoped they were, but his aim was never the best. "Bullets don't care how strong you are" was the first rule they taught you as an armed police officer, and this case was no different, as the heavy set man crumpled in a heap on the floor.

The wood manipulating woman fared better, as a large wooden hand that sprung from the door forced Linely to dodge out of the way, rather than simply knocking her out. This was going to be a bit tough. Linely did an impressive forward roll towards her , and struck her hard in the stomach. Winded , she didn't have time to react before pain rippled through her body as Linely's nervous system lashed out further, causing her simply to keel over.

The spectacle was watched in horror by Peck, as he saw just some guy in a suit take down all three of his comrades without so much as breaking a sweat. He was going to pay for that. He took out his borrowed sidearm and began to fire.

Peck had gone around the long way, and by the time he popped out on the other side, it looked as if his whole team had been taken down. But some shlub in a suit, no less. He had been momentarily shocked, but managed to recover swiftly. He needed a plan... and he needed to make that #%$& pay!

Lifting his sidearm, he unloaded a few rounds at the guy to cover his own movement. He was running for the front doors, trying to stick to as much of the plan as he could without the rest of the team. Turns out luck was on his side, too. The moment he stepped out into the hallway the Meta that had previously been contained within a bubble burst through a wall and entered the scene. Bits of drywall and wood exploded out into the hallway, and a fine dust spilled out in a plume.

Peck took that as his sign to skedaddle on out of there and booked it for the front glass doors. On the other side, he spotted a curious sight. A woman, pink haired and looked completely out of place amidst the chaos, kneeling with her head in her hands. She must had ducked when she'd heard the bot exploding through the wall. 

Latching onto a fleeing thought, Peck shifted himself into an exact duplicate of the girl. When he bust through the outside doors, they made eye contact briefly before he reached out and grabbed her by the collar. In the distance, one could hear sirens and the metallic thunking of metal on pavement. The Calvary was closing in.

--

There was gunfire, screaming, and a sudden explosion. Shelby didn't know what the hell was going on inside the building, and she wasn't really sure she wanted to. She'd ducked down to cover herself at the loudest noise, and when she looked back up someone was exiting the building.

... She was. Shelby was exiting the building. 

"Wha-" The word hadn't even gotten fully out of her mouth before she was accosted and she started dragging herself down the steps and toward a parked car. "Get in the car!" Her own voice screamed at her. She could feel a headache starting up somewhere behind her eyes.

"What?! No! Hell no!" She didn't have a clue what was happening, but she knew she was sure as hell not going to get in a car with... herself. She started struggling then, tearing at the fist that was clenched around her collar. The other her simply picked her up with a strength she knew she didn't own.

If peck could get her in the car, it would only take a second to hot-wire it and he'd make his escape. If he couldn't before the bot and the guy came barreling out of the courthouse, well, then he had himself a nice shiny hostage, anyway. 

Linely swore colorfully as a bullet entered his left arm. First there was a coldness, like he'd been punched hard in the arm. His vision swam, but he was able to avoid fainting from the pain. He had just enough time to "share" his pain with the fake cop before she darted out of sight.

He ran towards the door to see...two of Shelby. Two Shelbies. This was going to be tough, it was obvious that they were being pulled by each other towards his car. Damn if this criminal was going to get away with that. Through the confusion he almost forgot an important detail that might just have saved Shelby's life.

"Don't worry Shelby, I've got this" He said confidently. His nerves twitched with anticipation. He'd used his power on one of them, so fake Shelby would be feeling the pain from a bullet wound. Yep, there it was. "Got you" he whispered under his breath. The other Shelby was feeling no such pain, so this twin dilemma was over.

He charged towards the two of them and brought his baton down hard on fake Shelby's head. He swept her from her feet and let her land on the floor. His concentration gone, the appearance changing mutant now took on his real form, a slightly ugly, bearded man.

"That's all of them I think Shelby" He spoke kindly to the human...before crying out again in pain at the wound he had suffered, his wound was bleeding, his vision swam once more. He only just had time to lie down before he lost consciousness. The sound of sirens echoed in the air, he would be safe, he was sure of that.

"Don't worry Shelby, I've got this"

Her head whipped around. Officer Linley was back! She could have cried from relief had she not been so damn confused! The other her swore loudly, moving like she was going to lift the arm with the gun in it again. The officer bolted in quickly, however, and delivered the finishing blow. Shelby stumbled away a few steps, turning just in time to see the other her gradually shift into someone else. She cringed.

"That's all of them I think Shelby"

She glanced away from Peck to look at him, still mystified. "Jesus, what exactly happened in there?" She didn't get an answer as a moment later he cried out and seemed to succumb to some type of wound. "Linley!" She was on her knees at his side a moment later, hands hovering over him as she tried to figure out what to do. Where was he hurt? She spotted blood and followed it to it's source.

Her stomach churned and she was forced to look away. "..One.. two... three...four." A deep breath in, deep breath out. She kept counting even as she turned back. It was one of the more useful things a certain nurse had told her. Give herself a rule. She would be okay so long as she kept counting.

"Five... six... seven.." She tugged her coat off, attempting to wrap it gently around his injured arm so she could apply pressure to the wound. She didn't know the first thing about first aid, but was seriously hoping that all of the combined movie knowledge she had would pay off. Put pressure on the wound! Keep him from bleeding out?

... Could a person bleed out from an arm wound?

