It had been almost a week since Kaitlyn left Future Sight. She had spent most of that time sulking around the Sanctuary, feeling sorry for herself.

It wasn't the first time she'd gotten anyone killed, but it was the first time she'd done so on purpose.

As much as everyone else seemed to brag about killing people off or committing crimes, Kaitlyn had to try really hard to start feeling like it was something to be proud of. It made her a little sick every time she remembered it, and the biggest tax on her time in the Sanctuary involved dwelling on how awful she felt. She eventually decided that she needed to go out and do something to get her mind off of it.

What, exactly, she would do was beyond her. The first step was to get out of the Sanctuary; she could figure out what to do outside once she'd spent some time out there. As it was, she was heading in the general direction of Prospect Park. She was sure to stay in the shade of the buildings on the left side of the road, where the afternoon sun wouldn't make the back of her neck uncomfortable.

This would probably be more fun if she had another kid her age to hang out with over there, but Stephen was still working with the oracle kids, putting him on her bad side, and everyone else was too young, too old, or too absent to be bothered to come along with her. Left to herself, she had little to do outside but sulk and dwell on her bad feelings even more.

So far this idea was a fantastic failure.

"Man... d'you see that kids face? I bet he won't stop cryin' for a week. What a baby."

Tucked away toward the middle of a gang of six, Elke shifted her eyes from the back of Badger's braided cranium, to where Mouse sat at his side. They sure had taken a liking to each other. Gross. The twelve year old wrinkled her nose, obviously disgusted with how much time the leader of their group had been spending with... her.

"Yeah, *snort*, I bet he wet himself too... when you threatened to kick his teeth in. Pssh, and he had the nerve to threaten us. What a loser!"

The young mutant refrained from rolling her eyes, not even bothering to glance at the boy who has just spoken. He was a mutant, like her, but with an annoyingly useless power... and by far, the biggest damn mouth in the group. Inteus, as the kids called him (seeing as they all went by nicknames in the gang)... The boy with no shame. His only power seemed to be that he was weightless. An assortment of weights and heavy objects needed to be worn at all times... or he'd just float away.

Elke was pretty darn sure it was because his head was full of nothing but hot air. "I didn't see you jumping to throw any fists, Shameless... " She threw in, smirking as he pulled his finger from his nose and glared at her. "Shut up, Arrow"

Onawa cleared her throat, ever the voice of reason within the group. "Whatever the case... he didn't stand a chance. His eye twitched twenty three times while we had him cornered, I counted... and he couldn't stand still. He knew we had him outnumbered... I don't think there was any fight in him." The boy next to Onawa nodded, ever the silent brooding time. "See, Mutey agrees."

"Man... it's creepy how you notice crap like that.." Badger muttered, stopping on the sidewalk to stare at the young mutant girl. Her power was just about as useless as Shameless', cept her's had the added downside of keeping her awake... forever. Since Elke had met the girl, she had never seen her sleep. No naps, no shut eye, no passing out or fainting. She was just always.... awake. That's where she had gotten her nickname from. The girl shrugged, wide eyed stare proving to do nothing more than creep Badger out. The group moved on, toward a park that they had loitering in a few times before.

"Arrow?" Elke glanced behind her, to the youngest of the group. "...Yea, Rabbit?"

The kid, who was taller than her by four or five inches and yet younger, avoided her eyes for a moment, before black locked on brown. He looked nervous, as always. "When do you think we can go home...? I'm tired.... and it's cold out here."

The girl sighed, glancing at Badger momentarily. It was up to him to decide when they were done making rounds, and she knew that if she asked he'd noogie her or something equally terrible. "Man up, Rabbit. It's not that cold." She shivered, despite her words, and Shameless cackled at the younger boy. "Yeah, man up!"

Badger stopped upon entering the park, having caught sight of someone else wandering around. Elke bumped straight into his back, face first, and ended up on her rear. A short, whispered conversation between Mouse and their leader popped up, before he stepped forward.

"Hey! Hey you! You should leave, we're hanging out here tonight." As big as Badger was, being the tallest and most visibly threatening, Shameless barked from behind him, "Yeah! Better run off if you know what's good for ya!"

Kaitlyn stopped and looked at the group, bemused. Was somebody in that gang of kids trying to intimidate her?

Bemusement quickly gave way to amusement. Not only did Kaitlyn fail to run away, as was suggested, she also failed to contain her laughter. This isn't to say that she didn't try. She managed to keep a straight face for a few solid seconds. The giggling started when she realized that they were also pretending to be Indians. A bunch of pre-teen Indians were trying to intimidate her. She had picked fights with, and won against, things that were at least ten times as intimidating as them.

