A yawn escaped her mouth. This was the tenth yawn this morning. Lenna was tired. Lenna was tired because she had gotten too much damn sleep.

On the street, she had been forced to deal with fighting werewolves and vampires over alleyways and trash piles and actual decent deserted slums. You would be surprised how many of those New York has, too. But here at the mansion, well...

She had yet to be enrolled in classes. She had yet to be assigned a roommate, which apparently was a distinct possibility. All she had to do was sleep and eat.

And the kitchen was fully stocked, too. She could make whatever food she wanted. And she had wanted quesadillas. Lots and lots of quesadillas.

Plus, she got to meet so many interesting people.

Lenna yawned again, luxuriating in the art of doing nothing. It was noon and she had done jack sh*+.

Ty'd had a busy couple of days, not to mention a downright....strange couple of days. Sure, he'd made some decent headway on this whole deal with his powers showing him visions of an older version of himself and apparently older versions of other people. Apparently he'd been...deaged somehow? But nothing made sense. For every answer, a million more questions popped up, and quite frankly, it wore him out. And that was how the redhead was still in his bed at Sanctuary at noon. With a yawn, he woke up as his alarm went off for the tenth time that day, and he grabbed his phone and hit silence. Oh wait. He had a phone! And he totally made a promise to his....friend? Girlfriend?

Lenna. He'd promised Lenna. Quickly, he pulled on a blue tee shirt with a fish wearing headphones on the front(tis older self had style, Ty would give him that), a pair of jeans and a belt(apparently his older self packed on a few pounds too, also a plus), and laced up a pair of black converses with green laces(same shoe size though. Bummer.) He tugged on his black leather jacket(Ty never grew into a phase of leaving random large sums of money in his pockets, unfortunately.) and started out the door, phone in hand. Typing up a message, he hit send, and then stood outside, propped against the side of the building as he waited for a reply.

~Hey, Lenna. It's Cowboy. You free today?~

Something was buzzing somewhere. Bzzbzzzbzz. Lenna opened her eyes and searched for the source of the sound. The search did not last very long. Someone had helped hook her up with a phone charger. Because apparently, such a thing was needed.

The screen had lit up, and she could read the message. Lenna put a finger on the screen, and got yet another message about swiping in a direction. There were a couple of options, too. Open...? Lenna tried that.

Another message popped up. It asked for her password.

Messages within messages... Lenna thought.

By this time, about a minute or so had passed. Anyone waiting for an instant reply would have been left stewing in their own juice.

The password... the password. Oh yes. She remembered the password. A date. Not the date of the release of some movie, like Star Wars. The date of... the date. It worked. The message appeared.

Oh good. He had finally got a phone. How did she reply to— Lenna tried pushing a few buttons. The first one she pushed was the wavy line button to the right of the thing that said iMessage.

”What is— f^ck.”

Another bar with wavy lines appeared, with an arrow pointing to the right next to it and a speech bubble with an arrow above that. There was also an X. So many buttons to hit! In her haste to try and get rid of the weird message, she accidentally hit the Send button and sent Ty a sound byte.

Lenna swore again. What had she just done?!

What was the weird A shaped button? She pressed that. Music. A magnifying glass? Heart, faces, pay?! Another A. She tried that and it brought up—

”Store?!” Lenna shouted.

Why had she not asked someone to teach her the art of the cellular phone. That Amelia girl probably could have done that. How the hell did she respond to Cowboy?

She went back in the options and tried the flower-shaped icon. It brought up pictures. Her fat thumb selected the picture of her and Cowboy, and sent that his way, despite her attempts to X it out.

Lenna swore.

What options were left? The camera thing? Click.

She sent him a picture of the orange comforter and the floor.

That left her with the absolute final thing she had not tried. iMessage.

That option brought up letters arranged like some sort of keyboard. There were even more options from there. This would be an undertaking.

She hit H. It brought up three options. Hit lowercase i. Was that suggested word a waving orange hand? Cute! She pressed and sent that.

W... h... a... t

Is going on?

She sent the message his way. It had only took a long time hunting and pecking to find the right keys.

After sending the message, Ty waited. And waited. And waited. He hoped she wasn't busy, or that she hadn't forgotten him or something. Or what if she hadn't really wanted a date? What if it wasn't her real number? Oh wait it had to be her number because he got into the phone. But it wasn't her phone. Technically. Ugh. Girls were weird.

