Kalos felt faint. Aoi could rip people's heads off. And they just let her roam around? So... she had to be safe, right? Like, she could, but she wouldn't.

"It wasn't the doctor. Get in here." She waved the other two into her hiding spot and scooted and crunched and cramped until they were all tightly packed, hidden by the chair that Rowan thoughtfully pulled in to keep them inconspicuous.

She hardly dared breathe as stompy adult feet came prowling in. They went to the window and chatted about how the glass was all busted up toward the inside. They noticed the blood, but thankfully that appeared to be far enough away and not directed toward the librarian's desk. They were checking all around, walking so close that Kalos started to feel faint when she saw some X-men boots from the small cubby of their hiding spot.

"It's probably a student who bailed." A young man's voice called from toward the window. Kalos wasn't sure which X it was, but she could say with confidence it was not Mirror.

"Yeah." The pair of feet nearest to them turned the toes away from the three hiding kids. They totally weren't looking toward the librarian's desk!

"They'll probably be with DocProf. Let's see if we can get an update. Make sure everyone's okay."

"And call Maintenance," the pair of feet nearest to them added as they left Kalos' sight and started walking back toward the library doors. "Someone's gotta patch that window."

Kalos pointed silently up and over, a motion too vague to be understood clearly, but she didn't yet dare talk. There was a second floor of the library. She hoped the other kids would realize that meant there was more than one exit.

If they could get out before maintenance came in to tape up the window, they'd be off the hook, right?

Rowan wasn't exactly thrilled to hear the way Aoi spoke about her Mutation. Ripping people's heads off? These were teachers they were talking about, not burglars. But Rowan didn't have time to comment, or even shoot Aoi a dirty look. The heavy stomping of boots on the library floor reminded Rowan that the three of them weren't squished under a desk for fun. Rowan held his breath, closing his eyes. The young mutant almost looked serene, but was panicking on the inside. 

He focused on listening to the voices, and the footsteps, trying to get a feel for how many people came in and where they were standing. 

Luckily, the three young mutants weren't discovered, and the adults seemed to be leaving. Rowan listened to the footsteps getting more and more distant, and the sound of the library doors opening and closing. He gave it a few seconds longer, and then slowly poked his head out from their hiding place. 

The coast seemed clear. 

Rowan watched Kalos' hand motions with...confusion, head tilting like a curious dog. She clearly had some sort of a plan, and she probably knew the layout of the library and school better than he did. Regardless they had to get moving, being stuck under a desk while someone slowly repaired a window would be painful. Rowan crawled out first, and then offered a hand to Kalos and Aoi. Once the three were out he spoke, in a whisper. 

"Okay...let's hurry.

He turned to Aoi.

"Let me carry you. If you foot is still bleeding you'll leave a trail, and we gotta be sneaky."

He crouched down slightly, getting in a piggy-back riding position. He looked over at Kalos. 

"Can you lead the way?

How did this spiral so far out of control, Aoi wondered. She considered just saying over here when the adults came, it would of been the right thing to do and she had no real desire to hide from the consequences as strange as she figured that would sound to these two. She would have shaken her head but she was concerned by the space and Kalos's less then soft looking body. She needed two look into these two more, compile what data she could and determine if she needed to avoid them or if they would be ok to be near.

Kalos's hand signals told Aoi she wanted to get out of the cramped desk but the rest was lost on her. She was quite grateful not to be squished against two others. Aoi briefly entertained the idea of just smashing another window and going to bed in front of it, she really wanted back in her nice, safe and hopefully semi intact room. "Upstairs?" she asked trying to logic out what a trapped person might want.

Aoi was not a fan of the piggy back ride idea and she face palmed and shook her head. She whispered a few things in Japanese her father might have found vulgar. "All right, that makes sense" she said and did wince as she put pressure on her foot. After she parted with these two, Dr. Prof was where she decided to go. The faster she agreed and followed their lead maybe the faster she could admit what she had done and get a band aide or two at least. She climbed onto Rowan's back trying not to hesitate, it was her first boy back ride.

Why yes. She sould lead the way. Kalos was possibly the best versed mutant in the entire Mansion to be qualified to lead the way as she almost never left the building itself.

"Upstairs and out the side door. We can take the hall through the girl dorms and down some more stairs and... I'll just show you." A quick peek toward the door, but it wasn't moving. She glanced at the camera, but it was pointed toward the main entrance. Kalos popped out of their hiding spot like piece of toast in a too-enthusiastic toaster. "We'll end up in the kitchen if you can carry her that far. There's bandaids in the kitchen."

