"Uh, hang on, there's kinda fifty options," Emma laughs.

The other students crowd around, staring at the menu and chattering about their favorite toppings. The store was already busy even before they arrived, and their group has promoted it from "crowded" to "downright packed". Nita's the only one among them with a Linear kid's instincts, the only one who might have been keeping an eye out, but the mall is supposed to be safe. They're in a group, they come here all the time; no one's on edge.

But the Center and its parapsychics are not universally popular, and the negative propaganda claiming they "malingered" on space station work persists in some places, and a group of Center-clad children in one of their known hangouts are a tempting target.

The older members of the Center have mostly shielded their charges from the political workings of the world outside. If they hadn't, maybe the students would have understood why suddenly there were angry adults charging at them, yelling.

Some have weapons. Everyone screams.

Nita's up near the front and can't tell what's happening- she grabs for Emma-

Emma grabs back. "I don't- Nita- get us out, get us out-"

And Nita sees the people charging, and the one nearest her has a gun, why does he have a gun, he's aiming at them and screaming about parapsychic freaks- her mind is jumping, she sees him and then her father and then the gun and then <Witch! Witch!> in her mother's voice- and she screams, not again, not again, she's not a freak, what, why- and she flails for power, the store goes dark as she draws power from the lights, the mall goes dark, the mall's generators, she has to get them out out out-

And then they're somewhere else.

Somewhere else is a farmful of cocoa plants, near a little building with a sign in a completely unfamiliar language.

Nita takes a step towards it. Or she tries, and then falls over. That took sooOOooo much enERgyyyzzzzz.

Someone with vibrantly orange hair sees them out the window and frowns in puzzlement.

Emma goes from panic (GUNS) to less panic (Nita got them away, these are unthreatening plants) to panic again (those are unfamiliar plants, where ARE they?) to more panic (NITA) to calmer (she's seen Nita overwork herself before) and then right back to panic. She attempts to get Nita to be at least slightly more comfortable, then sits next to her to have a nice, protracted freakout. She does not notice the people inside.

The orange lady limps out of the building towards her.

She looks up when the lady is close enough. She doesn't stare at the weird dye choice, because it's not polite to stare, but that means she doesn't pay her much mind either; she's just petting Nita's hair and sitting awkwardly in the field. She can stop sobbing for the sake of a spectator but she's definitely still sniffling.

The orange lady says, "Excuse me, is your friend hurt?"

...that's... a weird language. This fact gets examined briefly, then discarded in favor of the more pressing internal freakout. And responding, she should probably do that.

"Uh, she-" sniff "she's, no, I don't think, um. Just. Just overworked? She saved us-" and then the tears are back.

"...from what?"

"My birthday party?" Emma says bitterly. "I don't even know, they just, um- there was yelling and people I didn't know and they had guns and she got us out-" sniff.

"...your what party?"

Emma tries to clear her throat and sniffle less; speaking the language doesn't help if she mumbles. "My birthday party."

"......I didn't hear any guns."

"I didn't hear- oh god I hope everyone's okay-" she has to wipe her eyes before continuing, "Nita, um, my friend? She 'ported us out, the guns weren't here."

"...beg pardon?"

"Sorry, um, there were people with guns, we got away, can we just-" she rubs at her eyes again, more out of exhaustion than need. "Um, could we maybe have some water, please? She'll be tired, when she wakes up. This is, uh, I don't even recognize here, she must have jumped us a really long way."

"...I can get you water, yes."

She goes and comes out with paper cupsful of water.

"Thank you," Emma says politely, then sips hers quietly while she watches her friend.

Halfway through the cup of water, Nita stirs.