Shoooes. Shoes everywhere! Of every shape, size, and color imaginable! Why Dahlia was practically bursting with joy just looking at them! Shoes were totally amazing! Her scaly skin was a vibrant yellow just standing outside the store and staring in. Yes scaly. Just a month ago Dahlia had turned into a giant bipedal lizard. A chameleon in fact. She was a mutant and because of her new chameleon features Dahlia could no longer wear all the pretty shoes or clothes that she liked. Pointedly ignoring the dark green stripes making their way across the bright happy yellow, Dahlia focused instead on the fact that she could still window shop for all the pretty stuff.

Besides if she wanted to buy any of it she'd have to steal a lot of money and that was just wrong. She only stole enough to eat a little each day. There were happier things to think about though! Like all the nice people at the mall she was walking through! Dahlia waved at each of them and gave a cheery, close mouthed smile. If she were still human she might have showed teeth but she didn't have them anymore and her early attempts at greeting people with a smile like that once she'd changed hadn't gone over to well. There was a lot of screaming and running involved. The dark green stripes faded into a bright blue as she walked around and forgot about her worries. All was right with the world. Or at least ok.

Oooo another shoe store! This time she'd go inside and look at all the shoes! With a spring in her step and total obliviousness to the stares she was garnering, Dahlia entered the store and waved merrily at all and sundry. The shoes!

These shoes were awesome. Kaitlyn could probably buy some of them, if she really wanted to, but she realized that she would never get to wear them. The orderling traveled everywhere on foot, if not through through public transport, and she knew she couldn't walk very far in shoes like that without a lot of pain. She tried it once, anyway; there was a beautiful pair of shoes, which she had outgrown almost a year ago, that still lay in her closet in the Sanctuary, having only been worn once. Once was far more than enough; her lesson learned, she decided, with regret, that she would have to sacrifice fashion for functionality. And for something that wouldn't draw jokes from the other Sanctuary residents.

The girl looked, with a little bit of dissatisfaction, at her own shoes, a serviceable pair of red sneakers. She guessed they were stylish enough, for what she was usually doing. At least they weren't tennis shoes. But, oh, how she wished she could have the opportunity to dress up, - in a nice dress! - and to wear a pair of those! In the end, she would just be wasting a lot of the Sanctuary's money on stuff she would almost never wear, and she couldn't stand that idea. She barely even felt like she deserved the roof Lori put over her head, sometimes.

Why was she still looking at shoes? There were important things that Kaitlyn needed to be doing right now, like finding the guy from the unicorn cult who worked here. But that pair of shoes, right there... they were beautiful! She could see them from the window. If she could only get one pair of nice shoes, it would be that pair. They were red, and a little shiny, with heels that were just high enough to look good without looking horribly painful. She almost pressed her face against the glass, she was so intent on staring at them. She barely noticed the color-changing chameleon-girl in the store, and as far as she knew, there wasn't a single inept mall cop driving a segway anywhere in this vicinity. Until said mall cop started yelling at her..

"Hey, watch out, kid!" the poor man couldn't steer well, and he only barely comprehended the notion of slowing down so as not to hit anything. Little did he know that he was about to run into a living bomb. Or would have, if she didn't just go CRACKOOM in his face. Within seconds, the man was lying down flat on his face, his segway having been knocked out from under his feet by the blast. The shoe store didn't fare well, either; many of the display pairs were knocked across the shop or off their shelves, mixed with broken glass from the window.

Not wanting to be associated with that explosion, Kaitlyn scurried into the store and hid behind the chameleon girl, away from where the mall cops and their ilk could see.

There was a shout. That was followed by what Dahlia assumed was a pretty loud noise. Her hearing wasn't the greatest anymore so the noise had only been about the sound level of a busy sidewalk. Loud but not deafening. No what Dahlia noticed more was that the poor shoes were now a wreck. All covered in glass shards! Not to mention that poor man on the segway was probably hurt! She hadn't seen what had caused the noisy accident. Dahlia had been focused on a pair of shoes at the time and thus totally oblivious to the outside world. Not only that but there was a scared girl hiding behind her! Whoever the girl was she looked younger than the chameleon girl.

"Are you ok?"

Dahlia looked at the other girl as she said that. If it weren't for the fact that she'd turned into a giant lizard just a month ago she might be freaking out. Now Dahlia was just worried about the other girl and the man out front and whether they'd be ok.

"I'm gonna go check on the security guy. He doesn't look so good!"

With that said Dahlia picked her way across the glass strewn floor slowly and carefully. She wanted to run a bit faster but that was still awkward and she'd cut up her feet on the glass.

"Are you ok mister?"

She prodded the man with one hand and looked around for anyone who was coming to help. There had to be a nice person in the mall to call 911 for the security guy!

>>"Are you ok?"

