Today was going to be a big day for Amber because today was going to be the day that she got to test out whether or not she was right about how she gained new forms to change into. It was the second time she was attempting to visit the American Museum of Natural history, the first time having been a complete disaster of epic proportions due to the fact that she got lost and accidentally changed into a Deinonychus and had to flee from an angry mob of people. Repeating that did not sound like a particularly worth while type of experience, not in the slightest. So this time she decided to approach her sister, Aura, to see if she would accompany her to the museum to go and see some dinosaur bones.

To Amber's great joy, Aura agreed to accompany her to the museum. She hadn't quite worked out how, exactly, she would get close enough to the bones to actually touch them, but was certain she and her sister would think of something. Maybe, by some miracle, she would actually be able to get her powers to work at will and change into her smaller Compsognathus form and just sneak around unnoticed but it didn't seem like the best thing to really rely on. For one thing, she had yet to be able to shift at will and for another she still didn't have perfect control of her two dinosaur bodies. Still, she and Aura were both adaptable and smart individuals and it wasn't like she had to touch a fossil for long, just long enough to gain its form. However that worked.

Even though it was overcast outside, Amber still made sure to wrap herself up in her cloak and cover her face with her veil. Clouds made her skin more resistant,but it would still be only a matter of time before it started burning. She then walked to the entrance of Sanctuary, waiting for her sister to arrive and accompany her to the subway. This time she woudln't get lost. This time she was determined to get inside and do some major experimenting.

Aura had decided to go with her new sister to this museum, the concept of it was still something Aura did not really fully understand but her sister had asked her and she nothing better to do that day. She had chosen to leave her pipe bombs and her sword at home hoping she would not need them on this trip, weapons attracted attention, more so from humans and that would be an issue in this situation she decided after all their goal was to get close enough to the bones to touch them.

She was not a fan of the subway, to many people normally used it for her to be comfortable, it was so easy to want to reach out and stab people, the closeness of them made her twitch at times but she would do her best to behave for her sister, after all they were working on her powers. This was important, every mutant should learn to sue their powers as well as they could to protect them selfs, including her sister, it many ways that amd eher more worried about it.

"ready?" she asked as she bought two subway tickits and boarded the subway with ehr sister, happy it was relatively not busy for this time of day, in fact their wa sonly twelve people in the car all together. Aura ran her fingers through her hair, as a way of keeping herself distracted, the messy semi-tangled hair was uneven from aura cutting out some of the knots which often got into it.

Amber wasn't aware of her sister's dislike for the subway although she wasn't a big fan of it either for completely different reasons. Mainly it was an issue of too many people being around and, should someone take her eyes badly, no places to run and hide. Hopefully she would be able to keep them downcast for long enough that it wouldn't be an issue. It wasn't that far too the museum, after all and she just had to hope that people were willing to ignore the two teenage girls and not start asking any awkward questions.

"Let's g-go," Amber agreed, not quite able to hide the excitement in her voice. Today she would discover more about her powers. Even if she didn't get herself a new form, at least she would find out whether or not she even could acquire new forms. Of course she wanted to be able to change into many more and many more varied things, but more than that she needed to know how her powers worked. At the moment she wasn't really able to practice changing in and out of her forms but she was able to try and gain a new one or two. Or even a dozen if it came to that, but she wasn't about to get greedy.

The trip to the museum was, thankfully, relatively uneventful. The subway was close to Sanctuary so Amber didn't have to worry too much about her sensitive skin and the subway itself was relatively empty and everyone minded their own business as they should, not commenting on the two teenage girls. In what seemed like no time the subway stopped at their stop and Amber beckoned Aura to come off with her. Before entering the museum itself, she looked up at the tall and imposing building, simply taking in its appearance. She had only been here once before, when she had gotten her first two forms and could only hope this trip went as well as that one. Actually no, on second thought she didn't want it to go like the previous one at all since that had been the day that triggered her mutation and the end of her life as she knew it. It had been a horrible and traumatic experience and although it had turned out for the best in the end, she really didn't feel like reliving it. This trip, with any luck, would be better than that one.

"Sh-should we g-go b-buy our t-tickets?" Amber asked her sister. Abyss had given her some money so she had enough to cover both of them plus food for later and her adopted father had never told her how she was supposed to spend the money he gave her. Anyway, she was pretty sure the big red mutant would approve anyway, as long as they didn't get into too much trouble.