Ty was sweating bullets by the time he finally got a reply. And...what? He opened messenger to send a question mark when he got a sound bite. And another weird message. And a picture of the room. Ohhhkayyy....that was weird.

He quirked an eyebrow before finally deciding to just bite the bullet and call her. His heart thumped rapidly in his chest as he heard the phone ring. And ring. And ring again.

"Hey, Lenna? It's Ty--er...Cowboy. Is everything okay? You're not like, having a seizure or anything, are you?" he half-teased, hoping she wasn't really in some sort of trouble, but he remembered she couldn't unlock the phone, so maybe she hadn't learned it yet, right? Hopefully.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out, or talk or something."

There had been two options, okay? Both orange. One had been marked with an X. There had only been a moment’s hesitation. What, 3 rings with of lost time? Lenna had picked the one without the X. She put the phone up to her ear.

Her cheeks flushed at the teasing, but it was nice hearing his voice again. For a time, she had been worried he would not contact her again at all! And that time had been up until about 3 minutes ago. It was a good thing she had not complained of him to Sky.

She cleared her throat. ”I. Um. Need to learn this phone business. So many options. Sorry! Hey, Cowboy! How are you?” She brightened up towards the end of her response, and felt less like melting into the bed.


>>”I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out, or talk or something."

”Yes,” She replied, almost instantly. She cleared her throat, again. She needed a glass of water or something. The mansion was too hot. ”Yes, we should definitely do that. I,” her eyes darted towards the dresser in one corner, and what was sitting on top. ”Have something I wish to give you. When can we meet?”

He heaved an audible sigh of relief when she answered him. "Oh, that's fine, I can show you some stuff when I see you again," he said softly, then awkwardly and accidentally sort of blurted out an "I missed you." His cheeks flushed, but luckily she couldn't see it.

The answer to his question was so quick it made his heart flutter again; she was just as excited about seeing him, it seemed. "We can meet as soon as you want to," he said eagerly. "Maybe in the park near that pizza place?" he suggested. "I'll show up in something nice. Hope you like muscle cars." His mischievous smile was almost audible, somehow. "See you in a bit!"

He practically skipped down the street, eyeing the dark blue Ford Mustang parked on the street. Working his magic, the car fired up and roared to life, puttering down the road because this was New York and it was lunch time. He made his way to the park, leaving the car nearby and finding his way to a good vantage point. He stood next to a tree, his icy blue eyes scanning the area as he waited for Lenna. He had a lot of things to ask her about, some good, others getting to the bottom of his problem, but...he could tell it was going to be a good day.

His response to her failure to master basic cellular phone technology was not as important as what Cowboy said afterwards. That had her attention zeroed in.

>>”I missed you.”

Goof ball.

Damn it, mansion. Fix your heaters.

Her voice was as warm as the mansion’s freaking heaters when she said ”Good.”

And then he asked her to meet with him. Yes. Most definitely.

He said as soon as she wanted to. She said ”Soonest.”

They would meet up in the park by the pizza place. But he would show up. In a muscle car. See you in a bit?!

She agreed, and he hung up, and only then did she realize she was screwed. Lenna tossed her hands up in the air and swore out loud. How in the hell was she going to get to that place, Cowboy? She did not know New York.

And she did not know enough to call up a car to take her there because it was not as if she had an address. What was she going to do?

The thought came to her as she stared at the hat on the dresser. A memory of her telling a story, and spinning it up in the air.

Quickly, Lenna cleaned herself up and put on a clean outfit. In her haste, she did not ask for any second opinions. A few minutes later, she stomped down the halls of the mansion in a hot pink and white striped t-shirt, with a green zip up hooded sweatshirt, a violet scarf, white and red tennis shoes, and weathered blue jeans. The sky blue hair ribbon was tied in a bow in the back of her hair, supporting the ponytail underneath the black Cowboy hat. She stopped outside of Sky’s room.

Lenna really hoped the woman was home. Luck was on her side. She was!

It took some quick explaining, but Sky understood. Lenna had a date, but no ride, an idea of where the place was, but no address, and she needed assistance.

The woman did not drive a car, herself, but she knew how to call up a car to take them there. Lenna made certain to remember this, because it would be as important for travel as utilizing the subway in the near future. Thankfully, she had already raided the subway for all her sh*^.

