Kara began slowly stretching out her cramped leg and nursing her other bumps and bruises. She winced at every move, but it felt good at the same time.

"You are awake. Are you okay now?"

The voice of the strange girl made her jump a little. She had to admit, she wasn't expecting the girl to talk. At the very least, she was expecting a little forewarning. Eventually, she settled back into her self-administered therapy session.

"Um...y--yeah," she finally whispered, since talking at a regular volume still hurt like hell (And probably would for the next week)

Then she stopped herself. She was supposed to add something! That's what her therapist kept telling her to do. But what could she add? She was fine, aside from the aforementioned aches and pains. And the strange girl hadn't asked anything else. So what was she supposed to add to that?

After a few seconds of deliberation, she stammered out, "Um...thank you. For, y--you know, helping me."

The girl's stammering was making it difficult for Aadi to understand her, the french girl staring at her blankly for a couple seconds until she'd translated the sentence in her head. "It is no problem."

Good, the teen was fine. Aadi pushed herself back to her feet, blocking a sneeze with her sleeve. This time, the dizziness didn't return.

"Are you sure you are okay?" She asked, seeing the girl apparently nursing injuries from the faster-than-intended fall. Probably a couple from clinging to the tree like a monkey too. "Do you need les bandages?"

"It is no problem."

Kara smiled tentatively, then grimaced as a particularly painful cramp began to stubbornly loosen itself. It wasn't until after the pain began to ebb away that Kara noticed the girl's accent. It was just thick enough that she noticed it, but not quite distinct enough for her to place it. European, perhaps? Shaking her head slightly, she pushed it aside for now.

When she looked back up, she saw the stranger standing, as if she was about to leave. At least, that's what Kara figured. She didn't know for sure, but she could kind of guess from the girl's body language.

"Are you sure you are okay? Do you need les bandages?"

That confirmed it. She was clearly itching to leave. Kara still had no clue why, but at least she knew now.

It took her a few seconds, but then Kara realized that the girl had asked a question. And questions require responses.

"Yeah...I--I'm fine. Just...bumps and b--bruises...is all," Kara managed to squeeze out in a scratchy, harsh whisper. Then curiosity forced her to add, "W--Why? Are you...late...for something? J--Just curious..." her voice petered out as she began to curl up slightly. She'd been too pushy, she'd totally blown it.

Aadi frowned in confusion, backpack already slung over her shoulder in preparation to leave. Either the girl had a chronic stuttering problem, or she was scared out of her mind. Guess that's what happened when someone levitated you up into a tree.

"No, I am not late. You seem...erhm...mal à l'aise...uncomfortable, so I will leave. I am sorry for scaring you." Before her mutation decided to send her skywards again. She could feel it becoming unstable again, and mentally cursed her roommate for leaving her with no safe place to go.

"No, I am not late. You seem...erhm...mal à l'aise...uncomfortable, so I will leave. I am sorry for scaring you."

"N--no no! No, it--it's fine. I mean...maybe it'd be, you know, best if we stuck together. For a bit."

Immediately, she regretted it.

'Really, Kara? REALLY!?!' she mentally shouted at herself. 'Stick together for a bit!? Why don't you just invite her over for dinner while you're at it!?!'

She curled up into a ball slightly, which did little more than aggravate her sore leg. Her brain went onto hyperdrive, trying to think of some way she could save herself from this.

Then she thought of it. She immediately began blurting her idea, then settled back down into a soft whimper.

"I mean...what if I g--get stuck in a tree again? You can...you know...float, so that'd be p--pretty...um...handy. And...well...I can't...really...help you back...but...um..." Her voice eventually just petered out as she curled into a defensive ball, her fingers crossed that this stranger wouldn't think ill of her.

Aadi eyed the girl, slightly alarmed now. Okay, so this stranger had put two and two together and knew Aadi was a mutant of some sort. Why wasn't she running away screaming? Aadi had managed to keep that secret from everyone except her parents, and their reactions were what she expected from anyone who discovered her secret. Said reactions were to run around screaming like headless chickens while Aadi figured out how to get herself back down to ground level.

