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Callie leaned back in her seat as she looked out the window noticing the car in front of them with the Purifier bumper sticker, which made her roll her eyes slightly. "At least it's not a MAGA bumper sticker." She said sarcastically as she looked at both Havok and Sapphire as the two of them sat next to her in the back. She shook her head slightly as she could feel the back get a little bit cold, but Callie did say or do anything yet as she looked back out the window. It didn't take to long until they were at their location as Callie climbed out of the back seat.

She looked at the apartment complex that was just a block away, as she looked over at Veil and gave her a nod looking at Havok and Colossus and gave them a slight wave. "Good luck boys." Callie said as she started to follow Veil alongside her and nodded slightly, she wanted to use her powers but knew that it wouldn't look well for them right now. She wasn't sure what would be waiting for them inside of the apartment complex once they entered it. "Lead the way boss lady." Callie said smiling at Veil.

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Sapphire was holding back a laugh at what Colossus had said towards Havok. She totally approved of the whole Gang up on Havok thing, it was definitely making her day, that was for sure. Though Havok totally did have it coming whether he wanted it or not, he walked into it himself, nothing could be done about that aside from her potentially making it worse for him. It was so much fun to make fun of the guy, though making it extremely cold near him would have to do it seems.

She did not care for how hot and humid it was around them, and by the time that they had reached their destination she had gone down with her powers, her hair turning it's typical brown shade again. Honestly, she didn't care much that for part of her mutation her hair, eyes and skin tone changed, it was more of a hassle than anything, making her dizzy on occasion from the switch. It did come in handy for blending into crowds more easily, the white tended to stand out just a bit. "As long as I'm not with the guy who does the glorified hoola hoops. Let's get going, lead on and let's see what we can do," she said, smirking slightly at Havok before turning her attention back to Veil.

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Veil nodded, glancing around for a moment. They needed to be quick and efficient about this. Usually, there would be subtle signs as to which units were more likely to house mutants, but instead, Veil instead counted 16 units in total. They'd likely all have mutants, in a place like this, and even the humans could be hurt by Purifiers. "We're going dark," Veil said. She closed her eyes and took a breath, beginning to create a bubble of invisibility around them.

Havok and Colossus had already went over to Unit A. They were inside and as Veil started to walk towards the last unit, Unit P, she felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck. Her eyes widened and Veil reflexively made gigantic force shields cover Sapphire and Spark Plug. "Purifiers!" Veil shouted. She turned around, about to try to shove them backwards to knock them out with a shield. "They must have seen us arrive - they were waiting for us!"

The Purifiers opened fire. "We know yer there, mutie scum!"

They got off seven rounds in total, the bullets headed towards Sapphire and Spark Plug stopped by Veil's force field. Yet the assholes must have come prepared - either that or they were lucky, as one of the shots pushed through Veil's force field like it was nothing and hit the Mutant Underground Leader in the chest. Veil dropped to the ground, her companions becoming visible, and her eyes closed. Her breathing had all but stilled.

"Killed one, ha!" a Purifier cheered. "Two little girls to go!"

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Inside the Target across the street from the Plaza, Leighton will be greeted with a gorgeous sight: SALES, SALES, SALES! There's tons of signage everywhere for various goods and sections, and no one inside seems to be any the wiser as to what she had just fled. In fact, one of the employees smiled at her kindly, asking if she needed any help finding anything. There is - as an added bonus - a super cute guy in one of the aisles, buying toothpaste and Incredibles! band-aids.

Back over at the Plaza, James.... Damn, that boy is lucky. He rolled a 20 for going unnoticed! As he walks through the Plaza, none of the cops tap him on the shoulder and ask him what he's doing there. No one at any of the stores looks out and accuses him of having the X-gene. He's like an invisible man, able to go wherever he pleases without being bothered. Seriously - he's so stealthy he has now picked up Hiding in Plain Sight as a skill - add it to the general skills section in his CS. Dude is a chameleon, I swear...

Inside the comic book store, Sunshine rolled her eyes at Grey. "You know who ducks down and hides? People who have a reason to hide, idiot," she scolded. She went back to thumbing through comics on the shelves, ignoring the plight of the poor shop assistant. She then glanced at Max, trying not to laugh at the way he was hiding. "If you don't want the police to bother you, then don't act like you don't want them to see you - make sense?"