They rode in the cab together. With her phone and the names of the places Lenna and Thai had gone, she was able to locate the location. Lenna made a point to memorize how Sky utilized the martial art she referred to as “Google-fu.” It was more useful than Krav Maga at finding stuff.

A short time later, they pulled up outside the pizza place. Sky gave her a five dollar bill, and told her to be safe. Lenna thanked her repeatedly. Then, Sky left Lenna to her date.

Lenna had made certain to be safe. She had gotten Sky to give her the number to her cellular phone while they rode in Jeff’s cab, so that she could contact her if anything were to happen, or she needed a ride. Part of her had wanted to put the name in as ‘Mama Sky’, and she really did not know why. She did not input it as Mama Sky. Just Sky.

Checking the contents of her black leather purse, Lenna mentally prepared herself. Then, she headed for the nearby park. Mismatched, yet almost matched.

The park, it was quite a large park. She found a muscle car parked nearby. That was a good clue. But where was the Cowboy? It only took her a few moments to skim over the area and locate the boy with orange hair. He was by an orange tree. Being orange.

The first thing she said to him after striding across the grass to get near, was not an accusation. Admission of weakness is not good. She had sorted through the issues and resolved her own problem. With help from Mama Sky. From his point of view, the problems had probably seemed very small. No. What she said was— Nothing. Because she flew across the area to fling herself on him and —

How does one describe a flying tackle hug pounce kiss where the person is climbed like a tree? Because Lenna did that.

He had tried to one up her with that last kiss, days ago. She had not forgotten. Apparently, this was going to be a recurring thing.

After the kiss, Lenna extracted herself from his person. She slapped the black cowboy hat on his head.

”I promised.” She said. ”I keep my promises. Remember that.” She said, earnestly. Then, she smiled at him. ”Now, how are you doing?”

"Good." The tone wasn't harsh, in fact it was very warm, gentle, almost affectionate. It made him smile.

The way she said 'Soonest' before they hung up made his heart flutter a bit. He still didn't know where exactly they stood but...whatever it was he liked it.

The wait at the park seemed to drag on forever. But it wasn't long before he saw Lenna getting out of a cab. Her clothes were....well nothing matched, but it was cute. He knew she couldn't see anything but orange usually, and honestly...it didn't matter what she was wearing. But before he could respond to any of that...she practically flung herself at him. He managed to catch her without falling, somehow, and their game of kissing one-upmanship had continued with her taking a clear lead as his arms held her close.

When it broke, he had to chuckle when she slapped a cowboy hat on his head. "Duly noted," he breathed, still smiling. "I'm doing good.Even better now," he said with a smile. "So, you do anything fun while waiting for me to get a phone and text you?" he asked with a smile. They needed to talk, sure, but that could wait, maybe.

"Oh yeah," Lenna said smugly. "Loads. I even have a place to stay, now. No more fending for my self."

If he asked, she would probably tell him all about what she had been up to since their last meeting. All the fights, struggles, mustard stains and meetings. She might even tell him about where she got his hat. For some reason, she REALLY wanted to tell him about the Werewolf fights and vampires, but... that seemed not to be the sort of thing one leads with. It would probably make him raise one of those orange eyebrows in a way that might be skeptical of her, and not cute.

Yes, she knew what werewolves and vampires were. She had seen the classic Wolf Man and Dracula movies... and they had got some of the newer Vampire movies. Not that she would have talked about New Movies. Ugh. Lenna liked the oldies better. New movies sometimes lost some of the charm. Remakes. Silly action movies. Things with blades and underworlds. If she'd been alerted to the existence of certain prequels, she might have had an even worse aversion... maybe. Maybe she'd have liked them, who knew?

"If you ask," She grinned. "I may even tell you about some of the more hairy situations I won." There. A lady can drop a hint. "What about you?" She tapped her lip thoughtfully. "Any hairy situations? It took quite a while to acquire a cellular phone. I hope you weren't in any trouble. Made me wait."

Her tone had not made that last comment sound accusatory. If anything, it made it sound like she had been impatient for all the right reasons. If her excitement at his request for a second date were any clue, he could not possibly have thought her mad over the wait. Well. Maybe a little.

