People often questioned her about why she refused to let people adopt her. Pretty often, in fact. It confused them how a child who didn't have much (in their opinions) would down right rebel against a system only trying to give her a loving family and a home to call her own.

Well, this was the reason why.

The woman dragging her by the hand through a crowded mall, chattering incoherently about her thoughts, the day, the people around her, and her many, many cats. SHE was the reason Elke refused to accept attempts at adoption. Why she straight up abandoned nice homes and people with money for a life in with her deadbeat mom and absent father.

"Margie, are you even listening to me?!"

One crotchety old woman who reeked of animals and menthol was the current bane of her existence. Elke was too hard to remember, apparently, so she'd gone ahead and renamed the Native Margie. Seriously... MARGIE. She also wasn't allowed to wear pants, swear, play in dirt or with boys, or use her god given mutation. All of those things had been banned from her, because good little girls didn't do any of them.

Elke found herself stuffed into the most uncomfortable, itchy pink dress she'd ever had the misfortune of encountering. Her sneakers had been thrown away, (she'd only barely managed to save them from getting picked up by the garbage man), and the woman had stuffed her feet into a pair of shiny white dress shoes that were one or two sizes too small. Her hair had been pulled back into a painful ponytail with a gaudy, over-sized pink bow... and she'd been forced to put makeup on.

It was torture, and the old crone damn well knew it!

"Yes... ma'am." "Good, I'd hate to think that your last lesson was for naught." Elke rolled her eyes as she was tugged along, and went back to her miserable musings. She was absolutely sure that she'd been adopted because the woman was addicted to a show about children in pageants. She was also sure that the woman had never had any kids of her own, and was subsequently making up for the cobwebs in her barren, dusty female parts by dragging some poor kid home with her.

And Elke just happened to be that poor slob. "Can I have a corn dog?" Her question caused the old woman to visibly jump, like she'd been physically struck. The child cringed as she swung around, mortification written across her wrinkled face, and gaped at her. "Corn dogs?! Mercy me! Have I taught you NOTHING!?"

And then came an hour long rambling, high pitched, wheezy rant about junk food doing nothing for figures, and how little girls should be more interested in eating their greens and taking their cod liver oil.

"Yes... I'll have a corn dog, please... wait... I'll take all of them... All of your corn dogs please... Put them in the bag, and be quiet and quick about it. I don't want anyone to get hurt."

The wide eyed teen behind the counter went even more wide eyed when he flashed the gun concealed underneath his rather constricting trench coat, a little hand clutching it and pointing right at her face. She gulped, and silently complied, loading a large paper bag with greasy, corny, hotdoggy goodness. The giant cockroach reached into the bag quickly, and pulled out a dog, pulling off a small piece and eyeing it closely as if it were a diamond, or some form of narcotic to be tested for quality.

"You've got some nice product, here... I find this acceptable. I won't be waiting outside for you to walk to your car after work anymore... Unless I get bored."

That drew a little yelp, which drew a cackle from him... He then paid for all of the corn dogs anyway, which left the poor girl even more confused... Did she just get robbed, and then unrobbed by a giant cockroach? She stood there for a moment as the bug walked off, and then turned to her manager to ask for the rest of the day off... she was clearly seeing things.

Roach, having taken a seat, believed he might be seeing things, too... He shoved a corn dog down his maw while he watched what appeared to be a rather large doll... A living, unsatisfied looking doll. She wanted a corn dog, apparently. He looked down to his bag, and, well...

They say the Roaches heart grew two sizes that day... As the pruny looking old woman that be imagined would taste like raisins turned away to talk to a man at a kiosk about a miracle lip hair trimmer, he slowly grabbed a corn dog from his bag, and held it out to her, not saying a word.

"-and you're sure that this will get rid of all of it?"

"Yes, Ma'am. We have a 'Try it for sixty days, and if you're not satisfied return it for a full refund' policy."

"...well.. hmm... I don't know. Twenty dollars is a lot of money! I'll buy one from you if you knock it down to ten dollars, what do you say, sonny?"

Elke rolled her eyes, her arms crossed over the the frilly chest of her dress. It made her arms itch, but she wasn't about to abandon being visually unhappy just because of something like that. She huffed, tapping one foot impatiently. How long was the old bat gonna try and sweet talk this guy for? He hadn't fallen for it the last three times, so it was highly unlikely that just badgering him some more was going to work.

After a moment of listening to the two of them argue back and forth, Elke realized something. This was the first time since she'd been picked up three days ago that the old lady had taken her eyes off of her... No one was watching!

She edged off to the side so she was hidden behind her elderly captor from the sales man's eyes, and was about to split off a duplicate... when a corn dog mysteriously appeared in front of her face. Dark eyes trailed from the food, up an arm, to a trench coat clad insect man. Damn near instantly, she had to bite back a squeal of happiness.

She loved physical mutations like that! Love love loved them!

Instead of letting herself grab the corn dog though, she forced the split she had been working on. A few moments later, an exact duplicate of herself was at her side, staring in confusion at the back of the old ladies floral print jumper. Elke leaned in and whispered as quietly as she could into the clones ear.

"You stay here, okay? The old bat's got ton's of cookies back home and she'd just love to play dollies with you." The clones eyes widened like saucers, and she nodded fiercely. Grinning, Elke scooted back and away, grabbing the offered item of food from the bug man, before she turned and darted as quickly as she could to the side. The clone was going nowhere with the story she'd given her, so she'd have at least 24 hours before anyone realized she was gone.

On her way past the bug man, she whispered her thanks. She wasn't willing to risk the old lady's stupid hearing aid actually working for once, and picking up sounds from her escape.

"Man... I gotta get this damn thing off... it's itchy as @#$%!"

A dream came true right before his eyes.

A person, a common food item for the giant bug, actually made another person... right before his eyes.

It was like... Money growing on trees, but rather, it was food growing on... more food. He let out a little squeal in response to her thanks, and watcher her run off, standing to follow her without pause, so entranced by her ability that he left his corn dogs behind.

Look at this... A little pink skin, running away from it's owner... no, that wasn't right... parent! Yes, running away from it's parent after taking food from a stranger, and having an ability that was just... perfect for his appetite... She deserved anything that came to her, right? Most likely, no, but he found that he didn't really care.

Before he knew it, he was sprinting after her.

Ducking into the first store she found, she was already in the process of shrugging the itchy dress off that she'd been stuffed into. She didn't have any belongings to speak of, not on her person anyway, so her only options were to either wander around the mall in her skivvies, or to trade the stupid dress for some other clothing.

...She was more than happy to roll with the second option.

Ditching her current clothing for a pair of baggy overalls and a t-shirt from the kid's department, then hightailed it back out of the store. Or, attempted too, at least. Just before she hit the exit, she ran into two obstacles. One being a security guard who'd spotted her trade of clothes and decided to come investigate, and the other being the giant bug man from before. Once again, more pressing matters forced her to push away her curiosity about the obvious mutant, in order to try and deal with the security man.

"Ey kid, waddu dink yur dowin?" He stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, sniffled and wiped at his nose with a napkin. Great... he had the plague or something, and he was touching her! "Lemme go, pig!" Kicking at his shins resulted in a muffled curse, and a sneeze, which Elke recoiled from like he was blasting lava out of his nose at her.

"Ya can'd jus walg outta ere widdoud payin fer dat... Where're yur barends?"