Abby shuffled her feet a little as the other girl inspected the gift. She hoped Astrid liked it. When she was thanked, a wide grin stretched across her face. That was probably the first time they had talked without snarking at each other.

>>"Only certain kinds of girls get their bras from there, you know."

Muscles tensed, the blonde looked over at the group of boys. A tall redhead grinned at her. "Yeah, but those are the kinds who know how to..." the boy trailed off and made a lewd gesture.

Baring her shark-sharp teeth, Abby let a hiss leave through her teeth. "You couldn't even get a two-cent whore to touch a disease ridden, little **** like you. I doubt you even know what to do if they did accept your sperm covered money."

Astrid was a little bit lost, really. English was hard. There were so many words that she didn't understand.

There was a teenage boy standing a little ways off from them. He appeared to be talking to (or about?) them, but she wasn't sure exactly what he meant by it. She understood most of the words, but strung together, they didn't make any sense. Astrid cocked her head, racking her brain for possibilities.

While Astrid was deep in thought, it seemed that Abby had already figured out exactly what the boy meant. Her attention was snapped over to the little girl as she began to spout off words with a hiss in her voice. Astrid turned to stare at her, trying to make sense of what she’d just said. She understood some of the words, mostly because she’d been called several of them and knew them to be bad ones, and she was actually amazed that they were coming from the mouth of the little girl. She didn’t seem like she knew exactly what she was saying either, but it surprised Astrid nonetheless.

Knowing that she didn’t really have anything to add in English, Astrid merely nodded and shouted a ‘yeah!’ to go along with what she’d said.

Bailey had made a terrible mistake.

A terrible, horrible mistake.

He’d thought that saying something about the store would make him fit in with his new friends, and well, he was correct. It had worked for a minute or two. His friends had taken to what he said quite well, although they had acted in a way that Bailey wasn’t crazy about.

So, everything had seemed to be coming up Bailey for all of 30 seconds.

Then, they had caught the attention of two girls standing nearby. One looked very young. Too young to be shopping in a store like Bosom Buddies. The other just looked… well… slightly terrifying. He did not want to step any closer to her.

However, as terrifying as the one girl looked, it was the little one that lashed out at the teens. Bailey’s head recoiled into his neck as he looked at her, utterly ashamed for what he had said.

“S-sorry,” he muttered, putting his hands up in the air as a sign of surrender. He was not going to engage. Nope, not going to engage.

His friends had different ideas.

Lukas, a particularly ‘cool’ guy that Bailey didn’t really care for, walked up to Abby and crouched down to get on her level. He had a wide smile on his face, and he was chuckling as he looked at her. “Hey kiddo, I know you have no idea what you just said, so I’ll let that slide. But you know, you really shouldn’t insult people older and bigger and smarter than you. I can cause a lot of problems for you.”

Astrid's call was all the encouragement Abby needed for her actions. These jokers thought they could insult them and get away with it. If it was Astrid by herself... the little blonde wondered if the older girl even knew what all was implied.

The apology from one of the boys was nice. At least someone realized they were wrong.

Then one of the other boys moved closer, even leaning into her space. She listened as he called her kiddo, told her she didn't know what she was saying (which yes, most of it was just things she'd heard others say but she knew they were insults), tell her he was "older and bigger and smarter" than her, and then threaten her.

Abbigail scoffed inside. This boy wasn't anything. She took lessons on self-defense from X-Men. This boy was nothing. And he was leaving himself wide open. Putting on her best pout, the one that she used to use on Daddy, Abby ducked her head a little.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered. Then as the boy moved to lean away from her, she struck. The dress she was wearing made her slower than she'd like, but she was still faster than the boy could react. Her leg went high enough to hit him wear it hurt though. "But if you think you're smarter than me, I think you need to take another look."

Dropping her leg, she moved closer to Astrid. Worst thing she could do was give him an easy hit. She smiled smugly as the boy groaned, grabbed his crotch, and fell to his knees.

Astrid's eyes bulged. Had the little girl really just kicked a boy in the crotch? It seemed she had.

It also seemed that Astrid had underestimated her. She'd assumed that the girl would always be some silly little pushover who wouldn't be worth her time. She had been dead wrong.

The avian teen was actually pretty impressed. The boy seemed to be in actual pain. Had that been the first time that the girl had struck something, or had she had training? The evidence seemed to point to the latter option, but Astrid couldn't think of a place that would willingly train a tiny eight year old. At least not in America, that was.

