Earlier in the day, on the morning news…
“And a 72 year old woman was mauled in another dog attack. Jim, we have anything more on this?”
“Yes Bob, she’s reported in stable condition, and the police say they’re moving a brand new Metabot unit into the area where the attack occurred. These are specialized Metabots of the ACE unit, that is, Animal Control Enforcement. They’ve had additional code added for animal control, in addition to special gear to allow for the humane capture of stray animals.”
“Well, that’s great news Jim. Let’s hope the ACE unit catches something soon. Where did they get these extra units? Are they brand new?”
“No Bob, my understanding is that they are units that were damaged in an altercation with some, shall we say, ‘less lawful’ mutants in our community shortly after they began patrolling. They’ve been fully repaired however, and as I mentioned, upgraded for their new mission.”
“Well, we can all rest easier I’m sure. Now on to Sally with today’s weather…”


‘Rules to live by’, Claire thought. ‘Charge your stupid cell phone. Make sure the bus driver speaks English if you ask for directions. Better yet, just stay home! Well… maybe not. It was nice to see my friends.’ The redhead looked around again. She had lots of time to think right now. She would have yelled, but with this… stuff wrapped around her, all she could manage was a muffled ‘Umfp!’. Stupid ‘bots… She was wrapped, head to foot, in some sort of sticky cord, similar to spider web. She was stuck, and could only hope the idiot police-bot-thing really had called the zoo. It had, in fact, dropped an email to the Bronx Zoo's "General Information" email address, and it was anyone's guess when it would get read and if they'd take it seriously, which was unlikely. Luckily, Claire didn't know that, or she'd probably really be panicking. It was getting dark, she was lost, her phone was dead (not that she could use it now anyways) and worst of all she was truly helpless the way they’d left her.

Laying there, she pondered how it’d happened. She’d gotten bad directions from an obviously foreign-born bus driver heading back to the mansion. She’d bailed off that bus to get going the right direction by this park – wherever it was. She really wasn’t sure. Her iPhone wouldn’t even power up, it was so dead, and the charger was back in her room. ‘Buy extra charger’ she added to her list. She’d been waiting for a bus, and that’s when the ACE Metabot patrol showed up and took notice. She had had a cat construct with her on the bus bench, and somehow that had confused that stupid mechanical… thing. Her construct had taken one look at the “officer” and headed straight up the nearest tree. It, in turn, took one look at her, and decided she was something she was not. The encounter played through her head once more, as somewhere an owl began to hoot.

“Unidentified animal; investigating” the unit had informed the other two ACE Knights in its patrol group. They’d been searching in vain for hours for the pack of dogs that had mauled an old lady. In the process, they’d gotten a good distance from the mauling site; miles in fact. But now they had something to actually investigate! Claire remembered how she’d glanced behind her, looking for the ‘unidentified animal’, just as her cat construct bolted. Then it had dawned on her; her construct! Or, ah… her? This couldn’t end well.

“Have located possible Lion” it said in a mechanical voice. “Request backup”. The thing was a dozen feet away, and she was the only one around for miles. Well, aside from her house-cat-sized paper construct, which this thing just treed. She glanced up to where it now sat on a high branch, tail twitching and otherwise unnoticed. The Metabot seemed focused entirely on her.

“Ah… hi Officer?” the redhead had hazarded.

The ACE Metabot paused, its AI confused by the readings it was getting. Mutant for sure. Animal… yes getting animal too. Mutant cat animal. A quick AI decision was made, based on shaky logic, that this must be what had mauled the old lady. A giant mutant lion-panther-tiger thing. The color was what was so very confusing. Claire was wearing a long patchwork skirt of different animal-patterns; leopard, cheetah, tiger… you name it, it was in there somewhere, and a black vest over a snow leopard blouse. It was a cute outfit, but was now causing the bot considerable consternation in identifying exactly what she was, especially with the hastily added animal control code.

“Do not move, Lion. We will get you back to the zoo” it said in what was supposed to be a soothing, but decidedly spooky and mechanical, voice. A second ACE Metabot had arrived, and started to argue with the first.
“Error detected; this is not a lion. Definitely a Tiger” it corrected, based on its scan having registered more of the tiger patterns.

“Ah, guys… I’m not a lion Or a tiger” Claire had told them, getting worried and starting to back away holding her hands out in front of her. The two units began to compute on that, as the third ACE showed up behind her. “Target correct; weight is one hundred…” the 3rd bot began before she cut it off.