Aura was very glad the subway trip was uneventful, she was hoping for this trip to better then the last one did. Aura would never deny what had happened, she would not lie to her sister about it, she took pride in what she did, but her sister did not quite seem ready for it, so she kept quite on it for now. SHe would hopefully learn in time that humans would always try and harm them, they were afraid of mutants because they knew they were dieing out.

As the left the subway, Aura could not help but breathe a sigh of relief, she preferred to walk where she could. Looking up at the massive structure she was reminded of a number of building she had seen in the past none of them very pleasant. She watched as Humans or what looked like humans flowed in and out of the building and Aura had to pacify herself by telling herself any of them could be mutants, like the previous night where she had accidentally killed one.

"Buy tickets?" Aura said looking at her sister confused, she had never been to a place like this before and the concept of buying a ticket to get in was a strange one. "Sure" she said moving a lock of stray brown hair behind her head. Her sister seemed to understand how this worked so she would let her take the lead from here, it was always better when others were leading. "All i got are these red, blue and green rocks" she said taking a handful of jewels out of handbag, not understanding they were pretty valuable and not currency.

Amber loved her older sister to death but she certainly did seem to be a little strange sometimes. She had never met anyone surprised and, apparently, slightly confused about the prospect of buying tickets before. Maybe that was the trade off to living in the woods thought and she knew Aura had had something of an unusual childhood but wasn't sure she really wanted to know all the details of that, just yet. As understanding as she was trying to be, however, Amber couldn't help but gape just a little at the display of precious gems. "Um, d-don't show th-those to anyone. Th-they w-worth a lot of m-money b-but you c-can't buy tickets w-with them." She didn't really want to know where her sister had gotten them and didn't ask.

Amber led Aura over to the lineup to get into the museum which was, thankfully, relatively short. It was still early in tourist season and it seemed like not to many wanted to risk the potential downpour that the skies were currently threatening. Once the two of them reached the front of the line, Amber told the lady manning to booth that they wanted two tickets, giving out the appropriate amount and receiving some change in return. The lady even had the courtesy to only stare a moment at her eyes but working in a public place like that she was probably used to mutants a lot stranger looking than Amber was.

"S-so, r-right to the dinosaur exhibit or d-do you want t-to see the o-other stuff f-first?" Amber herself loved museums, especially those like the American Museum of Natural history that deal primarily with fossils and prehistoric wildlife. In her previous life, had she the money she probably would have gone all the time and planned to go far more often now that she did actually have the money. Aura, however, didn't really seem like the museum going type so she wasn't sure if they should just get to the experimenting or not. She would let her sister decide and she could always come back another day to see the rest of it.

"All right" aura said dumping them back into her bag with little care. It was clear the idea they were worth a lot of money meant very little to her. She recalled where she got them well enough, n truth they had not been after jewels when they went and they had gotten nearly killed in the process. "I see" she said maybe she could use them for something else, though how they were valuable but could nto be spent was an odd concept to her in itself.

They moved through the line fast and the woman barely seemed to care about them, as her and amber exchange cash. "They have other things?" Aura said completely unaware that their was anything other then dinosaur bones in the musette of course she only knew the bones were thare from amber. "To be honest this is my first time in a museum" she confessed having no idea what was in one of these places at all.

Aura looked around as they walked in, their were a lot of things here she realized and she did not see any dinosaur bones Brushing some stray hairs behind her head she walked in the opening hull of the museum which was more of a waiting. "Whatever you would like to do however, i have nothing that needs to be done today" she said not really knowing how much she would like this place or not,, but her enjoyment of it was meaningless anyway.

Everyone had to experience the wonder that was a museum and the fact that Aura never had was a shame so Amber took it upon herself to expand here sister's experiences just a little. As soon as they entered the building she went straight to the map of the museum, trying to plan their rout. Given the fact that there were 5 whole floors and 8 exhibit halls, however, she realized that there was no way they would be able to visit the entire place and still have time for their experiments. "I t-think we should go d-directly to the f-fossil hall,"

Amber fully intended to give Aura at least a taste of what a real museum was like. Following the directions on the map to get to the fossil hall, which happened to be on the 4th floor, she decided to start with the display on vertebrate origins, which illustrated the history of animals as they moved from the sea onto land. From there she moved into the two displays on mammals, both primitive and advance. Each of the three displays were filled with fossils, pictures, reconstructions and little computer and television programs and clips that expanded further on the history of the creatures. Each individual display had a little plaque underneath that further elaborated on the creatures, what time periods they lived in, what kinds of natural weapons they possessed and their general feeding and life style habits. She was particularly interested in the predatory creatures such as the saber toothed tiger, which she spent an extra long amount of time on.