Still in a little bit of a state of shock, she moved forward and elbowed the boy in the middle of his spine. She wasn't actually sure why she'd just done it; it was more of a reflex than anything else. What her mind was concerned about was the fact that she and the little girl were on the same side. Fighting against a group of skinny teenage boys.

It was like some strange alternate reality, she realized as she looked back at Abby with her eyes still wide.

Bailey had known that it wouldn't be a good idea to engage either of the two girls, even before Lukas stepped forward. Something about the situation just had Bad Idea written all over it.

However, Lukas didn't seemed to get that idea. Bailey stayed back as he watched his friend threaten a little girl, and then subsequently get both kicked in the nuts, and elbowed in the back. A chorus of 'oohs', both mocking and empathetic in nature, erupted from the group of boys. None of them moved to help their friend.

In fact, the group collectively took a step backward. One boy, Shane, turned his head toward his friends and motioned away from the scene, indicating that he thought they should split. Everyone except Bailey nodded in agreement.

In just a few seconds, Bailey had been abandoned at his post. He took a deep breath and then moved forward to peel his friend, who had collapsed completely, off of the mall floor.

He picked his friend off of the ground slowly, allowing him to clutch his injuries tentatively. Bailey was very glad that he was not in Lukas' position. "Sorry again," he muttered. He was definitely within six feet of the two girls.

Having the winged girl on her side was a new feeling. That the older girl even took a hit at the idiot boy made Abby feel better about taking the cheap shot. She scoffed as the boy went fully down and sent a smile to Astrid. The other girl looked shocked, which was probably because of her actions. Abby probably hadn't seemed like the kind of person to do that.

(And normally she wouldn't. But she was angry and embarrassed because of Astrid and the boys just added to that. The one who threatened her... was really just an easy target.)

Watching most of the other boys flee was amusing. Abby was shorter than all of them. Just goes to show you can't judge someone by their appearance. The last boy standing, who was also the one who apologized, moved to help his friend. The blonde watched as he helped the idiot to his feet.

"I hope he realizes what a good friend he has in you," she told him. Honestly. She wasn't going to hit any others of their group. The redhead would have been the only other target. At least this boy apologized.

Astrid made no move to stop the boy as he peeled his friend off of the ground. It might have looked like she was being merciful for a second, but really, it was because something was very, very wrong.

Limbs were very heavy when they went completely limp. When those limbs were wings, they were even heavier. Astrid turned her head as far as it could possibly go to look at her lifeless appendages. Nothing had changed about them over the course of the conversation, and yet somehow, she was suddenly unable to move them.

By that point, she was panicking. Her heart was racing and she was breathing very heavily. She reached her arms behind her and attempted to touch her wings. She couldn't even feel her hand touching them. There was no feeling in that part of her body.

She had started to hyperventilate. The hyperventilating quickly turned into screaming. Within minutes, she had collapsed on the floor in a puddle of tears and screams. While she did so, her arms were behind her, frantically ripping out feathers as she attempted to make herself feel something. Anything. She couldn't shift, either. 

What was happening to her? Her mind automatically turned to the worst case scenario. She would have to get them amputated. That, or walk around with two dead limbs on her back for the rest of her life.

The worst part about it all? It had dawned on her that she might never fly again.

Bailey simply nodded in response to the girl's statement. He didn't even know whether or not he and Lukas were technically friends, but all of a sudden, they were a lot closer.

Lukas gave the girl the middle finger as he attempted to straighten himself out.

While the two boys had been busy with their own things, the second girl, the creepy one, was apparently freaking out. She was screaming and grabbing at her back....

Oh.

Oh shit.

Bailey knew exactly what was going on. It was his fault that she was freaking out. She was standing in his radius, and he was nullifying her powers. Well, he was nullifying her wings. He could only imagine what a horrible feeling that would be.

Abandoning his friend, Bailey stepped out of the six foot range. Lukas stayed there, looking at the girl with a disgusted expression.

A crowd had begun to form around them, and two mall security guards appeared at either side of them. "What's the problem over here?" One of them asked.

Abby was watching the boy pick up his friend when Astrid started to scream. Whipping around, she saw the winged girl... pulling on her wings. She was pulling out feathers by the handful. Not paying anymore attention to the boys, the blonde raced over to her friend.

"Astrid, easy. Easy." The more feathers she pulled out, the more worried Abby became. She had done some looking after they first met. New mutations were always fun to try to figure out. Grabbing hold of Astrid's hands, Abbigail pulled them away from the feathered appendages. "It's okay. Breathe with me, Astrid."

