Out back of a podunk police station somewhere in the city, Elke was busy at work. She had a loose black sweatshirt on, black sweat pants, and a standard black bandanna tied securely over her mouth and nose. A loose hanging messenger bag was looped around her shoulders and absolutely stuffed to the brim with stolen cans of spray paint. 

~Yeah, the movement's in motion with mass militant poetry. Now check this out...uggh!~

She was nodding her head along the song blasting into one ear, from a stolen pair of headphone no less. To outside eyes it was barely audible over the constant CHHH CHHHH from the paint can in her hand, and traffic on the not to distant streets.  

This was the third pig pen she had targeted in a night. Footing it all over the city in the dark of night, avoid drunks and druggies alike while remaining off the radar for patrolling swine. 

~So called facts are fraud. They want us to allege and pledge and bow down to their God. Lost the culture, the culture lost. Spun our minds and through time. Ignorance has taken over, Yo, we gotta take the power back!~

The picture she was painting was a common one, albeit poorly drawn seeing as she had no artistic talent to speak of.  A round, pink piggy with it's head detached in a cartoonist fashion. Squiggles of red for emphasis.  A blue hat and star badge just to be super obvious about it. 

She was finishing the 'MAKE BACON, SAVE LIVES' she had scrawled underneath.

~Holes in our spirit causin' tears and fears, One-sided stories for years and years and years. I'm inferior? Who's inferior? Yeah, we need to check the interior. Of the system that cares about only one culture, and that is why we gotta take the power back~

The city was not a place for a seven-year old to wander around at night...which was precisely why Evelyn was doing it. That police chief thought he could tell HER she was too young to work for them! Send her to some mansion and tell her to go to school like some chump! Ha! She knew she was destined for better things. Just because she wasn't tall enough to reach the top shelf, he seemed to think she was incapable. Well, she had plans.

Every stakeout they did, she would follow. Every crime they investigated, she would solve first. She would become a bane in his side and prove she was just as worthy as his mustache-face for a position of authority. He would regret underestimating her. She would make sure.

She was dressed in a black hoodie with long rabbit ears coming from the hood. Not her most tough looking outfit, but clothing options were limited when you were trapped in a tiny kid body. She was a toothpick with bright white hair, and she needed a makeover desperately. If only she was big enough to fit into something tougher looking. For now, she was forced to be kawaii. A fox in a bunny disguise.

[Spray paint, aerosol release. Twenty steps ahead.]

This was her chance! Vandalism! Evelyn could already feel the rush of catching a culprit in the act. She would turn them in, bask in the confidence that came from bettering those bullies. A few quick steps and she turned the corner, the artwork coming into view. It was...the ugliest pig she ever saw drawn. But the message underneath actually made her smile.

In her seven years, Evelyn rarely smiled. She found life boring, uneventful. There was little that excited her or gave her joy. Most of the time she was just looking for things to pass the time, in a world without sleep and with obnoxious voices that ruined everything. But this piece of artwork was ugly and beautiful at the same time. That was precisely what made her pause.

There were two sides to everything, different shades of grey. Why was she so determined to take one side? Maybe, just maybe, it was time to drift closer to the dark. That could be what was missing. If she couldn't catch the criminals, whose to say she couldn't become a better one?

"If you want that to last, I would choose a different paint brand next time. Evelyn coughed softly to announce herself before continuing. "The pigment load on this is minimal, and the colorfastness is poor. It will fade within a few months time. For a mantra like that, I would assume you want it to stay as long as possible. It could use a few extra dollars to really pop. Oh, and varnish. If you put varnish on that they will be scrubbing it off for MONTHS." Evelyn advised.

The Native damn near jumped out of her skin.

Whirling around with the paint can in her hand and whole body tense and ready for a Tussle.

She had been expecting a cop, or.. at least an adult to have been the one to catch her.

She had not been expecting another child. Let alone one who was giving her pretty sound advice on what kind of paint to use next time and why.

She glanced down at the can in her hand, before reaching up to tug her bandanna down and expose her face.

".... They were easy to steal." She mumbled lamely, before shaking it off.

"Thanks for the advice and all, but... who're you? If you ain't here to tattle on me, what.. you wanna join in?"

Elke shifted from one foot to the other, reaching up to pluck the earbud from her ear so she could hear better.

Evelyn watched the girl spin around, echoes quickly assessing the threat level. [Minimal.] The tension in the stranger’s body seemed to vanish when she realized who was standing there. Evelyn clearly posed little danger in her tiny 7 year figure.