"D-do you w-want to see the d-dinosaurs now?" Amber could barely contain the excitement in her voice. Even in normal times she found dinosaurs to be particularly fascinating, but they were so much better now that she knew she could actually turn into them. As wonderful as the trip to the other exhibits had been, this was what she had come for and the fifteen year old girl simply couldn't delay the inevitable any longer. Surely she had done her due diligence in introducing her sister to museums anyway, and that meant it was time to do something just for her. It was time to see if she could gain another form and transform into it too.

Aura knew by looking at the map this place was far bigger then the sanctuary, which was a bit scary in itself as she had been able to get lost in sanctuary for weeks before she adjudted, though much of the place seemed off limits to them. "All right then" Aura said agreeing to her sister's plan, seeing her sister as in charge of the operation she would have sat through it all had she wanted to do so. "This place is really big" she said shaking her head a bit and suddenly wished she could recall her old school day's but those memories were likely gone.

Aura looked over the vertebrate origins curiously, some looked like spine's and she recalled how easily her Aura's blades could cut through them. She read about the creatures and their evaluation, which further seemed to cement he rold teachings that as things evolved their older form always died out. "a beautiful animal" she said with a smile looking at the cat with aproval. She liked deadly animals they always drew more attention then herbivores.

"Sure" she said with a smile at her sisters clear excitment, she was interested as well, other then the flower shop her knolage on dinosaurs was lacking quite a bit. She was very interested in seeing what new forms her sister might get. She was hoping they would be large and deadly as aura ahd no idea what limit's her sister might have.

Not only did Amber thoroughly enjoy the museum itself, but she was thrilled to be able to share it with her sister. Even though she wasn't certain that Aura really got her entire fascination with the whole place, she could see that Aura had, at least, found a few things of interest. The predatory animals in particular really seemed to catch her eye and Amber was certain to spend a little more time in front of them than she did the other animals.

"D-do you th-think predatory d-dinosaurs are better?" Amber asked the opinion of her sister, clearly excited to get her experiments underway. Of course, her present two forms were both predatory although her smaller form wasn't large enough to do much damage. Predators had dangerous teeth and claws, but in the dinosaur community there was so much variety and many of the prey animals had rather impressive defense mechanisms. Horns and bone armour were all very plentiful with tons of variety. Then there were the flying and swimming creatures, although she didn't even know if she would be able to change into those things since they weren't technically dinosaurs. So many things to try, how would she ever manage to decide?

"Where sh-should we start?" Amber looked around. Immediately upon entering there was a large display of a tyrannosaurs rex that seemed to be drawing a lot of attention. That didn't seem to be the most practical choice, however, as she needed a relatively empty display to be able to sneak in and touch a bone. Further in she found just what she was looking for: a display featuring a scene from the late cretaceous era. The scene included several dinosaurs, including a small pack of velociraptors trying to take down a styracosaurus and a flying pterasaur high overhead. Now that was exactly she needed. She pointed the relatively abandoned display to Aura.

"Well in term's of attack, predators are better as they must bring down their food and over come whatever defence their pray may have. For example many large cats have claws and teeth to tear their prey apart. Many pray animals however can be poisenous or have some other defense to counter this to a degree. Consider the abillaties of each form, before you use them, or you may well pick a form that will be unsuited to your sistuartion, such as a land bound creature when you need flight" she said trying to give a good perspective to her sister.

Looking at the T-rex she smiled, it was an impressive creature, but aura's trained eyes could see the issues it had already. Short arm's meant that if it fell it would be hard to get back up. "for example, this form, good, size, awesome teeth, but not a good combat form, if it fell over, you would be dead before you ever got to your feet" she said considering it even as they left the display which was crowded. She was proud of herself, the distraction of Amber seemed to be enough not to make her wnat to stab.

"Those small predators, volocaraptors...." she tried out the word. "Their smaller, likely faster and their size wont be as restrictive to you" she said approving of the form, wishing she could change into their form herself. They were beautiful creatures. Aura found herself wishing many of these creatures lived in the present day, she wnated to fight a number of them just to see how she might fare against them. " SHould i cause a distraction?" she said tilting her head.

Amber listened attentively to Aura's advice on choosing the best forms for the job. Despite not being experienced in combat, she had come to many of the same conclusions herself. One large form might be good but she didn't really need a T-Rex. What she really needed was the styracosaurus that she spotted in the display. The velociraptors would have also been appealing except that they were basically the smaller cousins of one of the forms she all ready possessed. The pterasaur would also be worth getting, but that was so far up she wasn't exactly sure how to get to it. One step at a time, that's how it would have to be done.

