Redstreak & Zip’s Mall Adventure

Zip is lounging on the couch in the Big Team’s rec room watching “Say Yes to the Dress”. Amber arrives at the big base, carrying something that looks quite large in a big bag. She looks around, until she hears something in the rec room. She walks over to the rec room seeing Zip watching TV. “Um...hey.” She said.

Zip puts the TV on mute and sits up. “Hello. How are you?”

Amber smiled a little. “I’m fine, I guess.” She placed the bag down next to Zip. “I uh... I was your Secret Santa so I got you something.” She motions towards the bag.

Zip grins widely and excitedly. “Ooo! Present! Can I open it?”

Amber nodded. “Of course! Just be careful though. It’s quite large and delicate.” She stated.

“Kay.” Zip carefully peels back the paper, as she does her eyes glow bright blue and the TV flips through the channels. Amber notices the TV flipping through channels but she just ignores it for the time being. After Zip finished unwrapping the present, instead was a large sleek box with a picture of a keyboard on the front. “I know you mentioned that you used to play piano. While I couldn’t actually get you a piano, I thought I could get you a keyboard instead.” She seemed a bit nervous. “Do you like it...?”

Zip screams in delight. “Oh my gosh! I love it! It’s perfect.” She leans over the gift to give Amber a hug. Amber smiles and hugs her back. “I’m glad you liked it. I was worried you wouldn’t be.” She looks at the box that contained the keyboard. “Some of the others told me you liked technology and considering that a keyboard is more technologically advanced then a piano, I thought it would be better for you. And pianos are expensive and heavy so this was the only option.” She chuckled a little.

“It is very good! Can I play you a tune, as thanks?” Zip says as she starts opening the box.

Amber nods. “Sure. Feel free to try it out!”

“Cools.” Zip finishes setting it up, and the TV stops on the Hallmark channel. She takes a seat behind it, her fingers poised over the keys. She begins playing “Jingle Bells”. As she plays, there are a few noticeable mistakes. Zip takes her fingers off the keys, and the keyboard tarts to play a different song. Zip’s eyes glow as the keyboard plays.

“Thank you, this is one of the best gifts I’ve ever gotten.”

Amber seemed a little surprised by the keyboard playing on its own but she immediately shrugged it off. She smiled. “I’m really glad you like it. Maybe you could put on a small show for everyone at the base!” She suggested as she sat down on the sofa in front of the TV.

“Yeah, I would like that.” The keyboard stops playing and the TV flips back to “Say Yes to the Dress”. Zip’s eyes glow less brightly as she sits down next to Amber.

Amber looked at her. “So you can control electronics then?”

“Yeah. It definitely has it uses. What about you? What are your gifts?”

“My gifts..... Well I wouldn’t really call it a gift.” Amber admitted. “But I have the power to copy people’s powers.”

“I can understand that. But that’s really cool! You can be helpful in every situation. See for me there’s a lot of times where I can’t do much if anything at all. Have you ever copied a technopath’s powers?” Zip curiously asks.

Amber shook her head. “No I haven’t. At least I don’t think I have.”

“Do you want to try? We could have a lot of fun with it.”

“Fun? I....never really used my powers for fun before...” Amber admitted.

Zip gasps with a shocked expression on her face. “Well we’re doing this now.” She hops off the couch and offers her hand. “Come with me.”

Amber looks at her hand. “To where?” She asks with a curious yet slightly nervous tone in her voice.

"To the mall, the possibilities are endless."

Amber looked at Zip’s hand. She never went shopping at a mall before nor did she have fun with her powers. But this could be a new experience for her. So she took Zip’s hand.

“Yay! Let’s get this bread!”

Amber seemed a bit confused by the language Zip seemed to use, but that was most likely due to living in a lab for her entire childhood. Nevertheless, Amber nodded and they made their way to the mall. Amber seemed a little nervous though.

“You know I’ve never really gone shopping with other people before. Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“What?! Shopping is only fully experienced with friends. So if anything you should be asking how come we haven’t done this sooner?”
Zip smiles warmly. “Trust me, this is gonna be fun. You won’t regret it.”

Amber still seemed a little nervous but nodded her head. “Ok. So....where do we go?”

