It all started when she ran out of milk. An empty jug led to a list of other things the house needed, which led to her visiting her dad in order to get him to watch the baby for her while she went out to collect the groceries. 

She probably should have been more cautious with the string of recent attacks against mutants. She should have thought ahead a little more than she had. 

Hindsight is 20/20 though.

She pulled into the parking lot of her go-to grocery store. Dutifully remembered her reusable bags to do her part to save the world, and locked her car with cheerful mechanical chirp because she was a real adult.

The artist made her merry way onto into the store, stopping to collect a cart along the way. 

Where she made her first mistake was remembering that she had left an item in one of her paintings and popping away real quick to retrieve it. 

How could she have known that she would attract the attention of a psychopath with basically an agent of war in their hands?

She went about her business with the kind of single mindless only a tired new mom could have, unaware that someone was following her at a comfortable distance while they prepared themselves.

Mayo? Check. Aspirin? Check. Milk, Diapers, and wipes? Check, check, and check.

She paused in the cereal isle to try and remember what ridiculous brand it was that her husband liked again. Crunchypuffs?  Cookiepuffs? Poofycrunchycookiepuffs? Why where there so many damn versions of the same thing?!

"Excuse me..."

Shelby turned toward the voice and found a woman standing a little bit too close to her with a warm, strange smile on her face. 

"Can I help you?"  She smiled back, but it may have been obvious that it was fake. She hated talking to people while shopping. Who didn't hate talking in stores?

"You have very tired looking eyes. You must have had a pretty hard life for someone already so young." 

...Wh... what the hell? The Artist gaped at the woman mutely for a second. Who ran up on a stranger to assassinate their appearance like that!? Was she being trolled??

"I have never-- who the hell--- RUDE. Holy shit RUDE." Her cheeks colored in a way they didn't often seeing as she was a rather chill person naturally, but she needed to defend herself here or else... I dunno... she'd lose her mommabear card or something. 

At the very least she needed to get a jab or two in so she wouldn't feel so bad later while nursing a pint of ice cream.

Speaking of, that was totally the next aisle she was hitting up because damn.

"It's okay though. No need to lose your temper, my dear. The future is bright for our kind, past and present."

On shit, she was a nutjob. There was no point arguing with a nutjob unless you wanted to get stabbed.

"I don't know what kinda Illuminati flat-earth bull@#$% you're peddling, but I don't want any koolaid right now thank you."

She turned to try and speed walk her cart away like any sane person would so, when she felt a sharp pain explode to life in the thigh closest to the crazy.

HOLY@$%^ SHE GOT STABBED. 

She actually stabbed her! It had been a joke! 

The artist stumbled, distracted by the sight of a goddamn syringe buried to the hilt in her thigh. Weird squeaking tumbled out in place of words, and in a panicked last ditched effort to escape she reached for the necklace dangling from her neck where one of her pocket worlds was carefully painted.

...

She never made it,

That same reaching hand slapped onto the linoleum with the rest of her as things gradually started to go dark. 

Like someone had snapped and with it taken a couple years worth of memories, her current self floundered in rushing darkness briefly, before it swallowed her whole.

And with that Shelby Walters, age 28, mother of one and wife of Saphirus, was gone....


- - - - - - - - 

Gradually, she started to come back. She blinked and her eyes felt sticky and ached. Her head hurt... no, scratch that, most of her hurt. 
?
What was she doing on the ground?  Why were people running past her a million miles an hour?

Gradually, she realized that the sounds she was hearing around her were the sounds of chaos and she recalled what she had been doing last. A protest! She must have gotten knocked out somehow. Had Olivia dragged her somewhere safe? 

She reached up to touch her lips, feeling dizzy and suddenly giddy at the same time. Olivia had just kissed her. Her! Boring old Shelby who wasn't colorful or exciting in the least. Her beautiful, wonderful friend and crush had grabbed her amidst the rush of bodies around them and kissed her.

Maybe she had died and this was some abstract form of heaven.

She needed to find Olivia!

Throwing herself up into a sitting position proved to be the worst possible idea. "Ah! @#$$%!"  She discovered that there was a syringe jammed in her leg, and she couldn't fathom why it was there. She felt a bit like Ace Ventura for a moment sitting there with something stabbed into her, hands hovering uselessly at the sides of it cause she didn't know whether to take it out or leave it in, screaming into the void in her head while squeals and gurgles actually came out her mouth.

"OW."

It was all very distracting and not at all welcome.

Was that smoke she smelled?

Rayne needed food and food is what she was getting after her day of work.   Usually she loved her work and couldn't wait to get there to do what she did best.  Draw and create something special for her clients.   Want the client wanted is what they got, so long as it was reasonable.  She did however usually try and talk them out of something stupid or something that would work better.   Today was...more difficult than usually.  Really it was just a very difficult client who wanted something that wouldn't work out well and when she offered up a solution to it, they freaked out.   Naturally, for her anyways, she did what they wanted after they knew what it would be like. Oh well, that's on them.  