For some reason, that fact stung a little. Some days she felt trapped in a body that just didn’t fit her mental age. She wanted to be taken seriously, and was beginning to feel that was futile. She was just a little dog, all bark and no bite. The motivation for change was growing larger than ever.

Evelyn pushed back her hood and moved closer, more clearly seeing her companion’s face. In the light, she was able to piece more together about the girl. [Clothing different sizes and styles. Possibly second hand, most likely stolen. Knife, left hip. Shoes several years old, worn. Twig by right ear.] The knife was notable, but the bandaid on the kid’s nose seemed to say the fighting skills to back it up may not be on par. If needed, there was a good chance of disarming. Or, so she told herself. She really lacked her own combat abilities, and also really hated knives.

”I’m Evelyn. And no, I have no interest in telling on you. The Chief Of Police needs to be taken down a notch since he thinks he is too good to accept help from a seven-year old.” Evelyn glanced at the cans again, and sighed. ”While I admire your mission, using these materials is a waste of time. How would you like to go pick out some better paint? It may be cheaper to steal, but I think you’re ready to step up your game.”

While she spoke Evelyn took a hand out of her pocket and flashed a cars at the girl to prove she wasn’t just making things up. She may have lost a lot of memories, but her accounts were still as well supplied as ever.

Her eyebrows damn near vanished into her hairline. Whew. Little girl with big balls.

A grin settled on her face that crinkled her nose and stretched from ear to ear. "Well %$#@, you make it hard to decline." Little girl even flashed a shiny little card at her.

"I ain't gonna look a gift horse in the mouth." The teen capped her current can of paint and stuffed it back in her bag with more of the empty ones. Yeah, she could'a just tosses it, but with the other seven pieces of art she had left around the city that night she didn't want anyone trying to lift finger prints off of it.

Pulling her bandanna back up, she headed toward the girl for a moment, before a shrill bird whistle cut through the quiet night air. The Native pulled to a stop, listening, and then jerked her chin to the side a bit.

"Not that way." She said, referencing the way the girl had come. "There's a path this way that will cut through an apartment complex."

She turned and started walking, more or less expecting the girl to follow. If not, well.. no skin off her nose.

One brisk walk later they were out of danger of being caught and another figure was jogging down the sidewalk to meet them. It skipped to a stop in front of Elke. "Man, I almost got caught that time! Had to play laser tag with a flash light." The clone giggled, throwing her hood back as Elke did the same. Their faces were identical.

The clone caught sight of the girl Elke had met and froze.

"The jigs up! We've been caught!"

Elke slapped a hand over her clones mouth while pinching the bridge of her nose, before reaching out to catch her in a headlock before she could make much of a ruckus. She may have also squeezed just a bit until the clone got her message and silently started panicking on morse code on her forearm.

Evelyn watched as the girl appraised her. There was something calculators about her expression. Some people looked at strangers and their eyes tried to find things that made them feel comfortable: good hair, a nice smile, gentle features. Others knew to identify what could be of their advantage. There was a flick of eye movement [Notes credit card, surprise, delight. Desire.] Desire could also be filed as ‘greed’, but that was a rather strong word for someone so young. Evelyn’s new friend knew what she wanted, and was quick enough to decide things based on what would be of benefit.

The fastest way for Evelyn to befriend her was to continue down her chosen path: be of benefit.

As the cans were tucked away again [Hiding the evidence], Evelyn waited in what was a fairly patient manner. While she was generally not one to be so polite, she knew it would be better to prevent her companion from being prematurely apprehended because of sloppy cleanup.

Then, there was the whistle. A signal of some sort that Elke seemed to understand. She directed Evelyn through the shortcut, and the white-haired child followed. She sensed no ill-will for the moment. [Distant commotion, outside current radius. Lamppost fading bulb 29 meters away. Current time—] such useless information sometimes.

Then, the clone arrived. There was yelling, and a bit of a struggle, which Evelyn watched with calm silver eyes. ”Self-replication. Very useful for petty crime like this. Although I wonder, can they carry electronics as well? Maybe there are ways to signal without causing excess noise in the future.” She mused thoughtfully.

Elke's attention snapped back to the girl the instant 'self replication' had popped out of her mouth. It wasn't often anyone caught on right away that they were clones, and not twins. Of course given how stupid they tended to be she gave the girl some brownie points by not associating them anymore than she had to.