“Hold it right there buster!” she said, whirling around. “It’s rude to ask a woman’s weight, much less tell everybody!” She was getting feisty now, which probably wasn’t the best idea.

The Bot paused, then cautiously continued “Target weight is Less than 130lbs; definitely not a Lion or Tiger.”
“A LOT less, thank you!” Claire said, sounding angry and flustered, but glad that it had decided she wasn’t a lion or a tiger. Or Bear.
“Probable Panther” it continued, to which the next replied “Or Cheetah” and the last unit, which had been the first on scene said “Or Jaguar.”

“I am Not. A. PANTHER!” Claire yelled, her freckled face scrunched up, and fists balled by the points of her slight hips. Somewhere above, her construct mewed, which didn't help her case one bit. She opened her ice-blue eyes, and found she was looking down the barrels of three cannon-things, that from her perspective looked a whole like Gatling guns. Luckily, as she’d found out a moment later, they shot streams of sticky cords, not bullets. She’d given a little ‘Eep!’, as she fell over.

The owl hooted again, snapping her back to the present. She tried yelling; what did she have to lose after all?
“Ummpff!”
Claire froze as she thought she heard something move. Not that freezing was much different than lying there tied up, mind you. Her purse lay unattended on the bus bench, and her cat construct was playing with a strand of her long hair. Could things possibly get worse?

It wasn't a good time to be a canine mutant, much less a wolf shifter. Adder had made it through such situations before - a scattering of apparent dog attacks - and with far less protection than he had now, but it was still somewhat risky for him.

A little bit of risk wasn't going to stop him from ensuring that he wasn't confined to the x-men mansion, though. Imprisonment, captivity of any sort, was a much greater and far more distasteful risk, and he had to know. He couldn't trust that knowledge to what people said. People lied. People lied a lot.

There was also a sort of logic to why he was moving around in wolf form, not just to why he was out in the city again. It was actually protection against those dog attacks, odd as it might sound to someone who hadn't seen a wolf in the flesh. He was clearly not a dog, and dogs tended to shots him like the very dangerous predator he could be.

He'd eaten dog before. It didn't bother him to do it again.

It was also quiet enough to avoid sensory overload, and in all honesty he was kind of reveling in that. There were so many people in the mansion. So much chaos, even if it was a safe, rich person kind of chaos. Out here he could sustain four feet if he damn well chose.

As a result of that only slightly petulant decision, Adder heard the muffled shout from some distance away, and approached out of curiosity. A girl, wrapped in cop-robot string, with a cat that was very much not a real cat hanging around. She smelled familiar, in a recent passing sort of way. A mansion resident?

He ambled into view, body language idle curiosity rather than any form of aggression, and then neatly seated himself in front of the bound girl and tilted his head. Did she want help, and why should he help?

Claire was struggling, and muttering while she did so, trying to get free of the cords the ACE Metabots had bound her with. She didn't notice the dog until it was close. Then she realized, well, it wasn't a dog! Claire's light blue eyes went wide in alarm for a moment, but to her surprise, the kitten-construct seemed nonplussed about the creature. When the metabots had come, it had headed for safety, so, maybe this was a good sign? She really, really, hoped so, since she couldn't do much of anything if it decided it wasn't going to be friendly.

So... what was a wolf doing this close to New York? She thought they were supposed to be rather shy creatures? So maybe this wasn't what it seemed? Some folks back home had had wolf-dog hybrids. Maybe it was one of those? Well, maybe she could get it to bring her some help in any event.

"ro et elp!" Smooth Claire. Like anything is going to understand you with this stuff pulled tight across your mouth, she thought. She tried gesturing with her head next, which was probably less effective at getting her point across than trying to talk. She squirmed, trying to get just one hand free, with little effect. How the heck was she going to get Lassie here to understand she needed help?

The construct, on the other hand, thought this was a great game. Every time she squirmed, her hair moved, and it had a fresh chance to pounce on it! It tossed it in the air, then pounce, then took its 'kill' and started to toddle off. Except it was still attached to the owner.
"Oow!"

Adder just had to snort. The city was just chock full of people who couldn't tell a person from an animal. He even had unusual colouring, though not impossible as far as he knew, and yet people still assumed he was a literal wolf.

He stayed where he was, but cracked his jaw in a definite smirk. Go get help? Oh please.

He could help, if he wanted.

Or he could not help. Hm.