She grinned, sure they would get away with this mild caper.

"Camera here, pointing this way." She showed with her hands how it was set up and then slipped close to the wall to scoot through it's blind spot. An easy task for one person. Maybe not so easy for two.

Beyond that was it was plush carpets, lazy students on break, and a quick descent into a clean, open format kitchen with a walk in pantry. Kalos went straight for the pantry, climbed the shelves and grabbed the first aid box. She kicked the stepping stool (which would have been the more normal way to reach the first aid box) toward her new friends so Aoi could sit down and offered the box to Rowan, who seemed sensitive to Aoi's hurts.

"Little paper things are hard for me to open." She shrugged. Just a fact of life when you fingers were basically bone.

Rowan hoisted Aoi onto his back with a slight huff. He might be of an above average strength but he was still a fourteen year old. Luckily Aoi was a little smaller than him, and wasn't putting up a fuss. Rowan quickly, well as quickly as he could with a girl on his back, followed after Kalos. He trusted her directions, and was actually a little excited to learn some ways to navigate the mansion.

Things were going just fine, Rowan had a pretty good sense of balance, but the camera was going to pose a problem. Rowan first watched Kalos sneak by, and then turned his head to whisper back to Aoi.

"Keep close to me, like a backpack, it's gonna be close."

With that Rowan pressed himself as close to the wall as possible, scootching himself along the wall until he was well away from the camera's field of view. It was about this time, despite his previous anxiety, when Rowan realized he was having...fun? Their little heist and daring get away...it was like being in a movie.

Rowan quickly pushed these thoughts aside, they weren't in the clear yet.

Soon the trio was in the kitchen. Rowan watched with great interest as Kalos retrieved the first aid kit. Following her was a good idea, she seemed to know the mansion pretty well. Rowan gently lowered Aoi into the chair. So it was his job to patch her up? Seemed fair. He had bandaged up plenty of minor wounds, he wasn't too concerned.

Rowan carefully removed the tissues from Aoi's foot. The cut was small, and seemed clean. Maybe Aoi's panic and rapid transformation made her bleed faster. Rowan rooted through the first aid kit, eventually settling on a small spool of gauze and a tube of antibacterial gel. Soon Aoi's foot was wrapped. It wasn't pretty by any means, but it wasn't half bad for a teenager with no professional training.

"There...that should do."

He turned to Kalos.

"Thanks for getting us out of there..."

Aoi perked up a bit at the the word Kitchen. These two were ridiculous but she had to admit to herself it was nice. "Lead the way, I really could use a nice salmon right now, Changing makes me hungry. " she said hoping they had some. While her powers had not changed her diet needs they had given her a greater desire for fish like Salmon. The bear would have preferred seal but New york had a lack of those. They moved at a good pace and though she hoped to get a glimpse of her room, their route did not pass it. Maybe it just was not that bad. She decided to stop dwelling on it and tried to push it aside.

"You got it: she said squeezing tighter to his body. A giggle escaped her mouth as they passed under the camera avoiding it. After the camera they made it to the Kitchen quickly. Rowan set her on the stool and Kalos got her band aides. She had not expected Rowan to patch up her foot, he seemed like he knew what he doing. She had actually assumed she would need to get it redone at the Mansion Doctors office but this was solid.

"That was awesome Kalos and you to Rowan. I had just figured on being in trouble but this is way better. Sorry about all this, I had no idea i was in bear mode until the glass cracked and by then well you know" she said feeling bad she had put them through all this effort. She knew would have been in trouble if she got caught but she wanted Rowan to know they were good people here to.

"Now that were safe, I am curious though, since you know mine, what powers do you two have, other then saving my cute but?" she said asking about their powers. She had a basic idea of Kalos having lived in the same school as her for awhile but she wanted Rowan to know as well. Maybe they could be friends. Aoi always had trouble making those secluding herself as much as she did.

Kalos got thanks. They were deserved thanks and they almost made her want to show off more of how she knew all the hidey holes at the Mansion. Almost. She didn't actually want to give away all the hidey holes of the Mansion. She wasn't yet done having a few secrets just for herself.

"Yeah. I guess next time a bear comes through the window, hit me up." Thank goodness that bear had turned quickly into a girl. Kalos wasn't sure she had a single defense against a head-removing bear that could break inside the Mansion.

Truth be told, that wasn't the only thing about Aoi that scared her. The other girl laughed at weird times. And she sometimes spoke not-English and not-Greek and she had a not-Scottish accent. It wasn't even a New York accent, so far as she could tell. (Not that she was great at telling.) It was the unknown-ness of her that scared Kalos most.