"They come out pretty dumb, unfortunately, and bird whistle are easy to remember and harder to trace." The child released her lock around the clones neck before it passed out, and maneuvered in to get closer to the girl. "I tried walkie talkies once and they were too loud. If you've got any other ideas i'm all ears."

A small tan hand was jutted out, "I'm Elke." She's stopped about a foot away from the other girl to size her up. She wasn't much taller, honestly. Elke was super short for her age. Had been her whole life.

The poor clone left behind was wheezing and doubled over, muttering nonsensical things under her breath.

Evelyn looked at the struggling clone and felt relieved Elke pointed out they were stupid on her own. It seemed like a generally insulting statement to call someone's clone stupid, but if both agreed in the lack of intelligence, that was acceptable. At least, she felt it was. Much of her social etiquette did not match the norm, she was finding.

The echoes studied the fight and made notes of Elke's physical limitations, filing that for later. She had a decent, if not sloppy, use of force, which could prove promising in the future. Then there was the question of electronics. Evelyn considered, and finally offered an idea. "So, they make buzzers, for restaurants and small businesses. I bet I could get my hands on one, and it would be more useful for situations like this. You send one with the clone, and they can just activate it if something is wrong. Yours would buzz and no one would be tipped off by the bird calls." Evelyn was already thinking of the best place to pick some up. She may be a brat, but her frivolous use of money was worth hanging onto her if nothing else.

This was worth the effort, though. Evelyn had little to no respect for adults, but seeing someone her own size with larger ambitions made her feel drawn to assist. It was a world ruled by those with more power. Why shouldn't she support the underdog?

Evelyn blinked at the hand offered, and put her own one out to accept. There was a startling difference of appearances evident in the handshake. She knew her own hands were fair, lacking signs of any form of physical activity, other than some callouses on her forefinger and thumb from writing and painting. "I'm Evelyn. She returned the introduction. With a blink, she glanced toward the clones. "Are you one of those types that uses a code name too? I've noticed that's a thing." She sounded torn between finding the situation comical, and almost wishing she had one too. Not that she really was 'super' enough to warrant a code name.

Buzzers! F@#$ing brilliant! Ekle clapped her hands together. "That's a great idea! Idiot proof even!" This was turning out great so far. She'd met an ally who was just as displeased with local law enforcement as she was, and she was smart as a whip to boot!

As soon as their hands met, she gave a little jolt and drew it back quickly. What had that been just now? She could have sworn...

"I, um... I don't really have a code name or anything... but my brothers call me Moose a lot, so I do too. You can call me Moose if ya want." She blinked at her hand, dark brows a little pinched as she contemplated what had happened.

"Hey, Eve... are you a mutant too? JUst now when we shook, I--" How the heck did she explain that? "--I heard some stuff?" Her expression shifted to uncomfortable, and then bewildered.

Evelyn felt a little pleased with Elke’s praise. Adults never seemed to find her ideas useful or worthy of compliments. She almost wanted to smile. Maybe she made the right choice deciding to be friends with this girl. This was someone who appreciated her talents and gave her credit where it was due. And heck, she wasn’t that bad herself. They could have a long term arrangement if this continued.

”Are you a mutant too?”

”Of course,” Evelyn answered. ”While I would love to boast that my level of intelligence is natural, it is directly tied to my mutation. The sounds, those were the echoes. They...are everywhere. Like little clues around me piecing puzzles together. I also can never forget. Faces, words, blueprints. It all stays.” for the first time, a dip of emotion pitched in. She caught it, clawing that feeling deeper into her chest. No, her powers were wonderful. The playbacks were a gift. She could do so much with them! There was nothing frightening about that ability.

”When I make skin contact I can let someone, uh, listen in on my powers. You can hear the echoes too. So I would be cautious if you don’t want the extra information,” Evelyn warned.

Echoes? That sounded fancy. She wasn't sure how to feel about the rest of it though. Knowing everything and never being able to forget it? "That sounds exhausting. Like, yeah, really cool. But I don't know if I could handle it personally." She was honest with her opinion, and not in the least throwing any shade. "I can clone myself, as we already established, even the clothes i'm wearing." She poked a thumb at her shirt, "But, we share an empathetic link for pain and stuff. I feel everything they do to a degree." Powers were neat, yes... but often had side effects that weren't as appreciated.

She reached out to pat Evenlyn soundly on the shoulder, flinching only slightly as the sensation of her Echos flooded in again. God, that would take a while to get used to. "As long as I haven't lost my head, I don't care. Allies in war gotta stick together."