Food.  Food is why Rayne was walking that night and not asleep in her bed or reading her latest book.  No her fridge was empty, mostly anyways.  Drinks she had, but good food she did not.   Well she did at one point yesterday, but then she practiced and well...it was gone when she woke up hungry.   The bigger the form the more it takes from her and the more she needs to eat.   When she came up to the store though, all she saw was chaos.   


"Holy sh..." Rayne didn't even finish the words before she jogged over to see what the heck was going on.  This is not how she wanted to spend her night.  Food, food is all she wanted but it looks like that would have to wait.  Specially when she gets to the windows and sees people looting and panicking.  


With a sigh Rayne steps into the store mindful of everyone running around, her senses on high without anything shifting on her.  Walking down some rows, she comes across a girl with a needle in leg looking unsure of what to do.  Luckily for her, she passed the medical isle a few rows down and backtracked to get some before heading over to the girl again.  A few feet from her, Rayne slows down and lifts her hands slightly so she can see all she has is some medical equipment as she speaks loud enough to hear, but not forcefully.  "Hey, you mind if I get closer?"    Rayne knows that if she gets near this girl with a needle in her leg out of no where...she is liable to just attack or run off and that's not good at all.   

Someone approached. A woman?

Shelby was still in a silent shouting match with her leg. She did notice what looked like medical supplies though, and her brain did a little backflip trying to connect the dots. This woman wasn't an officer, no uniform... so she must have been a regular person either attending the protest or someone who just got sucked into the mess.

"Do I take it out or leave it in?!" The words tumbled from her lips in a panic as she gestured uselessly at the needle. "They never went over this in health class! Why would someone stab me? I'm I nice person!"

She was a little on edge. Totally on on the verge of crying... totally.

Where was Olivia? Had she left her here? Had she been arrested during the ruckus?

A million and one questions were rushing though her head, all of which led straight back to the fact that she had been honest to goodness stabbed.

In all her life she never thought it would be her. Nope... maybe someone else, but not boring ole' Shelby. Didn't this kinda thing happen in New York and stuff? Not Seattle!

"C-Can you help me get it out?"

Crap she was stuttering. Endorphins were wearing off.

Rayne could see the girl panicking when she looked at her.  "No no don't take it out.  Let me handle it ok?"  She knows how to handle needles, since she works with them all day long.  Plus there is no way she can be an officer in tight ripped skinny jeans and a black leather jacket with a band shirt under it.  Unless she was under cover, but even then...Nope.


Takes the few steps over to her and crouches down, placing the medical supplies next to her.  "I'll get you fixed up." 


Grabs one of the bags and puts on some latex free gloves just in case she is allergic to it then opens another few bags with some tape and larger band aids.  Yeah its just a needle, but yet, lets be safe than sorry.   "Just don't attack me or run off until I'm done.  Okay?"   


Rayne is staying very calm for what is going on around her.  The people running around and looting, the people wondering where others are and who others are...its all very strange.  

Shelby was a bundle of nerves, but this lady seemed calm. That helped. She started to focus on settling herself down enough that she wouldn't jerk around when touched.

"o-okay.. I got this. I'm calm."

Deep breath in, deep breath out. Calm.

Ohgod, what if the needle was huge?! Why did it have to be a needle anyway!? She hated needles!

She what the woman was going while trying to control the shaking that has overtaken her whole body.

"Lady, if you can get this thing out of me I will kiss you." She paused. "In an entirely platonic way." Another pause.

"But only if you want though."

Was that her teeth chattering?

She settled her hands down at her sides and one of them encountered a purse. It was draped around her shoulder and neck, but... it wasn't her purse. She had never seen it before in her life.

Now that she thought about it, she was wearing different clothing too. She had definitely not left the house in stretch pants and an over sized Ironic t-shirt.

Who the hell was the Blue Torch and why was he ironic?

"What the @#$%." It felt like the millionth time she had whispered that in 20 minutes.

Rayne glances up from what she is getting ready at the girl when she talks to herself about being calm. Gives a slightly smile before chuckling lightly when she said she will kiss her, probably, maybe.  Lets just leave that up to the girl, so long as she doesn't pass out on her.  She must really hate needles.


"Why don't you tell me your name?  Talking about something normal helps people stay calm."  Her clients do it all the time and honestly she did take a psychology class or two to help with the clients that come in panicking about the needle.  


Once she has everything set up around her and made sure no one was going to bother them, Rayne lightly grabs the girls stretch pants and rolls them up to the needle, though making sure she didn't jar it.  "Ok I'm going to take it out, don't hit me."  Only says this since she can sense and see that she hates needles.  