It took Kaitlyn a second to decide on an answer. Or, at least, to decide on a story to go with. As far as this lizard-person was concerned, Kaitlyn had no idea what was going on. The orderling would play the scared little girl, then she'd try to sneak out without anyone asking her questions. "I... I think I'm okay..." she replied, taking on a stutter to make herself sound nervous. Later questioning would further indicate that the redhead had absolutely no idea what was happening.

Now the naked chameleon girl was checking on the security guy. Unlike a lot of the other people in the mall, who were hiding, running away, and all around freaking out. One of the men in the shoe store – what's a guy doing in here? – was hiding under a table, saying something into his cellphone about terrorist attacks, while a saleswoman was sprawled on the floor in an unnatural-looking position, out cold after a shoe hit her across the face. Mr. mall cop didn't seem conscious, either, which could only mean bad things. Things didn't look good, and they would probably be getting a whole lot worse when the cops came in. But luckily, the weird-looking mutant would be out there checking out the unconscious guy, drawing the attention of the authorities away from those in the store, and giving Kaitlyn a better chance of sneaking out unnoticed.

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. "Stop right there!" an out of breath mall cop pointed a handgun at the creepy-looking mutant who was poking his unconscious buddy. He didn't know what was going on here, but he had a feeling it had to do with mutants. The creature before him was probably a mutant, as well as right in front of his buddy, making it extremely likely that this mess had a lot to do with her. He was afraid, he had a gun, he had control over the situation, and he didn't know what to do with himself. Were the lizard's scales bulletproof? How did it make everything go boom like that? He didn't know what to expect.

Kaitlyn peeked out through a broken window. She couldn't help feeling sorry for the chameleon mutant. This wasn't going to end well.

Dahlia was glad the other girl was ok. The security guy wasn't the only person that had gotten hurt. Thankfully one of her eyes caught sight of a guy in the store on his cellphone. Hopefully he was called 911 because whatever had happened was bad and these people needed help! The guy on the ground wouldn't wake up and Dahlia didn't know what to do! People were hurt and there was glass everywhere! And then just to make things worse another security guard was pointing a gun at her! Dahlia turned toward him and focused both of her eyes on the guy.

"B-but I didn't do anything! I-I just w-wanted to make sure he was ok!"

She'd never been shot before but if it was anything like the crash then it would hurt. Dahlia didn't want to be hurt and guns were bad things. It didn't take long for her to scamper away from the security guy like the guy with the gun wanted. She sat on the floor where she'd ended up in a spot that was thankfully free of glass. Dahlia wrapped her tail around her feet and made herself as small as possible.

"I-I just wanted to help! There's a lady inside that's hurt too! Please just d-don't shoot me!"

Instead of any of the brighter colors that her skin could take, Dahlia was now entirely a dark yellow color. It wasn't her fault that this happened right? She was just a lizard girl. Had that been enough to hurt people?

Jim, the mall cop, didn't know much about mutants. They made him uncomfortable, especially the ones who were obviously mutants, like the color-changing lizard...girl? It sounded like a girl, anyway. It was also running around naked, and it was all scaly and lizard-y and it gave him the creeps. He didn't trust it, fearing that it would try to kill him with some kind of crazy mutant power thing. Mutants like her and human authority figures like him didn't exactly have a history of getting along well together. Also, this part of the mall just exploded. You could forgive a guy like Jim for being a little on edge when things are blowing up around him. He kept the gun pointed at the lizard-person-thing for a while longer. "Well... just... stay there!"

It had to stay there because it was a suspect, because it was a mutant, and this kind of damage seemed mutant-related. And, he guessed, he should keep the lizard-thing around for when the real police took over. They would probably want to question it or something. While the lizard-person-that-was-probably-female was staying-right-there, Jim figured he should check out the inside of that shoe store. His vaguely remembered CPR training might come in handy today. He lowered his gun, but he sidestepped his way in, keeping his eyes on the effeminate chameleon thing until he actually started assessing the situation in the store.

Those who hadn't already run away were still hiding in the store, hoping that the shelves inside would protect them from any further explosions. Jim knelt down and checked the unconscious woman's pulse, then started muttering things into his radio, entirely oblivious to the comings and goings of a certain red-headed girl.

Kaitlyn tiptoed across the tiled floor of the mall, trying her best not to step on any broken glass, until she reached the lizard girl. She grabbed a dark yellow, scaly arm, and tugged on it. "It isn't safe for you here," she whispered urgently. "Follow me." The orderling couldn't just run away while the cops did whatever-they-were-gonna-do to this kid.

