Gawain was shoved by Ami out of the mirror and into... Ami? The world tilted, and it felt like he had run into another mirror without taking a break, expect he was definitely not in the mirrorworld now. The rhino mutant thundered past behind him as Gawain shoved Ami (or whoever she was) out of its way, tripped, and stumbled together with her. It was not graceful, heroic, or even acceptable at all. Gawain swore, and looked up just in time to watch the rhino faceplant with force enough to make him stay down for the foreseeable future.

"Wha..." Gawain finally found his footing. And stared at Ami, who had managed to get out the other way and trip the rhino. And then he turned and stared at other Ami. Both of them were there, both of them were real, and both had the same less than appreciative expression on their face as they looked back at him. Gawain deflated with a sigh. "C'mon, this is not fair..."

Satisfied for the moment that the rhino man was down for the count, Amelia turned to assess--

"Gawain! Get off!" The other Amelia shouted.

... The situation had changed. She knew that voice. It was a voice she heard whenever she had a sensible internal monologue. At that moment, her sensible internal monologue was telling her that the She from this side of Tanner's fault in reality was currently shoving and trying to disentangle herself from the flurry of limbs between herself and the would-be-knight in shining armor, Gawain. Of Arthurian legend. What a unique name. Was that an alias, or a birth name? It beat Windowboy or whatever she'd been mentally calling him, that was for sure.

She hadn't seen herself. Which was to say, Amelia of this side of the rip had yet to notice her "evil twin."

Evil is such a novel concept. What is evil? What is good? The world is shades of gray. The Amelia entangled with Gawain was shades of red. This was so not how she'd wanted to save his ass. It... was embarrassing.

The Amelia caught with Gawain wore a police uniform. The Amelia standing idly by wore street clothes, casual, because this work was intended to be undercover. SUPER didn't have uniforms. You don't advertise covert organizations with blue pants and a gold badge.

Gawain had already seen both instances of herself. Would it be possible, she wondered, to slip off unnoticed? Maybe she could play it up as some sort of instance of temporal flux, time travel gone awry. This was her from the present, yes, and presently she was her from the future. This was not Christmas so there would be no her of days past. Time travel was technically involved (thanks, Tanner), so it wouldn't be a giant lie. More of a bold faced little lie...

Gawain finally found his footing. He was staring away from her. Amelia stepped away from him as he muttered something about fairness, reassessing her situation. Psychic constructs had vanished. She'd dropped what she was holding.

"Not fair?" She asked. "You're telling me. I try and help you out and you run smack into me."

She glanced around for her pepper spray and her leather gloves, briefly inflated gloves with constructs once more, and nabbed the spray. Only then did she notice that they weren't alone. Oh, and that they hadn't been murdered by a rhinoceros, which is a good thing. Her distraction, not so much. The person standing by them looked like--

"The #%^*?!" Amelia swore. What the hell was this?

It was a mirror image of herself, only with more makeup and in street clothes.

The other Amelia sighed. Apparently, her other self was both crude and slow on the uptake. It was clear who had gotten the more successful genes.

"I am you, from the future." Amelia stated, without an ounce of humor or hope in her voice. To Gawain, she added "Thanks, Gawain. I was really tryin to avoid causing any paradoxes today."

The rhino was down for the count. Gawain was on his feet, mostly unhurt, and Ami was...
Ami was...

>>"The #%^*?!"

There were two Amis. One in a uniform, and one... not.

Shapeshifter?
Coincidence?
Mirror-related power growth that copies people?...

Please don't let it be a power growth.

>>"I am you, from the future. Thanks, Gawain. I was really tryin to avoid causing any paradoxes today."

"Hey!" Gawain protested "How am I suddenly the bad guy here?!"

Leave it to two versions of the same ex-girlfriend to gang up on him. Typical.

"Did you just... huh, what, time travel through that?" he asked, pointing at the portal.

((OOC sorry for the wait, life got busy and I let MRO posting slip. I'll try and wrap this up within the next few posts! Make everyone's life easier.))

Occam's Razor dictates that in situations where multiple explanations for something exist, the simplest situation if often most likely. It was simpler to use the preexisting distortion in time and space than to fabricate her own. She felt like a loser for utilizing someone else's mistake for her own gain, but Amelia was no stranger to feeling like a loser. She could handle it.

"Yeah. The tear in the fabric of time and space? It's been causing all sorts of problems. In the future, we figure out how to use it, ala the Terminator. Takes a special device." Plainclothes Amelia said.

The story seemed unlikely. But these days, people were dealing with ten implausible things before breakfast. Cop Amelia would give herself the benefit of the doubt.

"That's really f#%^ed up," the police officer said helpfully.

"Yeah," Amelia agreed with herself. "What the hell can you do, though?" She shrugged. Gawain probably felt disoriented, hearing and seeing the present and future Amelias. Present Amelia hoped past Amelia wasn't planning to make an appearance. Oops, there she went. Present was also past. The police officer shook her head at the thought.

"Time travel is obnoxiously confusing." Cop Amelia said. "So, what. You came back to try and help us out here or something?"

"Yeah," the Amelia in plainclothes said. "I was trying to avoid involving myself. But since no more rips have happened, and Gawain hasn't started sucking in upon himself like some sort of imploding singularity." She glanced at Gawain for confirmation. He helpfully didn't explode. "I think we are good."

She needed to isolate herself. Maybe if she spread this lie on thick enough, she would go along willingly. They could use a sample of a body double. This had not been her intent, but SUPER Amelia would take it. An opportunity is an opportunity.

