"I would really appreciate that, actually... I've never been punched before so this is a little unfamiliar." She winced, and then winced again because wincng hurt.

"I've got some money on me, so I can probably swing it." Then again, she probably needed to make sure that was still accurate before making any promises. Anyone at that bar could have taken her wallet while she was out. Where had her purse gone?

Lenna made a little sound behind her, so Megan stopped and turned to look. She was looking at her wallet. Megan patted around for her own wallet, any wallet, and found a slim one tucked in the other butt pocket. It was a men's style leather one. Flipping it over with her thumb she spotted a little bit of cash peeking out the top, some credit cards she was unfamiliar with, and an ID she was unfamiliar with.

They all had her name on them though.

... Nope, she didn't wanna deal with this right now. Hotel first, mental break down later.

"I've got credit cards. We're good." Was her voice just a tiny bit shaky? You bet the hell it was.

Never been punched before? Lenna shrugged a shoulder. ”You get used to it. Maybe someone can show you how to take a punch some time. Of course it takes taking a punch to really really get the trick down right.”

She could teach her that too, if they really spent more time together. But she was hardly a teacher. And something told her offering to punch her repeatedly in order to help her learn to take punches so that she was able to get punched better in the future... wouldn’t go over well.

”Better to avoid getting punched at all though.” She added helpfully.

”And good. Money is good. Root of all evil, but it pays for things.”

She was just about to check her funds when- she saw it. Huh.

The girl Megan didn’t ask. She just finished checking her wallet and said she had credit cards. Credit cards. Yeah she knew what those were. She wasn’t born last century or anything.

”I have them too. But it doesn’t say my name on them... and the drivers license isn’t my face.” She said, as she followed the girl.

If she was going to learn anything from the first one, it was definitely 'don't get punched again'. Her delicate face couldn't handle the heat, so she didn't want to go anywhere near the kitchen. If this was going to be a regular occurance maybe she'd just invest in a stun gun.

Right now though, there were more important things to focus on.

"Mine all say my name, but the ID is not my face. Same birthday... Same height and- oh no, I could not possibly weigh that much." Was this the twilight zone? What the hell was going on?

While the maps app gave them bread crumbs to follow, she poked through the rest of the phone. Quite a few contacts, up not very many calls. What kinda name was Magawainya?? She wasn't looking for any social media sites because the only one she was even remotely familiar with had been Yourspace, and she wasn't away that modern day phones had apps for that.

She did find a plethora of cat pictures and meme's though. Too bad she also didn't know what a meme was.

After making it to the little rundown motel she got them checked in. The woman behind the counter hardly looked up from her phone through the whole process, which helped honestly. Megan felt like she looked mighty suspicious with lenna and her truding in at this time of night in too big clothes and with obvious signs of a scuffle.

She didn't relax until they were safely inside the room and the room was locked, and even then it was hard to loosen back up.

"This is twilight zone level weird."

It was strange that neither of their forms of identification were for them. She did not know who this woman she had cards for was, but she was blonde and had too many cards. That probably signaled wealth... though maybe a false face form?

If she were making a false identity, she would not have picked someone so different from herself. So much prettier, and— well but if she had wanted to avoid connecting the face to her own, that was exactly what one might do. She thought about that, as they made their way to the cheap motel.

Lenna thought nothing of checking into a cheap motel with another person. Why would she? She’d grown up in the equivalent of an all-girls school. Not that boys and relationships were unheard of. It had been far from sheltered. But nobody talked about that sort of thing. The girls and the girls. Although certainly, it happened.

Once they were in the hotel, Megan said something Lenna did not understand.

”What is a twilight zone? Is this a place people visit often?” She has not gotten that show growing up. Or even anything close. She focused on thoughts she could comprehend.

”I have been thinking. Maybe there are mutants who could change a face. If one wanted to steal or create an identity.” She said.

Also ”If this person is fake I doubt they’ll care if we use their cards” She added as she looked around the room.

If this room were nicer, she’d have raided the mini bar to prove a point. They’d have to venture out later and procure food. She was starting to get hungry. Fighting takes energy.

"Um.. it was a how from a while ago. Old black and white one. Each episode was like, abstract, slightly scary ideas. like 'What if everyone but you had cat heads'.. that sort of thing." She didn't know how to explain it any better.