"Do you ever know when you're gonna be in bear mode? Is it a pringle before you change or something?" She meant tingle, but... well, words were hard sometimes when you mostly watched commercials and snuck junk food. And speaking of Pringles, Kalos dug down in the bottom of the pantry behind a heavy box of water bottles to pull out an opened bag of salmon jerky, turkey jerky, and beef jerky. Though she was loathe to share the salmon jerky as it was her favorite, Kalos would do it to make a new friend.

"Fish is my favorite." She admitted as she laid out the spoils for everyone to choose for themselves.

> "what powers do you two have, other then saving my cute but?"

Was her butt particularly cute? Kalos tried to circumspectly check, but butts were just butts. Why were people into butts?

"Uh. For me, it's pretty much what you see is what you get." She waved her hand as if to say hello. Her fingers were white, the tips not quite smooth but not nearly as rough as the growths from her scalp and shoulders. "It's coral. I'm coral, I guess." She grabbed some salmon jerky and was happy to pass the conversation's priority over to the newcomer.

"What about you, Rowan?"

Now that things had finally calmed down Rowan felt like he could relax, just a bit. He sat down on the floor, sighing as he did so. He felt...tired. The tired really didn't come from carrying Aoi, more so from the stress of them almost getting caught. Rowan dipped out of the conversation for a moment, but was again hooked at the introduction of snacks. His stomach rumbled, but not wanting to look desperate for a handout Rowan let the other two pick their snacks first.

Rowan had been hoping the mutation conversation wouldn't come up.

Kalos answered first, and her answer was...honestly really neat. Rowan for the first time in his life was getting to meet fellow mutants, he hadn't expected them all to be so...unique. But unfortunately Rowan had to answer next. He huffed slightly, trying to look annoyed.

"I uh...shift into a...wolf."

A half truth, but saying he shifted into a wolf-like monstrosity didn't seem like the best answer. He quickly added to avoid further questions.

"I get really tried, and uh...hungry when I shift, so I only do it when I have to.

And Rowan realized that the burden of picking a new conversation topic fell on him. He wasn't much for idle chit chat, especially with people he barely knew. If anything all he wanted to do now was go back to his room and finish his homework. Rowan mentally face-palmed. His homework. He had gone to the library to get a math book, his initial mission forgotten during their escape. Well he couldn't go back today, the guilty always return to the scene of the crime and whatnot, so homework would have to wait.

"Uh...you two...have you too been here long?"

Rowan realized this wasn't much of a conversation, so he quickly added;

"Like...are all the teachers cool...and stuff..."

Yeah...conversations were not his strong suit.

She winced slightly at the mention of her coming through the window, really hoping that never ever happened again. She had been lucky to simply have control upon waking with none of the normal fight or protest from the Bear. Despite the odd wording which made Aoi delay a moment she understood what Kalos was asking. "Well not before it start's but once it does i feel the confidence and determination of the bear's instincts. Their powerful and overwhelming and sometimes feel like im drowning in them. I try and stay away from people who might trigger my fear or anger mostly." she said knowing she prolbely gave Kalos and Rowen more then they wanted.

She certainly agreed that fish were good, as she reached for a strip of the Salmon jerky, enjoying the smell of it even as the turkey and beef scents competed with it. It was good, she had been unahwere that jerky was served this way, in truth she had never thought to look. "I never knew they made it this way. So good, I'll have to order some for us." she said with a smile.

Kalos did look like coral so that made sense. She wonderd if Kalos's love of fish was tied to her mutation like Aoi's was. Aoi had never outright craved seafood before the Bear. "Can you live underwater then?" she asked, her mind trying to understand the new information and learn more.

A wolf? Aoi inwardly had hoped for more. She had been hoping that he would end up as something powerful enough to give the Bear pause. Part of her mind reminded her wolves had way more endurance then Polar bears and could certainly distract the Bear. "Well we share that then, shifting does the same for me. Do you have to fight the wolf for control?" she asked wondering how close his mutation was to hers.

How long had then been there, a complicated question."Almost four years sorta. See their was this anti aging thing in the city not to long ago and i was 17, now im back to fourteen. I lost much of my memories from those three years to. As for the teachers their great and many like Ms. Sundance and Mr. Johnson were students themselvs here. " She said almost glowing when it came to the school. "I do miss my family but i am glad i came here" she said leaving out that part of that was due to her sister and how much the now older sister liked to tuant her. Even their powers had not deterred her.