"I found someplace too. Nice to have a roof over my head," he said, deciding to wait before unloading everything he'd found out since finding this place to stay. After all, he didn't want to scare her off, and this sort of talk had a tendency of weirding people out; he'd realized that the hard way.

"I'd like to hear them, if you wanna tell," he said with a smirk, adjusting the cowboy hat on his head.

Then she asked about hairy situations and he realized the crap he'd been through definitely counted. "Well, I wouldn't say I was in any trouble but I...did have a bit of an ordeal," he explained. "So...this is a bit of a ride, so buckle up because ****'s about to get weird," Ty cautioned, taking a breath.

"So...before we met, I'd woken up on a park bench, no memory of how I got there and nothing on my person, and my power didn't work on the clothes I was wearing. After we parted ways, I made my way to Sanctuary, because I'd heard they could give me a place to stay. I found I already had a room, my name was already on file, and there was a ton of stuff in it like a glorified storage unit or something. I cleaned it up, using my abilities on things and....I had these weird, broken visions. Like I saw an older version of myself, and various other people. So...I visited a therapist that happened to be a giant roach that looked like one from my visions, but that didn't really do much except tell me that I was deaged? Then I went to the mansion, where this was further proven, and I'm working on getting to the bottom of it." He paused, letting her processed.

"Also...not to alarm you or anything, but...I think I saw an older you in my visions, too. I know, this sounds crazy. I hope you still wanna stick around..."

Good. He was not homeless either.

Wait. He had been homeless? In the background of her mind, lenna resolved to ask more about him. Because she had not and it was her fault. In Her minds foreground, she decided that she would tell him. Later, after his own story.

She had nodded. Then asked about him. And he had told her.

Lenna listened.

Lenna listened.

Lenna listened.

Lenna listened.


Lenna listened, and wished that she had pulled up a comfortable chair.

Throughout all of that listening, Lenna had not gone google eyed or goggle eyed. Her face had stayed a perfectly acceptable mild. Cowboy finished, by stating he wished she still desired to stay around.

Lenna did not say anything, at first. She merely took a few steps over to a nice patch of grass, seated herself, and bent her legs so that she was comfortable. Then, she patted the patch of grass directly next to her.

”Please, have a seat.” Lenna said.

Once he was seated or standing, she continued calmly. ”So. What you just said right there, is like, so much crap.” She nodded and clarified. ”Difficult. And similar to what I have gone through since shortly before I met you. And of course I am sticking around, you idiot. You are like my boyfriend or something. Right?”

That was how this worked, yes? She really wasn’t too familiar with labels. She had heard stories about boyfriends and girlfriends, but that had never been something for her... at least, when she had been in Columbia at the school. No longer was this the case. And if she was going to be smooching and mildly romantic, she was going the fskkking whole way. She would not bother with questions like ‘are we’, ‘are we not?’ Or ‘is this a date.’ Once again, she had decided this herself. But in this scenario, he had a right to disagree with something other than her fist if he did not wish to be her boyfriend.

Lenna looked at Cowboy for confirmation, frowning slightly.

Lenna listened, quite patiently it seemed, as Ty spoke. And when he'd finished, he sat on the grass next to her, like she had requested. He was nervous as she spoke; she was right, it was a lot of crap. But then she'd continued and he relaxed. "Similar? So you've been through something like that too," he mused, though it made sense, considering he'd seen flashes of her--sorta--in his visions, too.

"Of course I'm sticking around, you idiot." Ty flinched a bit, but smiled all the same. "You are like my boyfriend or something, right?" He blushed, which was looking to be a trend when he was around her, but he felt his heart flutter as the smile on his face grew bigger. That was one less thing they needed to discuss then, since it was already official. Or as official as they'd probably end up getting.

"Yeah; I am," he confirmed, giving a nod as he looked over at her from under his new cowboy hat.

"Thanks for sticking around. So you've heard about the bull**** I got caught up in. Guess it's only fair that you tell me about yours now, right?" He winked at her, genuinely interested in what she'd been up to. It was weird, they hadn't known each other long and yet, in a sense he felt like they had. Though this never would have worked with any other versions of them, Ty was already enjoying having her around.

"

She gave a slight nod when he mused about her having been through something like him, then finished up what she’d been saying.

He had winced at the name calling. Maybe idiot had been too severe? Goof ball had achieved far better results in the past. Lenna made a mental note of this. While waiting for his reply with eager anticipation.