Taking a deep breath, the small girl became to exaggerated her breathing, hoping her somewhat-friend would follow her lead. Holding their hand's tight together, she completely ignored the security guards when they came. All her focus was on Astrid.

Abby was trying to grab her hands. Astrid did not want someone grabbing her hands at that point. She wanted to figure things out for herself. Frustratedly, she tried to slap the hands away. 

Then, all of a sudden, she could feel her wings again. And God, did they ever hurt. 

It seemed that ripping out feathers aggressively made one sore and bleeding. That was not a fun way to be. Astrid gasped loudly, feeling the pain rip through her. She almost wanted to stop feeling her wings again. Almost.

She looked up, taking gulps of air and attempting to stop the tears that just kept coming. The only thing that was different about the scene from a few minutes before was that one of the boys had stepped away. He was looking rather sheepish, too. That couldn't cause... could it?

The pain wouldn't really let her think straight. Astrid stayed on the floor where she was, sinking into a more comfortable position as she tried to nurse her wings back to health. She didn't care that she was receiving a large number of stares. Or that two security guards had appeared. She simply ignored the world to get herself in order. 

Bailey's attention was diverted from the scene with the winged girl over to a security guard. Two security guards, actually.

"Uh, everything's fine. Sorry. Just a misunderstanding," he tried to explain to the first guard. How could he explain what had just happened? It was a bit of a blur, even to him. Lukas nodded along with the explanation, still awkwardly clutching at his crotch.

The security guard looked the two of them up and down, and then looked over at the two girls on the ground. "Sorry, kid. Not buying it," he announced gruffly. Bailey couldn't exactly blame him, though. It was a strange scene to find in the middle of the mall.

Luckily, Bailey stepping away had allowed the girl to get feeling back in her wings. He could breathe easy for that reason. Everything else was going to ****, but at least she was feeling better.

The guard approached the two girls and then looked back at the boys. "You four are going to need to come with me," he pointed to them and then back to where the security office was. "You have some explaining to do. Oh, and if you don't I'll be calling the cops. And your parents. I'm sure that none of you want that, do you?"

Abby vaguely heard the apologetic boy's explanation for the scene. And the guard's disbelief. She kept her eye on Astrid though. Finally the screaming stopped and the other girl seemed to be able to pay attention again.

"Astrid?"

>>"You four are going to need to come with me. You have some explaining to do. Oh, and if you don't I'll be calling the cops. And your parents. I'm sure that none of you want that, do you?"

"Yes, sir. If you could give us a minute? I wanna make sure she's okay," Abby explained, eyeing the blood tipped feathers.

"That's alright," the guard furthest from the girls stated. "I'll take these boys and get their statements. Greg, you good to stay with them?"

The guard near them, Greg, nodded. "Yeah. Might as well keep them separate. What's your friend need, sweetheart?"

Not sure herself, Abby looked back at the older girl. "Astrid?" she asked again.

She was being told to go somewhere. Then she was being told not to go anywhere. The world was confusing and... spinning?

Astrid blinked at the man as he approached. She registered the fact that he was asking her if she needed something, but wasn't entirely sure. She looked at Abby, and then at the man again, decided that she had probably assumed right the first time and was then leaving them with an awkward silence that needed to be filled. 

"Water," she said. She really wanted them all to leave her alone, but she didn't really want to make the situation any worse at that point. Water seemed like a fine thing to ask for.

She scooted a little ways back and then leaned her shoulder against the nearest store window. The Bosom Buddies then had a new smear of blood along the bottom section. She was woozy and tired, and she just wanted to go to sleep.

Looking at the two girls with a guilty expression, Bailey followed after the security guard. It was probably very good that they were going to separate places, given all that had just happened.

He walked through the mall hallway, scuffing his sneakers along the floor as he went. Lukas was still walking funny, despite having been kicked ten minutes before. Bailey figured that it must've been a really hard kick. That, or Lukas was a total baby.

In the back of the crowd, Bailey spotted their friends. They were watching with wide eyes, staying silent, as they didn't want to also be taken away by the security guard. Bailey didn't blame them, but he was also jealous. He did not want his dad to be called down to pick him up. Or even worse, one of his brothers.

He and Lukas were led to a little room in the back of the mall behind a washroom. It was rather dingy, and smelled pretty bad, but it could have been worse. They were directed to two seats across from an ugly desk. In the back of the room, there was a holding cell. Bailey hoped that they wouldn't have to make use of that.

"So, you two are going to explain what happened while I look through the tape again," the security guard, whose name tag read 'Dale', explained.