When her giggling subsided enough, she managed to speak. "Nah, I think I'll be okay here." She smirked, looking each of them in the eyes in turn.

They waited for stuttering, shaking, and eventual running away. Badger was already turning to giggle bellow with manly laughter at his fellows...

...only, the girl didn't budge.

What's more, she shrugged off the immature threats like they were just immature threats! How dare she! A stunned silence fell over the group, which Elke took advantage of.

She was getting little electric signals all up her spines, telling her that something was off here. If she were in the girls shoes, she might have mouthed off or something, but with the odds stacked in her gangs favor, she definitely would have turned tail and run for it.

She'd be stupid to stick around with six to one odds bearing down on her!

But... the girl didn't look stupid. She didn't look... anything, really. That silly little voice in the back of her head told her to casually slip to the back of the gang while Badger was distracted. Out of sight, out of mind... right?

"Um.. Badger?" Owana tugged at his sleeve, dark eyes pinned on the girl in a strange, unblinking manner. "This doesn't feel right... She isn't displaying any sights of fear." Badger shook the tugging hand off, veins bulging in anger upon his brow. If there was a downside to his own particular brand of mutation, it was anger. Once the boy saw red, he couldn't focus on anything else. Mouse recognized the signs of a growing temper tantrum, and reacted appropriately.

Squee! One moment she was there... the next, poof! She was gone. A tiny white mouse circled Badgers feet once, then scrambled off into the darkness. Without paying any attention to the mouse mutant, Badger spun and grabbed one of the weights from around Shameless' waist.

"H-hey--Gah!" The unfortunate mutant flailed as it was ripped from his person. He rose a few inches off the ground, and hovered, flailing like a cartoon character as Badger chucked the weight in the girls direction. Owana covered her eyes... peeking through cracked fingers, and covered Rabbit's eyes for him.

The heavy, weighted disc hurtled towards Kaitlyn's face. She flinched fell back into a defensive stance. Just as it was about to collide with her, a thunderclap rent the air.

The weight bounced off of the shockwave as if it hit a brick wall. Dust, leaves, and bits of litter flew through the air, and a garbage bin lost its plastic lid. 'Badger' and most of his friends had to stagger to prevent themselves from falling over. Having been pushed by the blast, poor Shameless found himself floating gently away from his friends. "H-help!" he cried, flailing even more wildly than he had before. Luckily, he managed to hook his foot on a sign labeled 'watch for pedestrians.' He quickly took advantage of this and pulled himself down so that he could get a solid grip on the metal bar the sign was attached to.

Once Kaitlyn realized that her nose hadn't just caved in, she grinned at Badger, and bent down to pick up the weight he threw at her. It was very heavy. She struggled to lift it even when she used both of her arms. This Badger kid must be pretty strong. As in, stronger than a normal human child his age should be. He was still a threat, but Kaitlyn was feeling too confident in herself to care.

"I think your friend needs this," she said, nodding towards the weightless boy. Said boy was hanging onto the sign for dear life, latching on tightly with both arms and legs.

Was that thunder?

No. It was a small explosion. One that sent Rabbit flying back into Elke, as she tried to tip-toe away. Badge tried to brace himself, but the surprise of it all had him stumbling back as well. Owana, barely able to keep herself on her feet, shielded her eyes, and clung to Mutey.

"Gah! Rabbit, Gitoff!" Elke shoved the younger boy off, struggling to get back to her feet. Once she was able to stand, she set her eyes back on the girl... and then on Badger. She'd blown the weight out of the air like it was nothing, she hadn't even moved! Badger looked more pissed than ever though... "Everyone, scatter!"

The words were out of her lips before she could stop them, and even though no one usually listened to her, Owana and Mute grabbed Rabbit and made a run for it in the direction Shameless had flown off. It took her a few moments, before she realized that they had listened to something she had said. When it did, a burst of energy hit her like a ton of bricks, and she couldn't get the smile off her face.

Of course... her elder leader did not agree. In fact, he probably didn't even realize she was behind him still, or that the others had run for safety. "Dude, badger! She's a mutie... Calm down, she's one of us!"

The large boy swung in her direction, and the anger written on his face made her cringe. "She isn't one of us!" One big hand planted swiftly on her chest sent her flying back and rolling like a tumble weed. With her group broken up, off making sure Shameless didn't float off into the sky, she was by herself against an unknown girl and... an angry badger.