She threw herself on one of the two beds with a groan.

"I mean... I guess it's not impossible or anything. Mutants can do a lot, right?"

What Lenna was saying didn't sound any more or less far fetched than any other ideas Megan had come up with. Maybe they had both been kidnapped or something? Their likenesses used for nefarious purposes? Shit, she didn't know.

"I'd like to use my cards to buy some other clothing. I feel like a wannabe punk rocker who doesn't know her own size."

Show. Old. Black and white.

”Huh.” She said.

If everyone but her had cat heads, would that make her the freak or them? Her non-cat-head spun at the possibilities. And only a few of them involved fighting off an alien invasion with her handgun.

”Interesting.”

—

And speaking of changing faces, she shared her theory. Megan didn’t think it was the most crazy theory there had ever been.

Yes, mutants could do pretty much anything. One of them could probably brainwash her and make the whole world orange. But she wasn’t going to talk about that. Weaknesses are not cool. Even if hiding them is not logical.

And if someone had changed their faces, or these cards were fake people... why.

”Yeah.” She said. ”Mutants can do any fskking thing.”

Nod nod. Man, she liked that English word. There weren’t any as useful or varied in Spanish. Or at least, none as fun to say.

Megan wanted to buy clothes. She said she wanted to use her cards to buy clothes, almost like she were asking permission to do so. And to not dress like a “punk rocker”, whatever that was.

Lenna shrugged one shoulder. ”Free country.” She said. Then, she looked down at her own clothes and frowned. ”I should, too. These clothes are NOT fitting.”

If she really wanted, the skirt could fall right off. But she didn’t.

”You can help? I suck at styles. All they let me wear back home was black turtlenecks and combat boots.”

Also everything was orange to her. But she didn’t need to know that.

Megan sat up a little on her elbows and looked over at Lenna. Yeah, her clothes were pretty baggy as well. She wrinkled her nose and dove back into her phone. "Yeah, i'll help. Just let me know what you like and I can get you set up with a few different looks."

Megan liked fashion for the most part. She liked looking good and feeling cute. Lenna was pretty cute looking, so she was sure she could help her pick out some not-trash clothing.

Searching through the same map app that had led them to the hotel, she looked up clothing stores. There was even a very helpful 'open 24 hours' option!

"Sounds weird to say out loud, but it's $%#$ o'clock at night. Do you wanna go to this place that should be open now and get the shopping over with, or nap first and then do it?" She wasn't super tired since she was still running off the adrenaline of waking up in a bar fight that was also on fire, but at the same time she could probably pass out on one of the two beds pretty easily. He brain probably needed the rest at this point.

What did she like?

This was a very good question. Most of the time, she’d had a sort of uniform. Maybe not JUST turtlenecks and boots. But something. She hadn’t really had the chance to develop a real adult identity. Which, in American terms, was kind of fakkked up. And pathetic. But she didn’t really understand that simple fact.

Her first mission had been her chance to go outside the box of the compound, and grow as a person. And here she was, in another country with strange things going on. And she’d failed her mission.

She could be anyone. That filled her with fear and a little excited awe!

Or she could try and track down her boss and Eliana. And lapse back into what she knew.

For now, Lenna settled for playing it by ear. She nodded when Megan said she’d help her, and said ”Sure. Thanks.”

She’d just have to look around and see what she liked.

Megan messed with her phone, and found clothing stores.

It was true. According to the clock, it was b@+<#-o-clock. And fighting people was exhausting. But—

Lenna glanced at the door. ”Can we get some food first? I beat up a bunch of people. I am hungry and tired.”

"Sure, I-"

Her stomach chose that exact moment to gurgle loudly. Apparently it had heard Lenna mention food. She blushed in embarrassment. "-could do with a bite to eat myself."

It felt like it had been been forever since she had last eaten. Or maybe the adrenaline was wearing off? She did't know.

Standing, she started scouring the room for useful items on her way toward the door. She found a bobby pin in the bathroom, and that would need to do.

"Can I see the back of your skirt for a moment? I've got a trick that should help it stay up on it's own." She'd wait and see what Lenna wanted. If she wanted the help Megan would use the bobby pin to secure a few folds in the back of the skirt, so that the waist wasn't so big. It would hold for a bit, hopefully long enough for them to change.