Aoi continued to confuse Kalos. She talked about her bear like it was something different from herself. But Kalos had seen it. She was the bear. And knowing that she might just poof turn into a bear made Kalos want to take a little step away.But she didn't. Rowan was here and he'd been equally freaked out and he wasn't stepping away. So neither would she.

And speaking of poof you're an animal, Rowan turned into a WOLF. Kalos did take a small step away then. Big animals freaked her out and here she was sharing her jerky stash with two of them.

"The salmon is the best." She wholeheartedly agreed and would not even think to dissuade Aoi from ordering more. Kalos was told that it was expensive and that she must ration or else they'd blow the whole school's food budget. Ideally Kalos would be eating meals with the rest of the school aged kids now, but... well, she was still work up to it.

> "Can you live underwater then?"

"I used to live under water in the ocean. You know. Atlantis. I didn't go into the water much. At that deepness, the water was crushing." That had been her main emergency escape and the number one reason why she'd been able to stay out of the guards' reach for so long. Her hard parts had been quite a bit more useful in protecting her under the sea. On land... it just seemed to make her a crunchy snack.

"Four years for me too, but... I didn't get out much the first two." She fidgeted. "I didn't speak English at first. Or read or nothing. But. Yeah. Teachers are nice and good at makeup work stuff."

Kalos could feel THE questions building up inescapably and she had to blurt it all at once and get it over with.

"You guys haven't... I mean, you're... you don't... eat? People? As-as your animal selfs?" If there was a yes in there, she was fully ready to bounce and find a nice place to hide away for a day or two.

Rowan, seeing as the other two were enjoying the fish jerky, quietly took the bag of turkey jerky. He took a few pieces out, shoved them in his mouth, and put the bag back on the floor. He chomped through the tough pieces of meat without struggle, listening to the two girls talk.

Wait were they just gonna gloss over the whole de-aging thing? That just...happened? Rowan frowned. He didn't want to suddenly get any younger or worse, older. The conversation seemed to move on, and maybe that was for the best. Rowan really didn't want to jinx himself by talking about it. And luckily Kalos changed the subject to something far more interesting, Atlantis, giving Rowan a great excuse not to answer Aoi's question. Rowan wasn't confident enough in his ability to lie. Claiming he had complete control, as opposed to the zero control he really had, would be...difficult to convince someone of.

Rowan turned to Kalos, eyes wide with interest.

"You only recently learned English? That's...really impressive."

He took another piece of jerky.

"I...used to visit the ocean quite a bit when I was young. Haven't in a long time."

Rowan was pulled from his thoughts by Kalos' next question. He frowned. Despite the grumpy and prickly exterior he tried to display he really didn't like scaring people. Well, he was fine with the boys at his previous schools being scared of him, but not someone like Kalos. She was too cu...pink.

"Oh course I don't eat people! I don't know about Aoi but the thought of killing someone, no less eating them, puts a knot in my stomach."

His voice was trying to sound stern and annoyed, but came off with a little more pleading than he would have liked to admit.

Mentally Aoi considered the volumes it spoke that the de ageing event and Atlantis being real were things that she barely considered strange anymore. It had been life changing and stress inducing and more then once the Bear had gone out on a rampage from it. The knowledge her sister once the same age was older and had and would hold it over her was annoying as well.

She agreed with Rowan. "That is impressive Kalos, School started teaching me early but i really only used it much when i got here" she said having quickly learned that knowing and understanding a language in school was way different then using it day to day.

"Living in japan, the ocean was always close and well here it is to" she said though it was further from the ocean then back home was and she had visited just a few times since. She missed it or rather what they all use to go.

Then the conversation shifted and Aoi was glad she was so hungry. She held it for a few moments as rowan responded. Aoi dropped the piece of salmon jerky as her body shook slightly and fear rose to the top of her. Had she been full she knew the Bear would already have emerged. Her fears played in her mind like an endless looped cartoon. It took her a good minutes to gather her voice and even then her first few words were Japanese before she recalled she needed English. She still shook and her fear was evident as she spoke. "Um well i would never but...The p-polar bear before I..I get it under control would....I try so hard to keep it locked away. I s-stay in my room and away from anyone i think might trigger the bear, i even chain myself to my bed to try and prevent the bear from escaping. Had my door reinforced with steel and keep myself from sleeping....I" she said a few tears leaking from her eyes though she was clearly trying to prevent it pulling her knees close to her chest.

"Every day I fear it might be the day when i can't get control of the bear fast enough, where i might hurt people....Had i not had the control....i may hurt both of you" she said her voice fading to Barely a whisper.