There was no screaming now (thank God, the last bout of screaming had nearly cost Aadi her hearing), though there was a good degree of stuttering.

"You are not afraid of that?" Aadi asked, confused. "You know I can do that, it doesn't scare you? You will not go into trees if I am not here, it was my fault. I apologize deeply."

Seeing the girl curling up into a ball like a scared porcupine, Aadi slowly crouched back down to eye level. Okay, now she felt really bad. This girl was obviously terrified.

"You are not afraid of that? You know I can do that, it doesn't scare you?"

Kara shook her head. "No. Wh--why? Should it?"

"You will not go into trees if I am not here, it was my fault. I apologize deeply."

"H--hold on...I'm not sure I understand..."

'It doesn't help that her accent is impossible to understand,' Kara thought, though she kept those thoughts to herself.

How in the hell was it her fault? Why would she throw Kara into a tree, only to go through the trouble of dragging her back down? It made absolutely no sense. Besides, she floated herself. How could she possibly affect the teenage mutant half-ninja human, who was clearly an entirely separate person from this stranger?

So Carragail decided it would be best if she told the stranger, who was obviously feeling bad about something she didn't do (after all, she was crouching down and trying her best to make Kara more comfortable), that it clearly wasn't her fault.

"I d--don't..." she started, until the words stuck in her throat so bad that she had to start over. "It clearly wasn't your f--fault...you know? N--No need to apologize."

>> "It clearly wasn't your f--fault...you know? N--No need to apologize."

Aadi blinked repeatedly in confusion at the asian girl. Well, this was definitely a different reaction. "I am sorry because it is my fault." She sneezed then, because she still had that pain of a cold.

Sniffling a little, Aadi looked at the girl for a long moment. "You are not scared...or maybe you are. My name is Aadi, I won't hurt you."

That was when she sneezed again, and lifted right off the ground. Aadi dropped back down with a yelp and a flurry of french swear words.

"I am sorry because it is my fault."

Kara was still confused as to how it could have possibly have been her fault. She hadn't even been around when the whole floating-tree-screaming incident started. So how in God's name could she have possibly caused it?

The sneeze made Kara jump slightly, more out of surprise than anything. Not too bad a jump, but certainly noticable.

"You are not scared...or maybe you are. My name is Aadi, I won't hurt you."

Then she sneezed again, and Kara was literally so surprised that she leaped backwards at least a foot. Not surprised by the sneeze, mind you. She was much more surprised by the fact that the girl (appartently named Aadi) had just gone and flown straight into the air without warning. As Kara watched, she then proceeded to spout out a few foreign words that Kara figured needed no translation, and then float back down to the ground.

Her eyes were about the size of dinner plates, and wearing off from the shock meant that she had to spend a few seconds speaking gibberish before she could formulate a sentence.

"C--C--Carragail," she finally sputtered. "A--And...um...that was...pretty cool..."

Cool? Aadi had thought many things about her ability, but cool was not one of them. "You...think so?" She blinked. "J'ai pensait c'est...erhm...I think it is annoying."

Carragail...well, that wasn't a name she had encountered before, and Montreal was pretty multi-cultural. "It is nice to meet you, Carragail." She knew she wasn't pronouncing it right, instinctively rolling the 'r's and silencing the 'l' entirely, but names took a bit of practice.

"Maybe...I should go. I do not want to do something by accident." Aadi stood up from the ground, dusting off her pants. "It, uh...means much to me, that you are not afraid. Or screaming, at least. Thank you."

"You think so?" Kara nodded. Obviously, this girl wasn't so used to her powers being called "cool". She had to admit, though, Aadi's powers would be kind of fun to use. Mostly just to sneak up on people. Kara snickered slightly at the mental image of dropping down onto people to say hello.

"It's nice to meet you, Carragail."

'It's pronounced Carragail, not "Carrrrragaieeeee".'

She silenced that train of thought as she stuttered out a quick, "Y--you too," smiling and even blushing slightly.

'I have to admit,' Kara thought to herself, 'It feels nice to be comfortable around someone.'

"Maybe...I should go. I do not want to do something by accident. It, uh...means much to me, that you are not afraid. Or screaming, at least. Thank you."