Only... unknown girl could make awesome explosions happen! It was a plus, in her mind. While Badger growled and grunted, turning to rip a park bench neatly from it's home, she wiggled her bow from around her shoulders and reached back for an arrow. While badger turned, and hefted the thing in the other girls direction, Elke nocked her arrow, pulled back on the string until she couldn't pull anymore, and let it fly.

Plop!

A second later, the wooden shaft of a toy suction cup arrow waggled comically in the air, sticking pointedly off from the side of Badgers forehead.

It didn't look like anyone in the gang of mutant indian kids was really interested in fighting with her, except for that one guy. Which was good – except for that one guy – because Kaitlyn didn't really want to pick a fight with them, either. That one guy was going to be a problem.

That one guy just knocked over one of his friends and yelled at her. Not cool. Kaitlyn dropped the weight, which emitted a loud clang as it hit the concrete. "Hey!" she shouted at him. "What's your problem?"

Badger's problem seemed to be somehow related to the placement of that particular park bench. He thought that it looked very ugly there, and that it would look a lot better lodged in a dent on Kaitlyn's head, which he decided to create by throwing the bench at her. Kaitlyn found this plan to be far from satisfactory, and expressed her dissatisfaction with another shockwave, even larger than the last. This one cracked the bench in half before it managed to collide with its intended target, each broken half falling harmlessly to either side of her.

Kaitlyn soon found herself very happy that she had shielded her face with her arms. She didn't like having splinters in her arms, but they would be even less fun in her eyes. When she lowered her arms again, these happily splinter-free eyes narrowed at Badger. Not because she was angry, mind you; her vision had gotten blurry, and she was trying to see him better. Her power use was already starting to mess with her senses. She could only barely make out Badger's shape, but he seemed to have gotten knocked onto his rear end.

This wasn't a fight she wanted in the first place, and it could end badly for someone if it kept going. Maybe she could end it without hurting anyone? The Orderling bent down to pick up a piece of wood the size of her forearm, which used to be part of the bench, and held it out towards Badger as he struggled to his feet.

"You think you wanna fight me?" She looked him in the eyes. He almost seemed to snarl at her. Then, he turned around and gave the same kind of snarling treatment to the girl who shot an suction cup arrow at his head. He ripped said suction-cup arrow off of his head and threw it at the girl. What was it with this kid and throwing things at girls?

"Pay attention!" Kaitlyn shouted at him. He looked at her, and so did the other kids, who, for the most part, were in various states of trying-to-stand-back-up or helping Shameless. One loud crack later, the portion of wood between her hands had turned to sawdust, while the end-parts turned to splinters.

She inhaled deeply. Splinters hurt like crap! Why did she think this was a good idea? But she'd gone this far with it; might as well get to the punchline.

"I will do that to your arm if you don't calm down. Okay? So just... chill out? Please?"

Badger wasn't fazed by the show... Elke, however, was. Her eyes widened drastically at the spectacle. This girl was Amazing! She could not stand by and let badger try and pummel her into meat paste... or, on the flip side, let the girl explode Badger. Then Shameless would be leader, and he sucked!

Speaking of shameless, she turned her head and glanced around until she spotted where the rest of the group had gotten off to. She spotted them off in the distance, grouped together, watching as Badger raged. Shame had mute on his back, to make up for the extra weight he had lost, and he looked rather disgruntled because of it.

A roar from Badger had her whipping her head back to the current situation at hand. He was in rage mode, and only two things had ever stopped him before. Being knocked out cold, or having someone forcefully sooth him. Elke started to split, her body dividing on either side. As Badger roared again and looked around for something else to throw. His eyes landed on the street that had been sitting beside the bench. The berserker boy set about tearing it from the layer of cement it was embedded in.
By the time he had it free of its anchor, Elke had split off to complete duplicates of herself. "You!" She pointed at one as she pushed herself to her feet. "Go get rabbit! And you!" She pointed to the other, as she slung her bow around her shoulders. "Help me fight this guy!"

One nodded and sprinted off, heading toward where Shameless and the others waited, while Elke and the twin that was left bolted for Badger's back. The twin jumped and latched onto one of his arms, kicking with dangling legs as the boy straightened up. Elke on the other hand, took a running leap, grabbed ahold of the back of his shirt and used it to haul herself up until she could get a skinny arm around his thick neck.

"Badger! Badger! Calm down!" He ignored her, even when she grabbed his braid, hooked a leg over his shoulder and pulled with all her might. Much like trying to steer a raging bull. The fifteen foot lamp post was lifted and then swung with all of his might in the explosive mutant girl's direction.