The teen nodded dumbly. "S-Shelby." Okay, talking. She could do talking. "What's going on outside? I think I must have passed out or something. I don't remember how I got in here." She decided to leave Olivia's name out of it, just in case. She didn't need anyone overhearing and having a name to go with a face late if her friend really had escaped.


She was watching the woman like a hawk. A very shaky, confused hawk. When she rolled the stretchy fabric up, Shelby just about passed out from nerves alone. She hadn't even seen it yet for Christ's sake!

The Artist turned her head to the side and screwed her eyes shut. "I won't hit you, I promise! Go ahead!"

Ohgod, was she ready for this? Maybe she could just live with the needle in her thigh for the rest of her life.

She'd be like a maple tree with a spout. Yeah.

"Hello Shelby, my name is Rayne."  While she is talking and telling Shelby her name, draws the needle out quick and clean, probably didn't even feel it.  To Rayne it didn't even look that big, just long enough to stick in and do its job. The job is unknown at the moment so Rayne sets the needle down by her on a open package so its not contaminated and rolls the pants up a but more so she can deal with the puncture mark. 


"It doesn't look at bad Shelby, its small, very small."  Uses some alcohol wipes and cleans it before placing the bandage on it smooth then places some tape on it for safe measure of it sticking there.  "I'm not a doctor but I did what I could and I suggest going to the hospital if you want too or feel different.  Okay?"  


Seeing as how Shelby is shaking and looks about to pass out, she should probably drink something.  "Think you can grab a drink or some chocolate?"

Rayne. Her name was Rayne. Wonder how she spelled it? She rolled through a few spelling options while waiting for it to be removed.

All she felt was a little slide, really... and then the strange absence of it. It was a very welcome feeling.

Shelby cracked an eye open to see how it was going, and was relieved to see that her thigh was needle free. She just about deflated as all of of the pent up tension left her body.

She nodded slightly at the advice. It was pretty sound, really. Her parents would probably make her go anyway.

"Thank you... really. I have a-" She glanced at the syringe and shuddered. "-p-phobia of needles..." It had always sounded lame before, but now that someone has literally stabbed her with one she felt a little justified.

She glanced around at the mention of something to eat or drink. Huh.. they were in a store... but it was currently under duress.

"Do you think-" A child with a police officers baton ran screaming past, followed by a lanky teen struggling to hold on a too-big officers outfit.

Shelby blinked, she teeth chattering slightly. "... I dunno if this is a safe place to be. Could you help me up?"

"Maybe I can head to that little stop n' shop on 3rd and get a snack or something."

Most people didnt know how to spell her name since it's a different spelling than she has ever seen.  Not once has she seen her way before.

Giving Shelby a soft smile Rayne nods.  "I am quite used to people being afraid if needles so it's nothing new for me."  After telling her this Rayne stands and offers her a hand while glancing around at all the chaos.  It was very strange.

Looks back down at Shelby with a nod.  "Yeah let's get you to a different store.  This one is going to hell."  Tilts her head slightly to the right hearing sirens.  "And the cops are on their way. Let's not be here."  

Looks back down at her, not wanting to be here when the cops come.  Too much of a hassle really.  Did pocket the syringe though in a bag to look at later. 

The artist took the offered handup, wincing at the ache in her leg as she put weight on it. She certainly didn't want to be around when the cops burst in either, considering the very real possibility that the police were still looking for those involved in the protest.

She waited until her savior was ready to hobble on out of the place, bypassing a register that somehow had caught on fire and waaaay too many unaccompanied children scrambling about to be normal. Where were their parents? What the hell was going on? Deciding she didn't wanna know enough to investigate at the moment, she got to the glass front doors- which rolled apart easily- and stepped foot outside.

...straight into a goddamned unknown city.

The parking lot ahead of them was crowded, and buildings that were taller and more squished together than Seattle loomed over head. She froze on the spot, eyes roving around. There wasn't a hint of tear gas in the air. No protesters running from the fight that had broken out, nor cops swarming in to shut it all down.

Where in the world was she?

Oh@#$%, the cops!

Her hand bumped her purse and she heard the distinct jangle of keys. Experimentally pressing a button caused a Beep-BEEP to sound out from the parking lot. She spotted a maroon suburban soccer mom van towards the front of the lot.

"I have a car?" Sirens pierced the air again, growing closer. "I have a car!" She turned to look at Rayne and nodded her head in the cars direction. "Let's get out of here!"

When she piled herself into the drivers seat, she was reminded of how long it had been since she had actually driven anywhere. A year maybe? Jeez. The van was clean, but there was an empty car seat in the back. Ok, maybe it wasn't her car after all. Maybe she was borrowing it?

Shelby waited to see if Rayne was going to come along, while plotting an escape route down the stretch of road that went past the grocery store they had come out of.