"...Eight.. nine... ten..." The sirens grew closer. Three cars appeared from down the street, a few META's on their heels, and screeched to a stop in the middle of the road. The door to the closest one opened and a cop came out gun first. "Put your hands up! Get down on the ground!" Startled, she complied instantly.

A few moments later, after the bots had gone in and confirmed the scene was all clear, they were busy rounding all of the mutants up and cuffing them. Shelby had just been released, once they had been able to confirm her story, and was hovering uselessly around where Linley lay. There was an ambulance on the way, but it would be a bit.

Across from her, the largest mutant was sitting on the ground with his back to the side of a cruiser, his arms electro-cuffed behind his back. He took notice of her finally, squinting to get a good look. She missed the sudden recognition that dawned on his face.

"Heheheh. Yur that girly, ain'tcha?" She turned her chin at his chuckling, cautiously glancing at him. The large mutant continued on laughing.

"The eh, artist, was it? The one Roach is lookin' for." He paused a beat, as if thinking about it real hard. "Shelby."

The moment her name rolled off of his tongue she was on high alert. Eyes went wide, pupils narrowed. A cold sweat washed over her.

"Ya know, I woulda thought that someone like you, with who you got after ya, wouldn't be so brazen to just walk around out here with the rest of us." He grinned, large slightly yellowed teeth that were much too big.

She whipped back around when he started laughing again. Deep booming laughter. "One... two...t-three.." She focused on Linley instead, going back to applying direct, even pressure to his wound.

Somewhere in the distance the sounds of ambulance sirens gradually started up.

Linely gradually regained consciousness in an...ambulance, there were a pair of paramedics , who had bandaged his gunshot wound... This felt weird, he'd been shot before of course, but never had a shot hit him this bad, at least he could move the wounded arm, the bullet proof vest had done its job...sort of.

"S-Shelby?" He asked to the blurry background around him. Dear God , he hoped she was OK, she must have been worried sick. He hadn't bled out , he was OK, he could get her to have her notaries signed...he could barely remember what had happened. "Where are you Shelby?" He said again, hoping that she was there, no safer place than an ambulance at this point for her.

She was tucked in a little seat off to he side, head in her hands as they bounced along. The sirens were still blaring above. When she heard him start to stir she glanced up and edged over toward the bed slightly. The paramedics had been more than understanding with letting her ride along. She was worried about him.

Also, to some extent about the apparent criminal presence that seemed to know her name and what she looked like. She shuddered. When he called out a second time she snapped out of her daze and reached over to gently pat his hand. "Hey, i'm right here." She managed a tired smile as she stood a little and leaned over so he could more easily see her.

"Were headed to the hospital so you can get patched up." She started, unsure of exactly how to go about comforting someone in this situation. Heck, she wasn't very good at comforting people in normal amounts of distress!

"The other officers took over clean up. The, um, four people who caused...whatever that was were caught and cuffed. Officer Smith?" She phrased it as a question because she wasn't sure if she was remembering it right. "He wanted me to tell you, 'Good job, Kid'..." She hoped that maybe recounting some of the details would help him. The bad guys were caught, he'd saved the day! Etcetera. 

She struggled with the notion of telling him about the big mutant and what he'd said, at least so soon. She could just as easily wait until they got him to the hospital and officially patched up. One way or another she knew it was an important piece of information, and probably imperative to her case. 

"Officer Smith...I'm his senior in the police force , "kid" indeed!" In fairness Smith was twice Linely's age and was a good and effective officer. "I remember basically taking out a group of mutants, then there were two of you, and then I fainted, did I have double vision?"

He then thought for a moment and then nearly rushed to sitting up, "did you get your notaries signed off? You needed those." He spoke almost comically urgently, as though that had been the most serious thing of the day. In his mind it was though. A gunshot wound would heal , but not getting those signed in time would have a far more serious event.

The ambulance was still going, it wouldn't be long now before he reached the Hospital, and had a tonne of paperwork to fill in, including an accidents in the workplace report. He got shot. It qualified as an accident. You really couldn't make it up he thought, as his eyes widened with exasperation.

"I remember basically taking out a group of mutants, then there were two of you, and then I fainted, did I have double vision?"

"Nope, I was being accosted by myself when you came rushing out." She pursed her lips, leaning on the rails of the stretcher bed he was on. Her coat was missing, as she'd decided to just leave it at the scene when the ambulance had shows up. It had too much red on it now. "Turns out it was a guy who had just temporarily made himself look like me. I don't really get what that was all about though."


"did you get your notaries signed off? You needed those."

The artist blinked, leaning back quickly as he sat up. Out of everything that had happened he was worried about her papers? She laughed. "No.. It was chaos when I walked in." Shaking her head, she moved out of the way as a paramedic leaned into try and get Linley to lay back down.

"That's okay though, i'm sure I can get them signed somewhere else." If they ever let her leave the school again after this. "And I think due to the circumstances they'll probably let it slide if they are a little late." 

She sat back in her seat, fiddling with her hands in her lap. "Hey, so... about when you passed out..." She supposed now was as good a time as any to tell him. "Shortly after you conked out one of the guys i'm assuming you defeated kinda.. sorta.. talked to me." Gloated and vaguely threatened counted as talking, right?

"He knew who I was. It kinda sounded like a certain someone has people out in the city looking for me." She tried to word it as innocently as possible. She didn't want to jump to conclusions again and make everything worse if it wasn't really that important.