That kid had a pretty cool power, what with the cloning-herself and all. Kaitlyn had precious little time to appreciate how cool it was, though, given the unusually large number of super-powerful little boys trying to brain her with a street lamp at the time. She only narrowly avoided that fate by tripping over herself jumping to the side, while the metal pole smashed into the space where she'd stood moments ago, leaving cracks in the concrete where it connected. Shattered glass scattered across the sidewalk.

She scrambled to her feet, and fled beat a tactical retreat to keep herself well out of Badger's streetlight-swinging range. Once she'd gotten a good ten yards away, she turned around to find that the boy was having girl troubles. Two identical copies of that one girl was trying to restrain him, and it seemed that, as a result of their efforts, he was having trouble lifting the street lamp for a second swing. Kaitlyn kept her eyes on the three of them, preparing herself to avoid whatever else Badger might try to throw at her.

Perhaps it would have been smarter to just run away, but the little Orderling failed to grasp this. She didn't want to hurt anyone right now, but she couldn't stand the idea of running away from a fight, while within walking distance of the Sanctuary.

"Even your friends want you to stop!" This remained true even though the only two kids actively doing anything about him were also the same person. "What's your problem?"

Ohgod!

He was swinging the makeshift weapon, and in doing so, Elke clung to keep herself from falling off of him. Hair pulling didn't seem to be working, and the twin hanging from his arm wasn't going to be able to hold on much longer. The girl managed to dodge, so effectively that Elke blinked (or squeezed her eyes shut in fright, whatever) and she had managed to avoid the blow. The jolt of the concrete meeting metal sent a shock wave up the pole and through Badger's arms. Elke took the brief pause that came after to re-affix her arms around the boys throat. Her tightened her grip, locking her fingers together, and leaned back as far as she could in an attempt to pull him over backwards with the added weight.

...of course, him holding onto a heavy light pole hindered any such attempts, but she wasn't aware of that. The twin set about gnawing resolutely on Badgers arm, while the explosive girl shouted at him.

"Arrow!"

The voice belonged to Rabbit, who was being dragged by the arm over by the last duplicate. The duplicator blinked at them in an upside down manner, having extended herself as far as she could backwards. "Quick, Rabbit! Do it!"

The timid child looked from Elke, to Badger's large, angry form, and back. He knew what to do, but every time Badger got into one of his moods it was... terrifying. He'd seen their leader send people flying through windows before when in such rages. Still... his power did seem to calm him down, and the girl was pretty dangerous.

With a wibble of a bottom lip, he stepped closer while Badger was recovering, and extended his arms out. A warmth started radiating from him, followed swiftly by a light pink hue... and sparkles.... A moment after it started, a blast of the glittering pink color shot out and enveloped Badger whole. Elke and her twin were caught in the blast as well. All three people stiffened up momentarily, struck silent. Then... Badger started to relax. The street lamp slipped from his grasp, clanging to the ground at his feet. His knees wobbled and he dropped to the ground as well. Elke felt the sensation of... calmness wash over her and with a stupid smile slapped onto her face she slipped from around badger's neck and flopped into the pavement.

After a few seconds in the pink shimmery glow, Badger relaxed completely. The anger vanished, though he still looked rather annoyed. The moment it looked as if he was through fighting, Rabbit dropped his hands and the pink glow vanished. The boy looked thoroughly embarrassed (especially because a strange girl had just seen him use his pink power), he shuffled over to help Badger up when the boy lifted out a hand to him.

"Ah... S-sorry Badger.... Elke told me to--"

"I know, Rabbit."

Stupid grin still in place, Elke giggled childishly as Badger pinned a glare on her. If she hadn't been struck with a delirious sense of warmth and happiness, she would have cringed. That glare spelled trouble for her. Trouble when there wasn't an explode-y girl hanging around.

"Come on, let's go home... Arrow, it's best if you get lost for a while." He stomped off with Rabbit trailing along behind him, and Elke watched them leave. The twin flopped over on the ground beside her scratched her head in confusion, while the other twin shuffled over to join them. "I dun get it, boss... Why's he mad?"

Elke sighed, shifting her eyes so she could look at explode-y girl. "Because he's a jerk, that's why..."

The other twin, the one who had been helping Elke, raised her hand guiltily. "...I also bit him..."

Kaitlyn wasn't entirely sure what had just happened. All that she knew, or needed to know, was that 'Rabbit' kid could shoot pink happiness out of his hands and that meant that she didn't need to blow anyone up today. That was good enough for her.