He gave his answer. Yes, he was.

They had confirmation on the boyfriend / girlfriend status. Relationship was ‘go’! This pleased her. She grinned widely.

”Good.” she said.

He thanked her for sticking around, and she nodded. ‘Yes, of course. No problem,’ the nod said.

And then he winked. Lenna bit her lip as her heart did something she was unaccustomed to. What is the phrase, pitter pat?

She opened her mouth to spill her guts, but then she closed it again as an idea dawned on her.

”Your power...” Her voice was thoughtful. Considering. ”It can see the memories of objects? All of them? So I could talk and talk and tell you everything... but I might miss some things that happened before I was conscious of who I Am. Or...”

Lenna held up her black leather purse. She looked him in the eye. ”I had this before I changed. If that is what happened. It may answer questions. I can tell you of any thing you are left curious about. Also, does it do sounds?” She could not remember.

His power was so useful. It could save over fifteen minutes of nonstop exposition in one simple touch! What a powerful touch.

Ty was enjoying the time with her, even if they were about to dive into some weird junk. But...she promised to stick around, and that was enough for him.

He nodded. "Yeah, I pick up everything an object has 'seen' and experienced. You know, if objects could actually do that? But...I guess they can? It's weird. But yeah, I do pick up sound, but only like...important stuff, usually. It's sort of like every memory this object has been through gets crammed into my head in a matter of seconds, leaving me to root through it. And that's why I carry the aspirin," he explained, pulling a bottle of aspirin out of his pocket and shaking it before replacing it.

"Yeah, I think that'll be good," he said as he pulled off the glove and touched the purse.

That purse spent a lot of time in a closet, and when it did see the light of day, Ty couldn't make heads or tails of a lot of the memories he was getting. It was Lenna, but older than his girlfriend Lenna, younger than the Lenna from his own visions, the one he worked for.

The woman had been walking distractedly, like she had been lost in thought. Listening to music with one ear pod in. A man had approached her. It seemed like He knew her. Stepped in front of her, put a hand on her upper arm.

“Lenna, I’d taken y’fer dead.”

Lenna had frowned and slipped out of his grasp. “You think I’m that other woman... She isn’t me... what is she to— oh god. You’re him.”

Halloween, Ty got a good view of some blonde-haired, blue eyed woman in a Princess Leia costume.

Dark Night. City Street. he woman was following someone through the dark.

When she finally caught up to the person she’d been following, they entered a building.

“So a spider walks into a bar...” the woman said.

A person in layers of rags was on the sidewalk ahead of her, by the stoop of a rundown apartment building. They had a bottle of wine. The woman gave them a wide berth. A moment later—

She clawed at her ear as the area fell into a more severe darkness. Street lamps had burst their bulbs. Up and down the street, lights still burned. Whatever had blasted the area around her in electrostatic something or other—

Lenna nudged the vagrant with her foot. Sparks popped on the vagrants form, and lit their face. It wasn’t a man, but a boy. Freckles, rusty hair. Youthful face. More sparks revealed A bottle in one hand and a needle in the other.

The woman moved away, and moved on.

Bar. Ty recognized this woman. This was the Megan from his memories, and from what he'd learned from the Megan at the mansion, the same thing had happened to her.

“Leave her alone, you bitch.” The woman announced... mildly. Like Ty’s Lenna might have said. And then, things got messy.

Somehow, the lady flew leisurely through the air. Into a jukebox. A new song. Britney Spears Toxic. The lady tried to throw something. It flew away, into the center of the bar. Right towards the dark-haired woman.

Smoke billowed from the grenade. Around the bar, people started changing. From the purses perspective, the room swirled chaotically.

A spark in the cloud of smoke. The sounds of fighting. And Lenna had been jabbed with a needle. She... transformed. From blonde with blue eyes, down to brunette with blue-green. And suddenly, her skirt didn’t fit just right. And Lenna was beating the crap out of everyone in the bar. It was actually kind of impressive.

Whenever someone tried to attack, they failed. Got unlucky. Tripped, or missed.

Then everything was on fire. Lenna made it to the woman— the girl. Megan. And got out. As they made it out of the burning building, the memory shifted again.

Lenna in a hotel room. Lenna with a Burger King crown on her head.

“I am the burger queen.”