After grabbing her key-card and making sure Lenna had the other, she headed outside. She was busy looking up close by restaurants as they headed down the hall and back out to the street.

"I...I can't wrap my head about this thing. These didn't exist at all from what I remember. Like, on a computer you could look stuff up online, but on a teeny little device like this?"

She whistled slightly. "There's a fast food place over that way. Sound good to you?"

”Stomachs are traitorous.” Lenna mused, dryly. Her lips were a thin line that strained to restrain any hint of a smile. A slight twitch in one corner still escaped.

Lenna was uncertain what Megan was doing, as She scavenged the room for something. It became clear, once she had it. A hair clip? What was she— oh.

Lenna understood. She moved, and was helpful with the pinning process.

”Good idea. Don’t need to give the world a show.” She said. This time, she did smile. A little.

—

It took them a few minutes to get things sorted, to clean up Megan, and to make sure they each had a copy of the card that served as a key to the room. She had not stayed in many hotels or motels, so it was a novel concept to Lenna. She kept looking at herself Megan searched on her phone.

Megan said something about the phone, and Lenna looked at her.

”Mine is broken.” She said. ”I am really jealous of yours. We did not have things this small and useful, where I grew up. It’s like we got brought to the future or something except everything else still sucks.”

There were no flying cars or space ships like in Star Wars, at least. And she would have given her left hand for a saber of light.

Megan whistled. “There’s a fast food place over that way. Sound good to you?”

Lenna looked. ”Burger King? Yeah. I like hamburgers.”

She had heard Americans murder Mexican food, so if there were any places that tried to serve things similar to what they made in Columbia... she probably would have laughed in their faces.

Together, they reached the burger place and Lenna waited in line. She was hungry, so she got something called a whopper. It was more expensive so it was probably better. With medium fries and a coke. Coke was always a popular drink.

As she walked away from the counter to wait on her food, she snagged a paper crown from a rack on the side. Lenna unfolded it and put it on. She shot Megan the side-eye as she passed her, as if begging her to question this.

She simply said ”I am the Burger Queen.”

"Hell, i'm jealous of it and i'm the one using it. It's so fast!" She'd have to let Lenna look at it, at some point during the night. It was seriously a marvel of technology. Alien to someone as simple and Megan.

They made it to their place of sustenance and Megan tried not to look or feel out of place. She was till in ill fitting clothing and had a cleaned but obvious cut on the side of her nose. She'd never felt so effing self conscious before.

Lenna was a rock of stability, and the teen tried to emulate her to a degree, while blinking away flashes of the other sight that kept invading her eyes. She ordered virtually the same thing as Lenna had, coke included. She was starving, after all. Who cared about figures when your stomach hurt?

The spider mutant blinked away from her phone as lenna passed, catching sight of the crown, and lost it completely at her words. Megan didn't care that she made a full ass spectacle of herself in the rather empty restaurant. She laughed until her sides hurt.

Then she gathered her food when it was done, snagged a crown of her own, and plopped herself down at a table to eat.

"I haven't had a burger in forever..." She stated, as she took a big bite and hid her mouth behind a napkin. "I'm normally into boring veggies and @#$%."

It was glorious. Super, super rich and overwhelming, and soooo so bad for her, but it hit the spot in just the right way.

Laughter. Good reaction. It had always been like this at the school in Columbia. Girls practiced pranking others, trying to elicit a laugh. The goal was to be unflappable under pressure, but— it was also a lot of fun just getting under someone’s facade.

Really, she’d just been horsing around. She suppressed a smirk. Part of it still showed through, in her posture and her demeanor. Her eyes. It was fun, making a friend laugh.

Logically speaking, Megan could be classified a friend. She’d helped when Lenna had needed it. They were eating a meal together, breaking bread... buns.

When her number was called, she procured her food and returned to their table.

Megan said something about boring veggies and #%>*.

Lenna laughed.

”That,” She said, clutching one side. ”Does not sound healthy.” More composed, she clarified: ”You need protein. Cannot be some sort of cow and only eat grass.”