That embarrassed look on Rabbit's face was almost enough to make her laugh. She held it in, though, instead giving him a shrug and a friendly smile, as if to say I don't care if you have a girly power; thanks for using it. She owed him one.

Even moreso than him, Kaitlyn owed that girl with the cloning power. Whose name was either Elke or Arrow, she guessed. If it weren't for her... Kaitlyn was coming very close to deciding that she needed to end that fight. That would have been very bad.

Speaking of things that were very bad, that little fight she'd just been a part of had been very destructive, and people had noticed. A small restaurant across the street had gotten its windows blown out from the second blast, and some of the patrons seemed to be using their cellphones and staring at the group of kids from inside. At least one of them had to be calling 911. That was her cue to get away, and quickly. But...

She couldn't just leave that girl behind, like that 'Badger' idiot was doing. Kaitlyn approached the girl and her clones. "Hey, thanks." Assuming that the one with the bow being called 'boss' was the original article, the Orderling offered the girl a hand to get up. "I'm Kaitlyn." Throughout this hasty introduction, the girl wasn't paying much attention to any of her three saviors. She was nervously scanning the streets, watching for anything that resembled law enforcement.

"Let's get outta here before the fuzz shows up."

Rubbing a sore rump, Elke settled her eyes on the girl, now named Kaitlyn, and her offered hand. After a moments hesitation, considering she had seen first hand what the girl could do, she reached out and took it. Dangerous or not, she was a mutant. They had that in common, at least. A lopsided grin settled on her face and she scratched at the back of her head, before the mention of police neatly wiped the smile from her lips.

Elke cursed... colorfully, and waved for her duplicates to follow her. "Ain't gotta tell me twice." She muttered, and willingly followed Kait away from the scene of the fight. "Hey... Boss?" The girl ignored her clone as the moved, too intent on making a clean get away before she got picked up again and sent back to that damn social worker. "What? Can't this wait until we're not escaping?" The duplicate whined, and wiggled in a strange little dance.

"...No... I gotta use the little girl's room." Elke cursed again. She had a safe place in the area for hiding out from searching eyes, but it lacked a bathroom. "Ey.. Kaitlyn, You got anywhere to go with a bathroom?" The threat of the fuzz, as Kait had put it, made her wary of being too close to the park. "preferably somewhere where cops aint gonna show up?"

The clone had to use the bathroom? How does that even...

Kaitlyn took a deep breath in, then breathed out. This kid was even shorter than Kaitlyn herself, and Kaitlyn would have been a normal height for somebody two years younger. Indian girl was probably nine or ten years old, at most. So it didn't feel right to get too irritated. Especially considering what that girl and her clones had just managed to prevent.

Even if taking her there could cause problems, Kaitlyn owed her one.

"...Yeah. I think I know a place," she offered hesitantly. It was clear that C'mon." The Orderling began to run, and gestured for the three little Indians to follow her. Once they'd run far enough from all the property damage, Kaitlyn led the three across the street. They rounded a corner, passed a few buildings, ducked into a shady alleyway, then rounded another corner. At the end of this alley, there was a large, heavy door.

The redhead stopped several paces away from the door, to catch her breath. "By the way," she said between gasps, "I'm prolly not supposed to bring you here. But I owe you one. So, just... promise me you won't bother anyone?" She looked the leader of the Indian-clones in the eyes, hoping to make it clear how important good behavior would be.

Woo, she was winded. Running after a brawl didn't seem to be a good idea, what with adrenaline pumping through her small body. The clones trailing after her, however, were more than just winded. They were huffing and puffing, staggering around while clinging to each other like their scrawny legs would give out any moment.

Elke listened to Kaitlyn's short explanation, as well as her request, and nodded. Apparently they were going somewhere secret-like... Her curiosity tripled in size, and started waging war against her on the inside. Now she wanted to go inside. "Stick a needle in my eye." She responded back, while marking an invisible cross over her heart.

It wasn't Elke that Kait needed to worry about anyway, and the sudden childish giggling that popped up from behind was more than proof. The Native glanced over her shoulder and frowned. She could manage to keep her mouth shut and not step on any ones toes easily... but her duplicates.

"Ey, shut it you two." The twins stifled their giggling, and managed to look somewhat innocent. With another roll of her eyes, Elke straightened and shoved her hands into her pockets.

"Don't worry about them... they're gonna melt soon, anyway."

"They're just gonna melt...?"

Kaitlyn scrutinized each of the clones as she continued to catch her breath. She didn't want to take any chances with either of them, short-lived or not.

"Any way we can leave them outside, or make them melt sooner, or something?"