Ami was a time traveler. From the future. Having come through the rip in time and space, she totally managed to fool Gawain into believing she was... Ami. The mirrorwalker was not sure if he was more confused or cop-Ami was, but he was definitely working up a headache.

>>"Yeah. The tear in the fabric of time and space? It's been causing all sorts of problems. In the future, we figure out how to use it, ala the Terminator. Takes a special device."

>>"That's really f#%^ed up,"

>>"Yeah. What the hell can you do, though?"

Terminator Ami. Like Gawain's day on the X-team had not already been stressful enough, his ex girlfriend was suddenly Robocop from the future. What the hell. The two of them thought alike enough, though. That was a good sign. Maybe.

>>"Time travel is obnoxiously confusing. So, what. You came back to try and help us out here or something?"

>>"Yeah. I was trying to avoid involving myself. But since no more rips have happened, and Gawain hasn't started sucking in upon himself like some sort of imploding singularity. I think we are good."

"I did not WHAT?!" Gawain gaped at Future Ami. Was he supposed to implode on contact?! "Do you think you maybe should have mentioned that maybe earlier?!"

Out of all possible things, that was the one thing Gawain had decided to latch on to? Hmph.

"That was a joke," Amelia said. Cop Amelia, that was. "Wasn't it?" She asked her plainclothes double. If it were her, that was exactly the kind of crap she'd pull to mess with her ex-boyfriend. Even in a confusing and dangerous situation.

"Yeah," Future Amelia confirmed. "A joke. You wouldn't have imploded." She paused a beat, then added "It is entirely more likely you would have simply been erased from existence in a paradox. Time travel is an art right now, not a science." She was having too much fun with this.

Past Amelia slapped her forehead. "Quit effing around..." She muttered. "Honestly, Gawain would be fine in the event of a paradox. It isn't him who is seeing himself from the future or herself from the past. We'd be the ones erasing ourselves or imploding." Seeing as how that hadn't happened, again, they were good. But it had been a close thing. Amelia could see why she'd tried to avoid it at all costs.

>>"That was a joke. Wasn't it?"

>>"Yeah. A joke. You wouldn't have imploded. It is entirely more likely you would have simply been erased from existence in a paradox. Time travel is an art right now, not a science."

Gawain glared at his two exes. Or rather, one ex, and a... what was a future version of an ex? Future Perfect?... Future Imp... seriously this whole thing was way over his head. Also, somehow Ami was ganging up on him.

>>"Quit effing around... Honestly, Gawain would be fine in the event of a paradox. It isn't him who is seeing himself from the future or herself from the past. We'd be the ones erasing ourselves or imploding."

"Okay, NO ONE is erasing. Or imploding. So... so far, so good? Hm?" he sighed, waving a hand at the Amis "So question: Does either of you know what we do about the giant tear in space and time that is spewing rhinos or whatever?... Because I feel like I was sick on the day we covered that in Science class."

Gawain came to the same conclusion that both of them had reached. Nobody had imploded or exploded or whatever, so everything was good, right? The two Amelias said yes at the very same time, then stared at each other. Then Gawain asked if anyone knew what the hell to do about the rift.

Cop Amelia didn't know. She didn't know at all. She looked to future Amelia. Her being from the future and all, she'd likely have a useful opinion on the whole thing.

"I just came to help during the opening of the rift," Future Amelia said with a small shrug. "We still haven't fixed it in the future. It's why I could use it to come to the past. It's a link." This bull was getting laid on thick. They were straying further and further from her intended goal, as well. Though she had to comment about something. "Nice imagery with the vomiting rhinos, by the way. Very tasteful."

"Spewing." Present Amelia said. Future Amelia looked at her. "Phrasing is important, and spewing was a much better word than vomiting." Less syllables. Really, ugh, rolled off the tongue. Yet another wonderful bit of imagery.

"Okay," Future Amelia said. They'd gotten entirely distracted now. Her goal had been to show up, take stock, and collect samples so they could learn about the various differences and the science of the rift world, as well as its rift. Right now, they were just burying this Gawain guy under a wall of information as two different versions of the same woman babbled to each other. Amusing, sure, but far from useful in the grand scheme of things. Unless it lead to her tagging this Gawain character for future pickup, or for surveillance, there wasn't that great a point to the babbling.

Future Amelia turned to Gawain, frowning. "All I can say is that what you and your friends do today to help people with this event is important. I came to try and help. Maybe..." She glanced towards herself, feigning uncertainty. "Maybe if I worked with myself, we could smooth the whole transition... enter the rip, and do something about it. The only problem--"

Both Amelias looked towards the rift in the distance, visibly noting the crowd around it. The dangerous mutants, the scared mutants, the police presence (or lack thereof). "Difficult to get to, I guess." Past Amelia said tentatively.

Future Amelia looked to Gawain. "Maybe you could help us get there? Or help us fight our way there?" She shrugged one shoulder. Either one was the same by her standards. It didn't really matter which one they did.

Past Amelia considered the whole situation as she watched her future self. Self from the future had come to the past to help with the transition from no rift to a rift, and to let them know about time travel? As well as people going in and out of the rift? She wanted herself to go into the rift to help with something. Do something about it. Something nondescript. She trusted herself, yeah, but her power was clothing manipulation. What could clothing manipulation do about a THAT? It was weird, wasn't it? Wasn't that a weird suggestion? She glanced towards Mirror. Didn't he think that was a weird suggestion? Something about it... didn't quite add up. Maybe it was just her?