She then glanced back over at the front and waved her hand, the green energy seemingly coming back into it as the shop assistant recovered. Sunshine was about to brag to Max that she was right and he was wrong, when the shop keeper had come into the back and knocked Sunshine out with a baseball bat. The young mutant went down, hitting her head on a bookshelf as she went.

"I don't mind mutants, as long as ya keep to yourself and don't hurt people," the shop keeper muttered.

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Very few times in Max's life did time seem to slow down to a halt, twice now it has seemed to happen this day. Once when the police walked by while he was showcasing his powers, another when he watched the lights leave Sunshines eyes as the sound of wood cracked against her skull, causing her to go careening into a bookshelf and then the floor. His eyes grew wide in panic as he saw the shops keep standing there, bat in hand, but relaxed when he heard her say
"I don't mind mutants, as long as ya keep to yourself and don't hurt people," Max set his cane down and quickly rushed to the aid of Sunshine. "please be alright please be alright please be alright." he looked towards the store clerk, voice shaking "I'm so sorry about her, I dont know what got into her." He sat with his legs underneath his thighs then placed Sunshines head on his lap , elevating her head as he applied pressure to the wound.

Attempting to calm down Max began to take deep breaths, slowing his heart and entering a meditative trance while he continued to aid her. "Guide me, show me a way to track mutants and their abilities. I need someone with healing factor." His mind raced through the cosmos, swirling passed stars and other heavenly bodies, searching for the answer, the spell to help him help her. But the universe does not give gifts too kindly and what he sought was not ready to be revealed. At once his attention broke and went back to the wounded girl on him and the store clerk to his side. "Please, I dont know what to do. I cant take her to a clinic and I have no money. All I have to offer is what i can conjure myself, clothing from an image i can see, any you want. Please...she needs help."

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Callie remained very much alert at their surroundings as she looked around just in case there was something else that ended up jumping out at them. Or if any other Purifiers came out of nowhere, she shoved her hands into her pockets as she followed their leader, watching Havok and Colossus heading into their respective unit. They were close to their own unit to see if they could get the mutants out from there, that's when she heard the gunshots go out as well as the yelling. Callie's eyes went wide as she turned around as Veil's forcefield went down quickly.

Seeing her friend as well as their leader going down rather quickly she noticed the blood where she had been shot, looking directly over at Sapphire. "Get an ice shield up quickly!" Callie yelled as she moved over towards Veil and knelt down to her friend, and quickly took off her jacket and applied pressure on the wound. Seeing that Veil wasn't breathing wasn't a good thing at all, as she quickly put her hands onto Veil's chest. It really wasn't a use for her powers, but it was the only thing that she could think of right now, closing her eyes as she sent a jolt of electricity through Veil. Seeing Veil breathing and conscious again Callie started to help her friend back up onto her feet. "We need to keep moving."

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Since no one came in rushing after her, she assumed she had gotten away before the authorities showed up. Which was preferable, she didn't feel like explaining the situation to the police or having to call her parents and explain why they needed to get her out of there. After all, she wasn't a mutant. She was not a freak! The system malfunctioned. It happens all the time. It was waiting for the next person to walk in and boom.

As she scoured the aisles, plastered with signs about things on sale (ugh....clearance?!?) she shimmied along, observing a few things. The clothes were not name brand. Tacky and gaudy clothing with useless inspirational quotes plastered on them. As she looked, one of the employees there asked her if she needed anything. It was bad enough she was at a Target, but now she was being addressed by the salespeople who didn't know Gucci from Gumbo. "No, I am fine." With that, she turned down aisle in an attempt to get further away from the front of the store.

As she did so, a rather cute guy stood in front of her buying, of all things, toothpaste and band-aids with characters on them. "Far be it from me to say, but you don't strike me as the superhero band-aid type of person." She made flirty eyes with him. He was a welcome distraction.

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James managed to keep his wandering eyes to himself as far as the comic shop. The memory of the man and woman crossing outside the nail salon piqued his curiosity. Perhaps one of them triggered the alarm. He considered briefly poking into the comic shop, satisfy a tad of his curiosity, but instead he only glanced in and… He paused a moment and looked harder. Was that a baseball bat on that person’s shoulder?