Aoi's biggest fear had always been hurting someone else before regaining control, snapping two when the body of a loved one, or anyone really was shredded in her jaws. She managed to stop shaking but her breathing was quick and shallow and she had considered bolting back to her room more then once in the past few minutes. How much she hoped, wished she could answer Kalos question that no she would never eat people. Aoi knew she was dangerous to be around, and being two close with these two as much as she found she wanted to meant putting them in extreme danger.

Aoi had definitely eaten someone.

Kalos had it in her head that she'd be two states gone by now, but the way that the girl reacted unexpectedly broke her heart into tiny shards. She flashed wildly uncomfortable eyes toward Rowan, not because he was a scary wolf who was also a little too quick to deny eating people, but because Aoi was crying. Right here in public.

She couldn't let a girl cry in public.

Kalos slipped into the space between Rowan and Aoi and bumped her shoulders encouragingly against each of them in turn. She had a good feeling about these new friends. Like she'd lucked into the 'Fraidy Cat's Club and it was somehow still the cool place to be.

"Hey. I-" She hesitated taking a deep breath and a gut-check of herself before she lied, but... this wasn't a lie. Aoi was seriously freaked out, as was Rowan. "I believe you. You didn't maul anything more than some glass. Nobody got hurt but you. Maybe you don't give enough credit to yourself."

And Rowan... Kalos moved her eyebrows to indicate that he should get in on this comforting words action, too. "I'm sorry I asked. Big animals... actually, a heck of things still scares me."

"You're from Japan Aoi? That's neat..."

Well duh, her name was Aoi, and she had been speaking some sort of foreign language earlier, although Rowan didn't know it was Japanese. He exhaled slightly through his nose, almost a laugh.

"I'm from England. Look at that, we are all exchange students."

His attention was then grabbed by Aoi's sudden freeze. Rowan recognized the look on Aoi's face, the heavy and rapid breathing. Kalos took an attempt at comforting the crying girl, but her words sounded hesitant. And then Kalos was looking at Rowan, expectantly. He shot back his own nervous glance. Was he really qualified to give advice? He could barely control his mutation too. Well...if he was good at anything it was distracting himself until he was calm...so maybe...

Rowan stood up slowly, standing between Aoi and Kalos. Rowan seriously doubted Aoi could kill him, the two were probably evenly matched. And if Aoi did shift, and the two had to fight, it would give Kalos time to run and find an adult.

"Hey...you're alright Aoi, no need to worry. I'm not scared of you."

For someone outwardly grumpy like Rowan his tone was surprisingly...gentle?

"When I was little, before I knew I was a mutant, I just assumed I had problems controlling my temper. I dealt with that on my own for a long time. But I learned a lot too. Sometimes, when I get...scared, I feel better when I focus on the stuff around me, stuff I know is real."

Rowan glanced around the kitchen, and then held a finger to his lips.

"Shh...hey hear that?"

As the group was silent they could hear the gentle hum of the refrigerator next to them.

"And the tiles we are sitting on...they are pretty cold right? I bet you can smell the fish too...hmm what else..."

Rowan continued to look around, hoping that Aoi would join in and calm herself down.

Aoi's fear gripped her hard and in a lot of ways she knew she had crafted her life upon it. She felt Kalos bump her and looked up, processing her words. It was true she had not hurt either of them but their was always the next time. To hear Kalos was afraid surprised her, she guessed it should not have as Kalos was very much visible in her mutation, but the Atlantean thing was something Aoi kept forgetting. It must have been hard being from such a different culture. She knew it had been hard for her to adjust to American life.

Part of Aoi wanted to yell that it was Kalos fault. Becuse then it would not be her own. The fire in her made her wnat to rage about her power and how much she wanted it torn out of her. To simply be normal without being a threat to everyone around her. She wanted to rage at her sister for easily getting the easier of the two Bears to control. But none of it would have done any good and Kalos had really done nothing wrong. It would have been hard to blame Kalos for being afraid of a bear but she did wonder what other things Kalos found scary.

"Do you like it better here?" she managed to ask kalos. Atlantis was something she knew little about.

Rowan had something in his tone that just felt comforting to Aoi. She did not reply but was hanging onto his words. She had anger issues as well. Maybe that was common to those who had other halfs like this. Carrick had not seemed angry though. She could hear the hum of the fridge as well as the cold on her feet. "I can smell eggs...and bacon" she said trying to go along with what Rowan had started. it did serve to focus on something other then her own fear.