Lenna, buying clothes with Megan. Lenna, in the changing room. Trying things on.

Another memory, another day. Lenna was entering a mysterious apartment building. Her key worked in the lock of the apartment. A simple room. Closet full of stuff. Sleep. People busting down the front door. A chase.

Lenna broke some guy’s nose with her knee. And went to talk with— a blonde woman Ty might have known at some point. The blonde said something about amnesia getting old, and adults turning into kids.

They talked for a while. And then, more of the goons had come. A ninja and a Paladin. The whole fight was cool.

The mystery of where the phone had come from got solved. Straight from the pocket of the goon with the broken nose.

“Hello, Kyle... what have you got for me? Ah! Yes. Good.”

Lenna, arranging her hair. Checking her breath. Checking to see that her deodorant was working... right before talking to him.

They went on a date, from the purse’s perspective.

The rest of the time between then and now was filled with memories of survival. Buying street food, fighting wolves for territory... fighting goth kids with fangs. The mansion.

Then, he saw himself again. Standing by a tree. Rushing at him, leaping into his arms, and kissing him...

When the vision came back to reality, it had honestly been a few seconds that Ty had been sitting there with an absent stare into nothing before coming to with a deep inhale, his face pale and his hands shaking. Frantically, he popped open the aspirin bottle and popped two. Dry. Just swallowed them.

"That, was alot. I...I saw...so much. How many versions of you were there? I mean...there's you, and there's older you, but then there's another you that the older me worked for? I...I'm confused, and it's a lot to take in, so...I'm going to do something. Another part of my power. You might get a headache or something, fair warning. I can show you snippets of what happened, but it won't be as quick, and its gonna suck a little, you don't have to if you don't want to."

He closed his hand around his glove, his other gloved hand taking hers, just for comfort. He wanted to be close to her, especially now. Things were about to get even weirder. As he focused on the glove his bare hand was holding, his eyes turned red as he imprinted little tidbits, a best-of compilation of what he'd just seen. These memories would be silent, and they would last as long as an extended movie trailer.

"Just know...I'm here for you, okay?" His hand outstretched, he held out the glove. All you have to do is touch it."

He had looked so absent, staring off into space. Just looking off into a void. And the color had drained from his features, leaving him... a lighter shade of orange, ok? She had worried she had broken him. That he would begin to drool shortly. Then, when she had been about to push him down and start performing the CPR, he had sucked in a huge breath and come back to her. His hands had quivered, and he had taken many pills for the pain. Dry. Frenetically. As if he had needed them in order to survive. Perhaps, he did.

He had been so pale. She had shown him too much. Hurt him. Her face did not give it away. She did not want him worrying about her when she was more worried about him. So, she had let him speak and work through what he’d seen and what he had to say. Since he had made a sacrifice to get that information.

His words confused lenna. Worried her. Multiple versions? Her, older her, and the other her. He had worked for a Lenna? The older Lenna? The other Lenna?Which one? He was as confused as her. And confusing her. But mostly, she was worried about him.

Ty wanted to do something with his powers, something that could show her. Snippets. What a fun word. Was the potential for pain supposed to scare her? Lenna had made him feel pain... willingly, yes. But she still felt terrible about it. And also, underneath that, impressed. Proud of him for being so tough and brave. And creative, to try and save time by giving memories to her directly. Compared to what he had endured, any pain she would feel was nothing. It would help him work through the confusion. She wanted to help him out.

Lenna watched him hold the glove. Felt his hand on hers... he was trying to comfort her. Sweet man. He did... something. His eyes turned a different shade of orange.

He told her he would be there for her, and all she would have to do was touch the glove. Before she did that, there was something she needed to do.

Lenna placed her free hand on Cowboy’s face, and gently stroked his cheek. ”I am sorry I caused you pain.” She said, voice quavering. She bit her lip. ”You are so brave. So strong. Thank you. Do not worry about me.”

Then. She kissed him. Quickly. Bowed her head so her forehead pressed against his, and just rested there for the moment. The hand she had put against his cheek dropped to touch the glove. The memories drew her in, as she sat there, close to him. Forehead still against his. Because doing this all while still kissing him might have been weird. She was nice like that. Very thoughtful.

Boom, went the Memories.