James opened the door and stepped inside the comic shop, his curiosity winning against his common sense. Even if things took a turn for the worst, what could a bat do that he hadn’t already tried. He took a moment to look around the shop. James could definitely see the appeal of some of the merchandise but it all still seemed somewhat frivolous. He shrugged and sipped at his coffee.

“Hey, you know what's going on with the alarm?” James asked, walking further in. He practically jumped out of his skin however when he noticed the girl from earlier laid out in front of the baseball bat person. What the hell was going on with today? Alarms and passed out people. “Shit, did you just straight up kill her?” He dropped his sandwich on the floor and knelt next to her, feeling for her pulse on her wrist. His eyes unfocused, her heartbeat pounded in his ears, and his breathing was ragged as he tried to soothe away any injury.

When he sat back, he trembled. This part of his ability took more than he liked out of him. The girl stirred and opened her eyes. It was then James noticed the man from earlier was also there, pillowing the woman's head in his lap, though now wearing a domino mask. He shrugged mentally. Whatever floats this guy’s boat.

“Hey there! Nice to meet you all, the name’s James. This was fun and all but let's try not to meet up like this again. I recommend movies next time” He joked as he caught his breath, shooting them a weak smile.

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The instant that Veil had yelled out Purifiers, a wave of cold swept over her as her powers kicked in. She didn't have too much to worry about, having at least a minor regenerative factor because of her powers. However she knew perfectly well that everyone else around them, aside from Colossus, could easily be injured by gun fire. She whirled around, a bit of frost surrounding her hands as she looked for someone to shoot at, a little too happy with the thought of killing a few Purifiers if needed.

Hearing Spark Plug's suggestion, she wasted no time, whirling around as a web of ice appeared in front of them. Sapphire weaved the wall together almost, and it was a beautiful creation, and entirely functional, as now they were protected from the fire of of the Purifiers. "I'm with ya there, we need to get out of here, if they knew we were coming, than odds are that there are going to be a hell of a lot more of them."

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@FantasyChic: The young man glanced up at Leighton, giving her a slight smirk. "What sort of person do I strike you as?" he asked with a British accent, walking over towards her. His items were in one of the little red handheld baskets and he adjusted his glasses slightly, checking Leighton out. "My name's Luke - Luke Pritchard," he added. He waited for her to introduce herself or move on from him, either would have been fine. He wasn't exactly unused to girls approaching him to flirt with, but he had time to kill and figured that it wouldn't hurt.

He looked away from her for a second, grabbing a thing of Advil and adding it to the basket. He had recently moved to the area and was missing a bunch of random items from his new place. Band-aids and Advil just happened to be a few things he had forgotten back home.

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Veil gasped a bit, getting back up to her feet once her friend had helped her. If it hadn't been for Spark Plug's quick thinking, she might have died. "They have new weapons - that shouldn't have taken me down or gone through my shield..." Veil muttered to her companions. It was less of a complaint and more of a warning. Her powers made her naturally very durable, but there must have been something on the tip of that bullet to cause it to just cut through like that.

"No, we can't just abandon everyone in the complexes," Veil told her team, making a split second decision. "We stick with the mission - just with some improvising." Her eyes darted around for another moment. The Purifiers were unloading something from a truck - it looked like a battering ram, likely designed to take down Sapphire's ice wall. Had it been another time, she would have laughed about people like the Purifiers trying to take a wall down, rather than build one.

"Sapphire, it's time to play chutes and ladders - mostly chutes," Veil explained quickly, putting together a plan on the fly. "Keep this wall as strong as you can. I'll keep a protective force field to cover us as we slide into the apartments. Get everyone we can out of the building, send them on the ice chute across the street - there's a metro stop, we can get them into the station and they'll blend into the crowd."

"Spark Plug, you're on cover fire. If anything gets through my shield or Sapphire's wall, zap them. Non lethal is ideal, but I can take a casualty on their side if it means getting all of these people out. When we meet up with Havok and Colossus, they can assist where needed. I'm imagining it'll be on playing defense with you, Sparky."