"A d-distraction would be good," Amber agreed. If only she had better control of her shifting she might just be able to shift into something tiny and run in there unseen and unnoticed, but she wasn't really prepared to risk it. Hopefully with time control would follow and the next time she did this she would have more options at her disposal. "J-just don't kill anyone." It was added almost as an afterthought. It wasn't that she really thought Aura would kill anyone, it was just that she knew she had in the past and she didn't want to risk it. Breaking into a dinosaur exibit was one thing, especially considering she wasn't even planning to steal anything. Killing someone was quite another. That, and she wanted to be allowed back inside in the future.

Amber prepared herself, tensing for whatever distraction Aura was about to come up with. All she needed was a minute, maybe less, just enough time to run under the barrier and tough the leg of the styracosaurus. Maybe if she had more time than that she'd try to find a way up to the pterasaurs above, in fact she even spotted a rigging system that she was pretty sure she could climb, but it wouldn't do to get greedy. She looked at Aura and nodded that she was ready.

Aura could do a non-deadly distractions easily, if she recalled how anyway. "Wait for the distraction to begin, youl know when it does" she said slipping back into the crowd. She had an Idea, and for once it would require stealth, actual stealth. Looking around she racked her mind for what she could do. She could use her explosives but that might cause to much police attention. This had to be handled with with care. Looking around she searched for something she could use.

Then she looked back at the T-Rex, and smiled, knowing her distraction would be. Still she would have to get up to the top floor. working her way up the floors, she realized the floor she needed was not accessible to the public. Looking around curiously she doon found a door that said staff only, lenaing next to it she waited a few minutes and tried to open the door but it was locked. With a brief swear word Aura formed a tightly controlled Aura from her finger and tried entering it into the door, but could find no key hole. Swearing again she realized it took a card and started to move again,

Seeing a staff member she began to trail him back down to the first floor, making sure to keep herself hidden among the patrons. Watching the man go outside, she followed him out and a littile ways around the museum. Watching him light up a cigarette she smiled, walking up to him in the semi secluded area. She smiled at the guy, as he took notice to her, though he narrowed his eyes he said hi to her.

"Hello" aura said leaning up against the wall with him, as she did she formed a hammer on her hand and made a sudden move to strike the man but he dodged and smiled back at her. "What's the deal mutant?" he asked her holding up his hands.

"I need, your ID card, but can't have you talking" Aura said honestly looking the man right in the eye. "I won't kill you however" she said chooseing not to mention her sisters order.

"Calm down Mutie, I'm here to.....get somthing as well, what you say we help eachother out?" he asked and Aura decided to agree, more so when the man said he could very well just scream now and end everything for her. A few minutes later the two made their way back up the stairs and through an employee door Aura did not see.

"Heres whare i need you, Security is tight, camera's all over watched from in here, take them out" he instructed and Aura told the man to stay thare as she walked into the room she saw six men all at camera's watching all parts of the museum, one was focused on Amber. Silently she through a pipe bomb and as it exploded in the thick walled room. The distraction was Set and Aura formed a Hammer and began knocking the back row of men out, the theif she had met, took out a rag and Aura watched facinated as he mad epoeple pass out with just a rag, Aura wondered if he was a mutant.

A ring came at the phone and the man answered, and said everything was fine, something heavy had dropped in a storage room and to continue things as normal. The Man then Pointed at the button labeled fire control and so he hit the switch and they watched as the Camera's as water began pouring from the sprinkler sytem, the Theif smiled to himself and left the room quickly while, Aura was going to as well, but saw something in storage she wanted. Exiting the room herself after taking a security card and a uniform she slipped into another staff only room with the Theif. Aura quickly made a call to Amber, "get to the third floor staff room right away, you'l like this" she said as she kept moving.

Once Amber got thare she let her in and pointed to whare the dinosaur stuff was. "We won't have long Muties, that sprinkler system will cause chaos for a bit, but they will get curious. " The Thief said and though Aura hated the name she would not kill, no matter how much the name made her want to, the man had been helpful after all. Forcing the Thief to give her one of his bag's and Aura mad hear way to some of the old Samurai swords she liked, hoping Amber would find what she wnated.

"The Dino bones on the floor are mostly fake, they keep the better stuff here to prevent damage" he said to them as he began to take jewels from some of the displays.

Amber stood patiently waiting for her sister's distraction, by the exhibit. As the minutes ticked by she started to become just a little bit worried. Was it supposed to take this long? What if something had happened to her? Should she go and find her sister? She knew, however, that Aura was competent and she wouldn't do something stupid and end up getting caught or worse. Patience was what was called for and despite the paranoid natterings in her head, she did her best to be patient. Even with the rather dubious and disapproving looks from a nearby guard.