Her clone had fully recovered, and skipped over light she hadn't just been nearly choked out, a huge grin on her face. "We gonna go get more paint now, boss?"

The original paused, wheels turning in her head. "...I dunno. I might have some different ideas now." She looked back to Evelyn as a grin damn near split her face. A new friend who knew things and didn't forget?

"Hey, Eve... Wanna join my revolution?"

Elke was, honest. It was a trait that adults did not seem to carry. Evelyn had heard enough from the echoes to know that people generally were not genuine with their words or emotions. They wanted to sugar coat things, pretend everything was fine, everything was great. But Elke flat out said how she would have felt about the echoes. This made Evelyn's face soften just a little, and she shrugged almost a little sadly. "The echoes aren't so bad. I've learned to tune out a lot of the unnecessary information. It's...the playbacks I do not enjoy.

"You might understand because of your clones. Feeling their pain sucks, right? I relive memories every time I sleep. Imagine the worst day of your life, and knowing you can relive it at any night." She gave a little shudder, trying to clear the very idea. Sometimes, it was enough to drive anyone mad. Maybe that was what happened to her last life? She was almost certain becoming a child wasn't just an accident, and unlike some mutants, she almost thought it was intentional. She could imagine turning 30, overwhelmed by every memory, every horrible experience she could never escape. Then, finding out there was a reset button, a way to go back in time, erase all those terrible things she thought she would face forever. Even her seven year old brain felt that was the most tempting idea someone could ever face. It had been a chance to try a different path.

That path, led here. It was darker, more destructive, but somehow felt less lonely now.

Allies in war gotta stick together.

Evelyn smiled, a genuine, real, smile. "I feel I will enjoy having you as my ally."

Elke had a look now that boasted bad ideas, and Evelyn was thrilled. She wasn't quite certain what Moose wanted to do, but she was already set on helping. "What can I help with? My echoes and I are at your disposal. Oh, and my credit cards too."

Yeah, she really wasn't jealous of Eve's power at all. Even if Elke didn't necessarily have much in regards to bad memories, there were a few things she rather liked not having to think or dream about.

She was pumped over the fact that Evelyn was cool with being allies. Maybe they could do a blood pact at some point, or spit n' shake on it? She'd think on that later.

"If you wanna use your cards, that's okay, but i'm fine with borrowing things too." She didn't elaborate on the fact that borrowing to her was theft to other people. She also liked to trade; swapping something she had for something she wanted. That was neither here nor there, though.

"Much more importantly than than, every great chief need a strategist, and think you would be the best one for our cause." She fisted one hand and popped it into the open plam of the other.

"See, I want to cripple the system that keeps us all down. Mutants are clearly the next step on the evolutionary scale, and that's exactly what all the rich bigwigs around here are afraid of. They force our people into @#$%$ housing, prevent us from having progressive jobs, and systematically shame the powers we should be proud of. We're better than them."

There was clearly passion there, mixed in with resentment and anger.

"I might be starting small with tagging places, but all great wars gotta start somewhere." She very much wanted a war, too.

"You should come to my hideout so I can show you my book of plans. I write em all down so I won't forget latter. Got different stages even... maybe you could help me fine tune everything."

There is was. An invitation straight into her stolen, delinquent laid. Elke offered a hand out with a grin that promised trouble.

Evelyn smiled, laughing a little to herself as Elke mentioned the cards. "Well, I mean, my parents have to pay them off considering I'm not even legal age to own them now. And they are, quite frankly, conceited asshats." She never held back when it came to her parents. She held no love for them, no withheld pity. They were manipulative and repressive toward her for the years she could remember, and even those she didn't.

"If we borrow, I just want to make sure that we are still getting quality material. Being cheap is one thing, but you need to make sure we are able to achieve what we really want." Evelyn was not going to turn down fun, but she wanted to make sure they still got decent materials.

As she listened, she felt that Elke had abstract ideas, but they were still goals. That was something she had always lacked. Evelyn wanted to have a purpose, a point to her life. In some ways, she agreed with the mission too. She felt she had powers that weren't being properly taken advantage of. She felt that she was belittled and put down because of what she was. If she could change that, she wanted to. She was not keen on doing things to help others, but to help herself? Yes, she was that selfish.

"I'd love to see your hideout. Maybe another night we can make it happen? We will get supplies, finish tagging today and then...start your revolution!" Evelyn felt a new feeling in her gut. Excitement. It had been so long since she had goals to look forward to.

It had been a lifetime since she had a friend.