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"What the hell did Ah just say?!" the storekeeper snapped, looking at Grey. Hadn't she been clear? She didn't like mutants, especially if they used their powers. Sure, she might have claimed to be tolerant of them but tolerance wasn't the same thing as acceptance. Plus, she still had the weapon in her hands and she was eyeing Max like she might be about to whack him over the head next too.

She then made a are you kidding me?! face as James came in and used his powers to heal Sunshine. The blonde girl opened her eyes, as if she had just been taking a nap and hadn't gotten a head injury. She wrinkled her face up at Max. "If you tried true love's kiss on me, I'll kill you," she told him seriously, before she got up and looked at the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper had started to back away, looking intimidated at the three (hostile?) mutants in her store. "I can get to the phone before you," Sunshine bluffed.

Unfortunately, it was an obvious lie as the shopkeeper grabbed the phone and dialed 911.

"Well, shit. Call me Electra or Sunshine - we have to run before the cops come and nab us," she told her unwitting companions. Mutants had been thrown in prison for far less than what they had just done.

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Everything seemed to be happening so fast around him, Max barely had time to process it all, barely. He quickly grabbed his cane with his right hand and reached out and grabbed James hand with his left, pulling him up with him as he stood. "Looks like we have to go, C'mon. Sunshine let's get a move on." Max looked at the comic he was skimming before as well as a Dungeons and Dragons book on the shelf, if he was going to be on the run he may as well add theft to the list. He quickly snagged the two books and shoved the D&D one into his messenger bag. Max began to bolt towards the door, hoping the cops from before wouldnt show up, bit making sure not to leave the two behind.

As he ran Max looked that the shopkeeper, his new allies, and then paused for a moment as he looked at the cover of the book. "Sorry about this! Aus Atnemitsev Ogniffe!" The swirls of purples,blues,and pinks began to form once more, cosmic dust fleeing the cover of the comic book and towards the shopkeep. The energy began to surround her entire head as the shape began to take form, creating an overly sized top-hat to engulf her head. "You really should be nicer to people! Sorry again!" he began to run once more towards the door, hoping this would serve as enough of a distraction to her to have her chase after them with the bat.

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“Thanks.” James gratefully accepted the helping hand and grabbed his sandwich. He really needed to learn to keep his nose out of other people’s business. “We gotta move fast. Someone triggered an alarm at a store down a ways and a few cops were already on scene.” He looked bewildered at the man’s choice to steal on top of whatever hot water they were already in. Why add-

Oh. His train of thought froze as a bewilderingly large top hat popping into place around her head. He stared at it for a few moments before snapping his jaw shut and taking off after the other guy. The whole ordeal reminded him of a Looney Tunes cartoon. “So what's your deal then? You mimic cartoons or something? Can you do the whole anvil dropping for the sky kinda thing too?” His body felt sore and a little heavy, still recovering from helping the girl-Sunshine?- get back up. He would be feeling this in the morning alright.

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Callie was grateful as she watched Sapphire bring up an ice shield around them, and Veil was back up on her feet again, she didn't like the idea of the Purifiers making some kind of bullets to go around their powers. She then watched the Purifiers taking out what looked like some kind of battering ram, and started to use it against the massive ice shield. Callie's attention turned back to her friend and nodded slightly towards her. "Non lethal got it, but if they have a pacemaker or something and I zap them it aint my fault." Callie said as she looked up at the nearby powerlines, and started to get a bit of an idea, which was probably stupid and either draw attention or would scare them away

Callie then started to focus on the nearby powerlines, feeling the electricity going through those powerlines as she easily started to overload them, making a large electrical explosion. Seeing the Purifiers getting slightly scared, but they remained firm on their attacks still. "Well, I thought it would scare them a bit, but powers out now, that should get the tenants attention in the apartments to figure something is wrong." Callie said shrugging slightly, ready to move and attack whenever they were ready.

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Leighton playfully flipped her hair, "I don't know. The glasses kind of peg you as a geek, and the band-aids aren't helping your case, but I could be wrong. I'm Leighton, by the way." She checked the racks, not really interested in buying anything here. She almost forgot why she was here and that she was in a....Target. "So, do you live around here? I'm only visiting myself."