The woman was older than her. An older her. There was no sound, so Lenna could not hear anything said. In the memories, there was also no orange filter. It felt like looking upon an alien world, after over a week of orange.

A man approached the woman from behind. Then, he cut her off and laid hands upon her. This Lenna was sloppy, or else consumed by something. Grief? She had that look Lenna knew that she got, when something was bothering her... but what?

They spoke, and she seemed distraught. He seemed surprised. First, he had seemed almost relieved, but it had quickly shifted into something else as him and Older her spoke. If only she could have read their lips...

The memory ended too soon. The next time she saw herself, she was not herself. Older, different, blonder. Leggier. She saw the poorly lit street at night, and the strange mystery woman.

This woman had been following someone. Something had happened, and the whole area had dimmed. The woman had clawed at something in her ear and thrown it to the ground. One word passed through Lenna’s mind. Earwig?

Why would this blonde with a different face be using an earwig, like security teams utilize? And why did she have her purse?

The source of the disturbance that took out the lights quickly became apparent. A hobo dressed in rags, sparking on the sidewalk. He was unconscious.

The blonde went to nudge the hobo with her foot, and got a shock. A youthful face. Not an old wino vagrant, after all. In the light from the sparks, Lenna got a better look at the woman’s face. Cupid’s bow lips and piercing blue eyes. Calculating blue eyes. A crinkled brow as she stared down at the kid. He had a bottle of wine and a needle. That made her sad. It seemed to make the other woman sad, too.

A short bit later, the woman entered the bar. There was yet another mystery woman talking to another mystery woman. The mysteries were piling up. Blonde got one woman’s attention. Something happened. Weird, slow flight. Right into a machine with a rounded top and a brightly lit glass front.

Things happened fast, after that. There was smoke and sparks, the flash of steel. Another needle?!

Amid the smoke and disorder, Lenna was pricked... and she changed. That answered her question about who the blonde had been. It had been her, with a new face.

Everything got even messier, after that. The woman escaped as the room swirled and Lenna started hitting people. She actually remembered parts of that!

Did she really look like that when she fought? It was a wonder her clothes had not fallen off.

As Lenna escaped with the Megan girl, the memories faded back into the real real world.

A regretful sigh escaped her as the orange filter returned like a bad joke.

Cowboy had imprinted only a few of the many memories... and everything beyond the deAging would have been redundant to her. Probably saved her a headache— wait, no. There it was. Lenna pulled away from Cowboy’s forehead with a muttered curse. Her head throbbed.

She put out one hand and requested pills, please. Then, she turned her focus back to interesting what she had watched.

Had that boy with the wine been deaged like them? What was the symbolism of the needle? Was that the cause of it all? But then, what about the gas? That had done something, too. The people in the bar had lost control. Scared and erratic, much like she had been during her first few moments in New York. When she had been convinced she was still in a fight on her first mission. That was her hot take on it. Youthful inexperience and disorientation. Did that mean her powers were messed up by lack of control as well? It would explain... things. Orange things.

The Megan girl had been affected by the gas. Deaged too. She had been following the Megan girl? But why? Was it a mission... to take, or to kill? She needed to talk to her to make certain the young woman was safe. Stayed safe. Whoever she had been working for— something clicked. Not solidly, but it clicked like a few seconds of pressure might finish the connection.

”The blonde woman was me. I had changed my face. I have her cards and identification. Got chased out of my own damn apartment.” She clenched a fist and gritted her teeth. ”Screw you, Kyle..” Lenna blushed, realizing what she’d said. And what he might have seen. ”You... you watched that. Yes? With the men, and the stolen phone... on the roof? What other embarrassing things did you see...? Did you—“

Lenna plucked up her purse, and smiled what she hoped was a mystifying smile. She let out a low laugh. Tried to play away the embarrassment as no big thing.

”I hope you missed out on the last half hour. Some conversations between friends are better left a secret, yes?” She smiled, smiled, and might have kept her cool... if the conversation with mama Sky about safety and her feelings had not invaded her thoughts.

Lenna’s cheeks flushed a feverish red. She would have preferred him to accidentally see her naked half a hundred times in purse-vision than to have had him hear that discussion once.

Come to think of it, he probably has. She thought.

Lenna fanned at her face with her purse. ”Let us get back on the topic.” She said. ”What did I say to the man? Why did he want to talk?”

Was she still holding his hand?