Rayne didn't understand why Shelby was in this much pain from one needle mark.  It wasn't a vert big needle and it wasn't like it went in multiple times.   Maybe she just had a low tolerance to pain?  Or whatever was in the syringe is painful.  Whatever it was, Rayne was going to try and get it to someone who might know what to do with it to find out what it is.   Who yet, she wasn't sure.


Staying close to Shelby, Rayne walked by her, keeping an eye on all the chaos going on around them.  Fires, lots of kids running around with no signs of parents.   It was a very strange night.  


Rayne keeps going a few steps before she realizes that Shelby stopped behind her, frozen.  Looks back at her and raises an eyebrow.  "You good?"   It's almost like Shelby doesn't know where she is...The heck is going on here?


When Rayne hears the keys jingle jangle in the purse and Shelby pulls them out in surprise, even the words 'I have a car?' come from her...nothing is making sense anymore.  How does one not know they have a car?  It's something Rayne cant dwell on right this second though, the sirens are getting very close.  They should be seeing them in a minute.  Give or take a few seconds.  


Goes with her but pauses at the door after she opens it.  "If you didn't know you had a car...are you sure you can drive?"  Really doesn't want to crash or anything.  Plus the fact that if the police see the car leave and decide to follow, she had to hope that Shelby knew how to evade and drive fast and under control.   Does get in the passenger seat though, knowing the cops are coming and Rayne really doesn't like cops much.  

She was freaking out, but managing to keep most of it bottled up inside. "I can drive, i've had a license for a few years." Her hands didn't shake as much when she had them in a death grip on the steering wheel. "I just don't drive much because driving in cities is a pain. I hate traffic." She probably needed to try and explain herself, before her new friend started to think she was out of her damn mind.

... Then again, Shelby wasn't so sure anymore herself.

She shifted to reverse and backed out like a normal person, shifting again when she had clearance so that they could start rolling towards the road. She'd make sure to pull on out like she was't fleeing from a catastrophe i a supermarket, and hopefully they wouldn't draw any attention.

Oh crap, she nearly forgot to buckle!

After remedying that, she continued. "Okay, I know it's cliche and that we just met, but... I-I promise I'm not insane. Like, I have no idea what is going on right now, but I at least think I haven't lost my mind."

Just as they pulled away onto the road, she spotted five cop cars round a corner in her rear mirror. They ripped into the parking lot quickly. Dodged a bullet!

"I don't know why someone stabbed me in the leg with that needle, or.. or if I did it myself? I don't know." She felt twitchy from anxiety, but kept her eyes forward.

"I don't know why I had the keys to this car, I don't own a van!, and I... I don't recognize any of these buildings." She snuck a glance at Rayne while chewing in her lips nervously. "I'm sorry I dragged you into whatever this is, I didn't mean to... D-do you know what city this is?"

She rolled to a slow stop a block away at a red light and took a shaky breath in to try and calm herself down a little.

Well cities come with traffic, a lot of traffic.  Can't dodge that unless its storming or lots of snow and people are too scared to drive or a riot is going on and people are hiding.   Yeah, don't ask.   Rayne doesn't buckle though, even after seeing Shelby do it and the cops coming towards them.  They had more pressing matters to attend too at the store than seat buckle not buckles. 


When Shelby says she has no idea what is going on and that she at least hasn't gone insane, Rayne isn't too sure about the second one.  She might have gone a little crazy since she doesn't know much about what is going on right now or how she has the keys to a car she said she doesn't own or anything.   "Right well, let me see your ID so I can help figure out where you live at least."  Someone there might be able to help this girl.  Maybe she has a medical condition that makes her forget sometimes?  Like amnesia.


"You didn't drag me into this, I came to you to help with your leg.  Looked like you needed it.  Also, this is New York."  Rayne keeps and eye on her but more so at the light.  Cant have her freaking out while driving, then both of them could be in some very serious trouble.   

"Right, ID. Yes." That seemed logical. While she waited for the light to change she dug into the unfamiliar purse around her shoulders.

She found a binky first, but tossed that away like it had physically burned her before resuming digging. She pulled out an unfamiliar wallet next, and just handed the whole thing over to Rayne without a care. The fact that she didn't recognize any of the things currently on her person was more than a little distressing.

The woman casually dropped the fact that they were currently in New York, and Shelby laughed. @%$#. How had she gotten all the way across the country without remembering anything? What the hell has happened at that Riot in Seattle?!?!?

"I'm so boned." She laughed again, but it was a broken laugh from someone who was pretty sure she had been abducted somehow.

Her ID was a New York license and, unsurprisingly, would have the same name as her... but the picture on it would look a little bit older than she currently did. Curiously, even though Shelby currently looked no older than 19, the date on the ID would put her closer to 30.

Shelby just tried to keep her wits about her as the light turned green. She drove a bit further before her nerves one and she had to pull over.

"How the hell did I get in New York?"