She pulled out her phone to check the time. She had time to kill since she had been forcibly kicked out of the boutique. She had to remember to call her family's lawyer later and get that place sued. The sheer audacity that had to peg her as a freak. She wanted to go back there and say more, but she knew the police would be there soon and she didn't want to get tangled with the law.

Plus she had this kind of cute guy to shamelessly flirt with before she got back to important matters.

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"Alright, let's see what I can do, and hopefully something useful..." Sapphire said, before she started to attempt to make a slide or something useful out of ice. The temperature around them started to drop, and suddenly it started snowing. "Of course it started snowing... Why would it not... Damn it!" she snapped, getting really annoyed with herself at this point. Like really, why weren't her powers doing what she wanted them to do or whatever? It was really annoying!

She attempted again, but this time, things seemed to go from bad to worse. The temperature seemed to drop even more, and the snow became a full blown blizzard. This likely couldn't get any worse, that she knew, but at least she got some sort of entertainment from this. The Purifiers got pulled into a sort of tornado, and were being blown around it. She couldn't help but laugh slightly at that, but turned to the others. "Sorry my powers decided to take the day off and not want to listen to me! Recommendation is you all head inside, unlike me you aren't used to the cold!"

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@FantasyChic: "Yeah, I'm working at the Air and Space Museum," he told her with a bit of a smile. "So I suppose that makes me both a nerd and a geek, then?" he asked, chuckling a bit. A few people were wandering down the aisle, wearing t-shirts with Donald Trump on them, the ex-Republican president. It had one of his more famous quotes: "Lock 'Em Up!" in reference to the growing mutant problem. Luke glanced at them and frowned, before looking at Leighton. "I do have to say - this country is great at discrimination," he said, shaking his head. "Things are different back home..."

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Luckily for them, Havok and Colossus had already managed to get most of the apartment residents into one area. It would be a quick and easy evacuation, relatively speaking. And since it was the middle of the day on a workday, only fourteen people in total were home. All of the pets had already been safely evacuated too - Colossus was a huge animal lover and Havok had a soft spot for cats. "Good," Veil said, though it made her nervous as well. Power outage would likely trigger a police response and if they were found using their powers in the open like this, they'd be arrested. They weren't rich and privileged like the X-Men.

She then saw something quite bizarre: what looked like a mixture between a blizzard and a tornado, whisking away a bunch of Purifiers and sending them flying in circles. "I-I-I d-didn't know you could do that," Veil said, her teeth chattering. Veil and Spark Plug would both get a near instant case of frost bite. Unbeknownst to them, so did Colossus and Havok. They were currently behind the complex, defending from that side.

Veil then sneezed. "G-god, this fucking sucks...O-Okay, c-can you do the chute thing already so?" Veil then shook her head slightly, not quite able to take it anymore. She made a small platform like force field appear underneath Sparky, using it to lift and carry her friend into the apartment complex where the tenants were. Veil followed soon after her, panting a lot from the energy it had taken.

"S-so damn cold..." she muttered, not dressed for this weather.

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"You know stealing is illegal, right?" Sunshine quipped at Gray, smirking a little bit. She stole to get by all of the time, but it didn't mean she couldn't enjoy teasing the man. In the very short time Sunshine had known him, she had discovered that she adored teasing the mutant about just about everything that he did. The other one - she had mentally labeled him as Gray's boyfriend - she respected slightly more. He had tried to heal her, after all.

Sunshine then glanced around, noticing nothing really in the way of security cameras and the likes. There could have been a clown covered in blood right in front of her and she wouldn't have noticed. There were eight police officers in total down the street at the Boutique and they easily spotted the trio running out of the comic book store.

"Freeze! This is D.C. PD! If you resist, we will use lethal force!"

Sunshine turned, raising her arms slowly until they were above her head. Her hands were closed.

"Open your hands, NOW!" a cop said, aiming guns at them.

"If you say so..." Sunshine said, opening them. Green smoke seemed to rush out from her hands, going at the cops and they involuntary seemed to inhale it up their nostrils. The cops started feeling like they had terrible migraines, squinting uncomfortably with the light and wanting to go curl up indoors.