Carragail blinked a couple times. Then she processed that little monologue. Then realized that her newfound closest-thing-I-can-get-to-a-friend was about to ditch her.

"M--maybe I can help...you," she blurted. "Y--You know, with...staying on the, um, g--ground."

>> "M--maybe I can help...you. Y--You know, with...staying on the, um, g--ground."

Aadi blinked in surprise, looking down at the asian girl. "Heh?" The girl was offering to help? How? Aside from attaching bricks to her feet...which probably wouldn't even work, now that she was thinking about it.

"I appreciate the offer...but I am not the only thing that might not stay on the ground." To demonstrate, Aadi's gaze flicked to one side, to a pebble sitting innocently in the grass. It was light enough there was no strain on her already fritzy powers, Aadi watching as it slowly lifted off the ground to float through the air in between them.

"I do not want to scare you again... uh..." Aadi's brow furrowed. "You...stutter? Is that because you are scared, or you have a speaking problem?"

"I appreciate the offer...but I am not the only thing that might not stay on the ground."

Aadi's gaze wandered elsewhere, as if she was demonstrating. It wasn't hard to figure out what she was looking at once Kara was looking the right direction.

Right before her eyes, gravity had decided that a nearby pebble wasn't worth keeping on the ground, and the pebble had begun floating completely unsupported into the air. She glanced around, making sure that no one else was messing with the Magic Pebble. There was no one. Either the two of them had picked a fantastic spot to be alone in, or everyone in New York had decided that Central Park was not an ideal location to be. And looking up, Kara didn't exactly blame them. The way the clouds were moving, it looked like it might rain soon.

All that and more was forgotten once Kara glanced back at the Pebble of Wonder.

"Y--You're...doing that?" she asked, bewildered.

"I do not want to scare you again... uh...you...stutter? Is that because you are scared, or you have a speaking problem?"

"I...um...well..." she began to squirm slightly at the thought of revealing one of her most embarrassing secrets.

She could have lied, and said yes. Or she could have made up a funny-sounding word as an excuse, since Aadi clearly didn't know a lot of English. But right before she did, she imagined her therapist using that little 'tut-tut' voice again. So she just inhaled deeply and stated loudly, "It'snotastutterit'sjustanannoyingsetofcripplingsocialphobiasnobigdealokay?"

She breathed heavily a few times, having expelled more air from her lungs than she meant to. Finally, after a few deep breaths, she added, "And, y--yeah...I think you're power's...well...really cool. B--Better than mine."

Blinking repeatedly at the jumbled mess of English that spewed out of Carragail's mouth, Aadi couldn't appear more confused if she had a floating question mark over her head. That had been totally impossible for her to understand, apart from one or two words in the whole sentence that didn't really lend anything to it's meaning. "...Pardon?"

But then her question and the very unhelpful answer was forgotten at Carragail's next sentence.

>> "And, y--yeah...I think you're power's...well...really cool. B--Better than mine."

Better than hers? Hers? That wasn't a mistranslation, right? By 'hers', she meant her power. She had a power.

"You have a power?" Aadi blurted out as soon as the thought occurred to her. "Serious? Why did you not say so?" She crouched down again, eyes bright. "I have never meet someone else with a power before! What is it?"

The pebble continued to drift serenely by.

"You have a power? Serious? Why did you not say so? I have never meet someone else with a power before! What is it?"

Kara was slightly relieved that Aadi hadn't seemed to understand her jarbled English. She was even more relieved that she seemed not to care. She momentarily breathed a soft sigh of relief, before she realized that the French girl (the accent was unmistakable now that she'd placed it) was asking her to out another deep, embarrassing secret.

She curled up slightly, muttering, "Oh, really, it's not that impressive."

Then she looked harder at Aadi, quickly realizing that this strange woman wasn't about to back off until she'd seen what Kara could do.

With a long sigh of annoyance, she held up her hand and forced it to light up. It got pretty bright, maybe headlight-intensity, and she had to tone in back down before she hurt herself. Then, waiting a few seconds so that Aadi could get a good look, she turned her hand off and muttered, "That's pretty much all I can do. It's more annoying than anything, really."