Oh yes Dahlia would stay right there because the man with the gun was scary and mean and she did not want to be shot. Not at all. All she'd done was look at the pretty shoes! Why did she have to be a lizard? They wouldn't be picking on her if she wasn't! Oh she hated being a lizard! It was just wrong to be like this! Her pretty hair was gone and she couldn't wear any of her clothes and she had to pretend to like being like this or they'd be even meaner! It was enough to make her want to cry. In fact if the red haired girl hadn't tugged on her arm when she did Dahlia might have done just that. Sat and cried until the cops came and put her in jail for being such a horrible person.

"O-ok."

Dahlia got up to follow the red head. Running away from the cops was bad but Dahlia didn't want to go to jail. What if they experimented on her? Or hurt her? Or tried to take her back to her parents? Dahlia didn't want that at all. Not only that but they might figure out that she'd been thieving wallets to survive. They wouldn't like that either. Sure, she gave them back with most of the contents intact. Dahlia put them on the steps to the closest police station when she was done eating. But they'd still be angry that she'd taken the money in the first place. Angry cops did bad things.

"Where a-are we going? What are we gonna do? The cops might arrest you too if they catch you with me. You should go."

The red headed girl had clearly had nothing to do with the explosion. She shouldn't get punished for trying to help a bad girl like Dahlia. This was all Dahlia's fault somehow and she didn't want to get the nice girl in trouble!

The unconscious woman didn't have a pulse! ...Wait, then how was she still breathing? Oh. Because she actually did have a pulse, and Jim was completely failing to check it properly. This is why he didn't become a paramedic.

Y'know, maybe he'd been a little too hard on that little lizard person. It might have just been some kid with good intentions who he'd just been waving his gun at. He probably owed it... her... an apology. He stood up to see that the lizard-girl was still there.

Only, she wasn't still there. He grabbed the radio on his belt. "Keep an eye out for some kind of... little... color-changing lizard-mutant. I think she might have something to do with the explosion." He wasn't going to go looking for them. He still needed to check his buddy Dave's pulse, something he probably should have done earlier, when he saw him lying around unconscious. Besides, he had no idea where that kid was going.

Kaitlyn did. "We're getting outta here." She lead the chameleon kid into a busy department store, where they could get lost in the crowd. There were also some stairways and escalators in there, which they could use to reach the mall's ground floor. Before they did that, though, she figured she ought to address that last question. It was a question best addressed in a hushed tone, behind that rack full of little dresses. She held the chameleon by the shoulders, and looked her in the eyes.

"I can handle the cops, but I don't think you can, and the cops don't like either of us. Besides, we mutants oughtta stick together."

Kaitlyn had heard enough stories from the other Sanctuary residents that she knew how the cops treated mutants. She couldn't just sit by and let that sort of thing happen.

They went into a busy apartment store and as they did the dark yellow slowly started to fade into a mixture of blues. Dark streaked over light in swirls and whorls and other fantastical patterns. She was sad but calming down and still a little bit scared, as evidenced by the dark yellow highlights across some of her scales. Ugh, scales. She hated them. Still, she managed to get lost in the crowds with the red head and wave merrily at anyone that did look at them. Wasn't it better to look friendly than suspicious? But then being nice and friendly had turned her into a bad person somehow. Someone that the cops would hate.

"Ok."

They were behind a rack of dresses when the red head turned to her and answered another question but raised some more.

"You can handle the cops? But the cops are good guys!"

Oh but the cops apparently didn't like either of them. Did that make the red head a bad person? Like Dahlia was a bad person? Oh! The red head was a mutant!

"Oh you're a mutant too?!"

Dahlia wondered what the red head could do. She wasn't like Dahlia. She was still pretty and could wear the pretty clothes and shoes that Dahlia couldn't. Green weaved through her colors for a moment, dark and gone just as quickly as it had come.

"Um, so when we get out of the mall...where will we go?"

Because Dahlia had no where to hide and she needed to go get her stuff from that empty apartment building if she was gonna move.

"The cops are not good guys. They do awful stuff to mutants all the time. Remember Registration?" Kaitlyn didn't remember it, herself. She didn't even know she was a mutant back then, and she didn't watch or care about the news. But she liked to pretend that she remembered it, and that she wasn't just going off things she heard in the Sanctuary.

"Well, the cops aren't our friends."

The question about where they'd go made her think. "I guess... home? I'm prolly gonna go back to the Sanctuary, 'cause that's where I live. You can do whatever."

At this point, Kaitlyn became conscious of all the people staring at her color-shifting companion. She grabbed her arm again, pulling the lizard girl towards the down escalators. "C'mon, let's go."

The cops weren't nice guys?! But that was what her mom and dad always told her!

But they were the same mom and dad that shunned her for turning into a lizard....

Maybe they were right to do it. Dahlia certainly didn't like being a lizard. It only seemed to cause trouble. It made her parents hate her. It made people be mean to her. It even got people hurt! Nope, being a mutant wasn't a good thing at all. So if the cops didn't like mutants that made them bad guys. Maybe good bad guys? Or bad good guys? Oh it was confusing.