“Everywhere!”
Zip pulls Amber into the nearest store which happens to be an Apple store.
Zip claps her hands together. “Okay so. We can walk around and look at all the different styles and models. And then if we want to,”
Zip continues in a whisper. “we can toy with the electronics. I usually just have them softly play music. The looks of confusion are priceless.
“Of course I always fix them when I leave,” Zip finishes with a normal volume. Zip looks at Amber expectantly.

Amber seemed a little nervous but she went over to a particular phone on a stand near the entrance. It seemed to be the same model as her actual phone. She looked at the music app on the phone, her eyes glowing a soft blue. Suddenly the phone started blaring heavy metal music.

Zip slides up next to Amber, “Nice. You have good taste.” As the employees start to come over to check the commotion, Zip’s circuits light up. The phone in front of them stops playing and a computer in the far back corner of the shop starts the heavy music where the other one left off.

Amber seemed really shocked by how she somehow managed to blast the heavy metal music from the phone. She smiled a little. “It is....kinda fun.” She admitted.

“Right! So what next?” Zip asked as she walked out of the Apple store. “We could have the elevators never stop on the second floor, have the escalators run the other way, the possibilities are endless.”

Amber followed after her. “That sounds a bit dangerous though.... I don’t want to hurt anyone.” Amber admitted.

“That’s very fair. Umm, then how ‘bout some normal teenage girl stuff? Shopping and gossip.”

“Gossip? Isn’t that usually a bad thing?” Amber signed. “Sorry I must be annoying you. I never went out with anyone before except for Spectre...”

“You’re definitely not annoying. I do have a younger sister and you’re not at least half annoying as her. And I haven’t done this since before,” Zip trails off. “That’s not important. What is, is teaching you a vital life skill. Now, gossip can be bad, but that’s up to you. I suppose a better phase for gossip would be secrets and facts about our lives. Like for example how are things with Spectre?”

“Oh well...” Amber seemed a bit flustered. “Um....I’m not sure actually.” Zip looks at Amber with concern. “Is everything okay? Is there anything I can do?”

“Oh! No! Don’t worry yourself over that! I’m sure everything is fine.” Amber said with a low tone of concern in her voice. “Anyways! I thought we were going shopping?”

Zip gives a look of disbelief. “Okay...but yes shopping!” Zip knows, for her at least, shopping is the best pick me up.

“Ok! Let’s go shopping!” Redstreak walked forward for a bit but then stopped suddenly. “Uh....where are we going?”

“Wherever you want. Are there shops around here that look interesting?”

Amber looked around until she saw one particular shop. It’s a clothes shop; full of punk rock style clothes. She immediately went over to the window and stared into the window at all the clothes there. She seemed almost entranced. “I want to go here!”

“That’s a good choice. I always look in here but never get anything. You know I really should expand my wardrobe.” Zip walks into the shop keeping an eye on Amber to make sure she’s following.

Amber follows in behind her, her lavender eyes looking around everywhere. “There’s so much here...” She said as she walked over to a red and black patchwork hoodie. “This is so cute!” She picked it up.

“Oooo, you should definitely try it on!” Zip told her.

Amber smiles at Zip. “Alright then!” She goes into the changing room and after a few minutes, comes out wearing the patchwork hoodie. “What do you think..?”

“It’s super cute! You should definitely get it.”
Zip gestures to one of the dressing doors, on the back of it is a red and black floral dress which upon closer inspection are actually skulls. “What do you think? Should I try this on?”

“Yeah! You should!” Amber suggested. “It’s a really pretty dress!”

Zip goes out to the rack that houses all of the dresses and rifles though it to find her size. She finds one and takes it back to the changing rooms. She goes into one and a moment later comes out wearing the dress. Zip spins causing the dress to lift up a little. “This is cuter than I thought. But what do you think? Be honest though.”

“That actually looks really good on you!” Amber exclaimed. “It suits you so well. You definitely should wear more like that!”

Zip and Amber change back and go to cash register to buy their spoils.
They continue exploring the mall in the same fashion; some technopathy, some talking, and of course shopping. By the end of the trip they both had quite a few bags. So overall a successful trip.

After leaving the mall with their spoils, Amber looks at Zip. “I....just want to say thanks. For taking me out here. I’ve never really done anything like this before and it was actually...fun to go shopping with you. So thank you.”

“Of course, no problem. I’m glad. I had a lot of fun too. We should definitely make this a repeating experience. Like at least once a month. Maybe we take some the others as well.”

Amber smiled. “Yeah. I would like that very much.”