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"Freeze! This is D.C. PD! If you resist, we will use lethal force!" Max watched as Sunhine slowly raised her hands. He began to try to think of a way out of this, hed been running from enforcers for a while now and he wasnt about to be caught today. Think. Think. Think. The cover of the comic was now facing him as his hands were up and a brilliant idea ran through his head. Perfect, this cummerbund should do the trick Max focused on the mass of officers and decided where the best place to wrap them would be "Aus Atnemitsev Ogniffe!" Once again the cosmic dust flew out of the page and towards his enemies, this time with much needed speed and precision. It began to wrap itself around the officers elbows and midtorsos, bundling them together into a tight knit group reminiscent of a three legged race...but higher.

He was lucky, no shots were fired, no person hurt, and they were now helpless as fat as he could see. "Run." Max turned on his heels and bolted away, hoping the two followed after him. When some distance cleared and he saw them along he turned his head and asked "Where to now? We cant keep running forever and we need a place to hide." Max attempted to match pace with Sunshine and James, making sure to neither fall behind nor get to far ahead. They were a team of misfits now, whether he, or they, wanted it. But Max couldnt help but think to himself At least this time I'm not alone

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James froze like a deer in headlights when the police called out to them. It wasn't likely he would suffer any injuries from this but the other two probably weren't as death resistant as he was. James turned to face them slowly, preparing to jump into front of the other two in the event of shots fired, just in time to watch the woman do something to them. They squinted at the trio but James wasn't really sure what…

“The heck is that?” He finished out loud, thoroughly confused. The guy must be magic or something, chanting like a wizard and things, clothing, appearing from thin air. He turned and bolted with the group. “If we can make it to a housing development, I can probably hide us. Everything is mostly cookie cutter style here anyway!”He shouted unnecessarily. “Unless you have a better idea, Ms. Sunshine?”

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Callie watched as Sapphire started to use her powers, instead of what she wanted to get it suddenly turned into a cyclone as well as a miniature blizzard. She started to shiver rather badly as her teeth started to chatter a bit, giving Sapphire a little bit of an irritated look towards her. "Y-yeah, remember to NOT make you frosty Elsa." Callie said as she started to feel her skin getting really cold, as she tried to warm herself up a bit but at least the Purifiers were being dealt with anyway. "And if I get a severe case of frostbite I blame you if I lose a limb."

Callie followed Veil into the apartment complex, feeling a little bit better as she started to go towards the closest door and started to knock on it a few times. "Hey! We got Purifiers outside, powers out get what you need right away." Callie yelled to the apartment, and started to go over to the next apartment and knocked on the door several more times, getting people's attention hopefully.

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Leighton hadn't expected to be faced with this dilemma. She had considered mutant to be freaks and weirdos and she was blissfully unaware of what happened to them, though she knew they were arrested. However, she was now smacked in the face with Trump supporting her own beliefs. She may be a cold-hearted bitch, but even she had her morals. She decided to keep what occurred at the boutique a secret then. The less people knew, the better. Plus, it wasn't like she'd be staying in Washington for a while.

"Sad truth about America. It was born on the backs of others. Seems history is doomed to repeat itself even though we like to warn against that." The accent was probably getting to her so she decided to avoid coming back at him by reminding him that Britain wasn't a good model of anti-discrimination either (though they were probably better than America since...it was Britain!). "That is the nerdiest job I have ever heard of. But you're cute so I'll let that slide too. Are you here only for your job or did you become an official U.S. citizen?"

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"Hey! I already said sorry for that, you're lucky that I don't just turn you into a popsicle!" Sapphire snapped at Callie, getting really annoyed. More than anything she was already pissed off at herself, she didn't need anyone else pointing out what had happened and what had gone wrong. She was not in the mood to argue with anyone over this, and she was now hoping that Callie did have some problems and long term side effects from the cold. Or maybe if she was lucky her mouth would get frozen shut so that Sapphire didn't have to hear her talking.

Taking a deep breath, she got to work and this time, her powers seemed to want to work. Soon, she was surfing around on the ice, making the slides that Veil had asked her for, creating them so that they could evacuate people easily. Sapphire slid off of the ice, and walked over to where the others were, "So, you asked for some glorified slides, there you go, unfortunately it might still be a bit cold right now, but can't do much about that right now."