Red head's answer to her question about where they'd go made her go all dark blue. Home huh? Dahlia didn't have one of those anymore.

"Oh...home....ok."

It was hard staying chirpy all the time. So Dahlia dismissed her lack luster answer because she'd just wave off any questions. The red head didn't seem like she was too interested in asking questions anyway. They were moving again already shortly after Dahlia had answered.

Several escalators, flights of stairs, and dozens of confused onlookers later – okay, yes, she is a mutant, but she could at least put on some clothes! – the diminutive duo reached the ground floor. Kaitlyn knew that this department store had an exit that lead out to the street, making it great for a quick getaway. Kaitlyn knew this from experience. However, even with all her experience, she had no way of knowing that there would be another mall cop standing right in front of that exit.

The orderling stopped dead in her tracks, then pulled the chameleon girl behind another rack, this one full of pants. "Crap," she muttered. "Uh... this way." She dragged the chameleon girl all the way to the opposite side of the department store, where they found an elevator. It produced a satisfying dink and a well-lit down arrow the moment Kaitlyn pressed the button. She then moved on to the button labeled "B," which was just below "1," and proceeded to mashed the door-closing button over and over until said doors actually did her bidding.

"So..." Kaitlyn spoke while she caught her breath, "I'm Kaitlyn. What's your name?" There was something strange, she thought, about risking so much to help out someone whose name she didn't even know. While the elevator took them down, they had time for a little bit of small talk.

"And... uh... where are you gonna go after this?"

The elevator doors opened, revealing part of an underground parking garage. Kaitlyn stuck her head out and looked around. The coast was clear. She stepped out, and gestured for the lizard girl to follow.

There were a lot of people staring at her as they ran where ever the red head was taking them. It was uncomfortable but Dahlia put up with it and made it seem like she basked in the attention. Oh she heard what they said. Some of them weren't so quiet about it. Clothes were really uncomfortable to wear now. They never fit right and it took her a lot more time to get them put on with her new hands. Dahlia had hid a lot in the first couple of weeks but learned to deal with it. Unfortunately the exit that the red head got them to was blocked by a mall cop. So they went somewhere else and didn't speak until they got in an elevator.

"Dahlia. Nice to meet you! And thanks for this."

Just 'cus she was moping was no reason to be rude! Dahlia perked up as she introduced herself and tried to look as confident as she could. Her new friend's name was Kaitlyn. And surely she had to be Dahlia's friend because you didn't risk making the police mad for someone that wasn't a friend! It was simple logic! Dahlia was happy to have made a friend, even being as weird and bad as she was. The happiness went away when Kaitlyn asked where Dahlia would go after this.

"Uh, I don't know. Get my things and move again I guess."

Maybe if she played it cool, like moving around and being homeless was natural, then Kaitlyn wouldn't dig too deeply. Dahlia hoped so. She didn't want her new friend to realize just how ugly and bad she was.

Earlier, Kaitlyn had been too preoccupied with avoiding the cops and getting away to really notice how perky the lizard girl was. She only truly recognized it when all that happiness had left, when Dahlia started talking about moving. The redhead looked the lizard girl in the eyes – those weird, chameleon eyes – and thought for a moment.

"...You could come to the Sanctuary with me," she suggested, tentatively. "There's free food, and a library, and a pool table, and everything. It's all the way over at Brooklyn, but I can pay for your subway ticket if you want." She might as well, if she was gonna risk the anger of the cops for this girl.

Meanwhile, in a corner of the garage that Kaitlyn had failed to notice, a mall cop named Paul was watching them. Though it would be difficult to read his facial expressions, on account of the huge whiskers and walrus tusks that dominated his face, something about those two girls was making him quietly freak out.

His boss would be mad if he didn't radio this in. However, an even higher power than his boss would surely be mad if he did. Paul knew something that his boss didn't. Not wanting to disturb the two, the walrus cop hid behind a concrete pillar.

Dahlia tilted her head to one side. Sanctuary? It sounded like a good place but Dahlia hadn't heard about it before today. Maybe it was a special place for mutants?

"Um, what is the Sanctuary?"

If she was going to go there then she wanted to know what it was. If it wasn't a nice place then she'd just pick a new place to be homeless in instead. Just because she was a bad girl because of the stealing and the explosions didn't mean that she wanted to be around other bad people. The free food and library and pool table sounded nice. Especially the free food. Dahlia wouldn't have to steal anymore if she went there! But if it wasn't a good place with good people she didn't want to be there.

Meanwhile Dahlia's eyes were darting this way and that. The promise of a place with free food hadn't distracted her entirely from the fact that they were running away from mall cops, something else that made Dahlia a bad person. She wanted to be sure she could see them if they showed up. Hearing them would be difficult after all so she looked around a lot instead.