”You’re still growing, after all.” She finished her lecture and chomped down on her burger. A spot of ketchup made a jailbreak onto her tray.

She bobbed her head in agreement. "My Fiance is really big into the Vegan scene, though. So I've kinda gotten used to eating mostly green things."

It was funny... but she'd never really thought about it before. Following along with his diet plan had become second nature in a way. Why had she stopped eating meat in the first place? She wasn't a vegan.

"I'll have to indulge a little bit while getting everything figured out here."

Guilty pleasures, anyone?

She grinned as she chomped a few more bites off of hers, before stopping to idly chew on a few fries.

She wondered, with everything going on, where Trent was... Was he still back home? If...If a bunch of time had really passes, was he still looking for her?

... Had anyone looked for her?

No, she rather liked Lenna's idea about someone who could steal faces. Maybe the dates on her ID were wrong. Maybe everything was messed up in some other way.

She shook herself out of the thought and hurried to finish her food. A full stomach would make it easier to think, she was sure.

"I could never do it," Lenna said mildly. "The vegan thing. I like meat too much."

Like her burger. Which was delicious.

She had not ever given any consideration to the other thing. The fiance thing. The marriage thing. If she followed in her big sis's footsteps, it would be off the table. Out of the cards. Assassins do not get married. A husband is a weakness to be exploited. That said... there was no one. No person in her life that could remotely ever be like that. Such a thing... she had never really searched for.

Never really figured out.

She needed to figure this out here, right now. Or within the next several days.

Cortez needed her. She needed to get back home. Back to her family. And this mess confused her. The orange confused her. What had happened and how she had arrived in New York, at the bar... confused her. So, she buried her feelings in french fries and a hamburger. And slurped her Coke.

For the moment, they slipped into a comfortable silence as they ate.

If she had not been introspective, the silence might have bothered her. Usually, she was used to dining in large groups with young women who would never shut up. Which was fine. If someone had something on their mind, they could be excused for being quiet.

Unless she wanted them to talk. In that case, they could burn in hell. But this was fine. She was fine.

Together, they finished their food.

"That was good," Lenna noted, smiling. "Should we go back to the hotel? Long day tomorrow." After a second's pause, where she picked up the tray full of refuse, Lenna added. "I am keeping the crown." And she did.

She dumped the trash away, and put the tray with other stacked trays because that appeared to be the appropriate course of action, in this establishment. Wearing the crown the entire time.

Then, she went with Megan back to the place.

She couldn't even finish all of her food. She felt mostly full, but... also maybe a tiny bit of a stomach ache. When had she last eaten? Or maybe the meat just didn't agree with her after so long of not indulging in it.

Whatever. She was going to go back and pass the hell out anyway, so that was something for future Megan to worry about. "Yeah... I'll have a clearer head tomorrow and that makes for the best shopping. You end up with purchase regrets if you shop while tired."

They dumped their trash, headed 'home' and as soon as she was within falling distance to a bed she collapsed into one. It didn't take long to fall asleep, even with being in day clothes, and she managed to get about an hour or so of Z's in before the most gut wrenching, nauseous feeling woke her up out of a dead sleep.

She barely made it to the bathroom in time to shut the door and get to the toilet, before she lost her dinner. It all came up hardly even digested, and after a half an hour emptying the contents of her stomach, it was over.

She trudged back to bed a defeated girl, muttering about vegetarian lifestyles being awful, and promptly passed back out.

--

The next morning came too quickly and Megan didn't want to get up. She did get up, but she didn't want to. She waited for her chance to shower, not wanting to hog all of the hot water after the night they had had, and once she was in took those precious few moments to let herself wake up fully.

Her stomach still hurt from the night before, or maybe it was just all of her hurting from the night before? She wasn't sure.

She attempted to style her hair, which looked like it hadn't seen a brush in a few years, and tried to pull her gross outfit together into something less.... gross... before they had to leave.

"The phone says that there is a mall of some sort not too far from here. Should be plenty of clothing stores there we can check out."

Bleh. No matter what she did she looked like a scrawny wanna be gutter punk in too-big clothing.

"I am so ready to be out of these clothes."

And, also, to find out what the hell was going on.... but, priorities. She couldn't very well go to the reckoning under dressed, could she?