After far too much time to feel comfortable, however, Amber heard an explosion in the distance which caused not only the guards but also many of the patrons to look in that direction, rather worried. A few moments later the sprinklers went off, causing all sorts of chaos and, moments after that Amber's phone rang. Her conversation with her sister was rather short and sweet. Apparently Aura had managed to break into the staff room which, she assumed, held some dinosaur bones and she wanted Amber up there right away.

Moving as fast as she was able, dodging in between panicked museum goers, Amber made her way up to the third floor, finally arriving at the door Aura indicated. "You're the best, sis," she stated, grinning and not even noticing her lack of stutter. She wasn't sure who the jewel thief was nor did she particular appreciate the nickname of mutie, but since Aura didn't appear to be too concerned about his presence she decided that neither was she. Even if she did have a slight pang of moral conscience as she watched him begin to collect up jewels into is bag.

Pushing all thoughts of morality forcibly to the side, Amber walked into the room, taking in the many rows of bones. Each bone was in a glass case with an open top and a little label beside it. Taking it all in, Amber really wasn't sure where to start. They didn't have a lot of time, she understood that much but there was so much to choose from and most of the names she didn't even recognize. Shrugging, she decided that it didn't really matter all that much anyway. She'd simply touch one and see what happened and then she'd keep touching fossils until their time ran out.

The nearest case had what looked like a giant horn and the label of Styracosaurus. Completely unsure what such a dinosaur might be, Amber stuck her hand into the display case and touched the bone inside. Immediately a jolt of energy ran through her system, starting with her fingertips and going all the way through her body. She jerked her hand back, staring with some surprise at the innocent looking bone. "I think it w-worked." Awe was in her voice and she had a huge grin on her face. She stepped over to the next display case labeled Pterodaustro and touching what appeared to be a jaw bone, the same thing happened. A jolt of energy raced through her body and she grinned from ear to ear at Aura. She couldn't wait to have the opportunity to try her new forms out. Assuming they were new forms, of course.

"No issue at all, still i would make this quick, their panic will not last to long" she said hoping the swords, would be a nice addition to her set. She could use these as more of general purpose or practice blades. If they got broken that would be all right. Aura tilted her head to the side as an idea came into it. The cops would be awfully mad about this entire thing. She moved on the daggers, looking them over, though one an obvious fake snapped in her hand, she set it back down and moved on.

"it worked? That's great it means what we did today was worth it" she said happily even as she watched the human take things make of gold that she had never seen before. She watched him much like a predator, she knew she could use him. The question was how could she, then she got an idea and sneaking up behind him, she formed a large pink aura hammer aqnd brought it against the back of the man's head, gentile enough not to kill him, in fact she left only a red mark under his hair but the man calapsed anyway, the jewels and the like falling out of the bag as he dropped it. Useing her Aura coverd hand Aura moved his hand onto the bag.

"We should get going soon, the police will find this theif and that will allow us time to get away" she explained to her sister looking around again. Most of the stuff here, wa ssuealess to her. Gold bars and other things like jewels, had no meaning for her. Unstrapping her other pipe bomb she put that next to the man as well, so the police would fnd it and assume he ahd made the blast earlior, which was just what aura wnated them to think

What Amber most wanted was to test out one of her new forms right then in there. How glorious would it be to turn into a Styracosaurus and use it to assist in fleeing the museum? Not only that, but how would the people around her react to seeing a real live dinosaur? Two things, however, stopped her from doing just that. The first had to do with the fact that she wasn't quite sure how to transform at will. The second was the horrible suspicion that people probably wouldn't react well at all to a rampaging dinosaur and she really didn't want to get shot at. Or captured by an overzealous scientist, for that matter.

Aura, however, seemed to have thought about an escape plan all read, as Amber watched her sister knock the thief out with an aura weapon. She felt a pang of guilt over the act but since the man was a thief and therefore one of the bad guys, she did her best to suppress that pang. She and Aura weren't really doing anything wrong since they weren't actually taking anything, but the man certainly was. Therefore, he deserved whatever jail sentence happened to result from the whole experience.

Once the jewels had been placed in the would be thief's bag, Amber began following her sister out. It struck her that there was a good chance that the cops would realize that someone had knocked the man unconscious meaning there was, at the very least, a witness to the crime, but hopefully they would be long gone by that time. All that was left now was to walk out of the museum and they'd be home free.