He let his tail squish from one side to the other, curling around his toes. Mostly he watched the girl, and occasionally the cat.

Oh, fine. After a few minutes of apparent consideration, Adder walked over and hopped onto the bench. Should he keep playing the part he'd been given, or shift back? At such close range, the soul- and flesh-scent were more than a little overpowering, and would only get stronger...

But if he shifted, then she would have a face to associate with him and this situation, and she definitely was one of the excessive number of people who had been in the mansion recently.

All right then. He opened his mouth, at least polite enough not to breathe or drool all over her, and delicately tried to catch just the binding stuff over her mouth with just his teeth. His hearing wasn't good enough to interpret complete mumbling, and her hands seemed to be more bound.

The redhead looked a little worried at first, but quickly realized he was trying to work the cord free.
"Blah!" were Claire's first words, well, word, when it popped out of her mouth. "Eww... that stuff tastes just like licking the back of a Postit note" she continued, making a most interesting face. Whether that was conjecture or she'd actually done so was anybody's guess.

So either this was a really smart wolf-dog-thing or... it wasn't really an animal. She pondered that, looking at its eyes. She couldn't say exactly why, but they looked intelligent, not quite like a dog's.
"Ah... hi. I, ah, don't suppose you could get me loose from this stuff, or get someone to get me loose? I really don't want to wait around for the people from the zoo to get here. It's getting dark." she said, glancing around at the gathering gloom with a worried expression. She squirmed again, but the stuff seemed to  have fused to itself where it had come into contact with other parts of the cord. As such, it was quite snug around her wrists, waist, and legs, but not getting tighter thankfully.

She paused to see if any of that seemed to have any effect, and began to blush. It was very awkward talking to an apparent non-human while laying tied up on one's back, in a park, with darkness closing in and she was very embarrassed by the whole affair.

When the cord snapped, Adder sat back and spent a few moments trying to get the taste off his tongue and teeth. He had not been expecting that. Gross, gross, gross. Not the worst-gross he'd ever had in his mouth, but the worst in a while, so he nodded emphatically at the girl's description. He hadn't actually licked post-it notes before, but he had ended up with adhesives in his mouth for a variety of not-worth-talking-about reasons.

He dragged his tongue across his forearm, picking a relatively clean part even though he was pretty evenly grimy and streetworn, and twisted his face into a grimace to match the girl's. Not in mimicry, but in shared unpleasantness.

Oh, getting her loose. Something about a zoo?

Adder wasn't a fan of zoos. The zoo-people he'd run into had generally been pretty good about accepting that he was a mutant, but he still didn't like any part of it. Hurrying up here was definitely the best plan, and he almost considered shifting back to just cut through the string stuff -

until he remembered that he didn't currently have anything sharp. It was not a spectacularly pleasant realization, and his ears shifted with a moment of exposed irritation before he dropped the whole no-more-tasting-gross-stuff idea. He'd tasted worse. Hell, he'd eaten worse. He'd suck it up and survive like he always did.

Adder brought a paw up and prodded at the stuff on the girl's wrists, using his sturdy but blunt claws very much like a probing fingertip. A bit thicker than what he'd just chewed through, but otherwise the same. Getting a tooth behind it was going to be a bit trickier, though; it seemed to be tighter.

Sigh.

Twisting his head and absently looking at the darkening sky while he worked, Adder carefully hooked an upper canine tooth between the string and the girl's skin, and then went to work shearing through it.

Gross gross gross.

When he went to work on the cords, Claire rolled partially on her side to make getting at it easier.
"Oh thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!" she bubbled very sincerely. Somewhere in the back of her head, she had this worst-case scenario of those stupid robots returning, but that didn't seem likely. They'd done their work, and moved on to harass some other poor unsuspecting soul. Okay, maybe she was feeling a bit cynical, but who wouldn't after laying tied up in a park? Daddy was so going to... ugh. Never find out, that's what. Never, ever, find out. He'd get all over-protective, and she'd never be able to go visit anyone, anywhere, alone again.

After a bit, the cord finally snapped, freeing one wrist. She'd seen that he didn't care for the taste much more than she did apparently. She tugged at the cord around her waist for a few seconds before saying,
"Hey, if you could get my purse from the bench, I've got a Swiss army knife in there. Somewhere.Then I could cut the rest I think" she offered. Better than chewing through all the nasty stuff. "You know, you're a really unique take on a knight in shining armor. Just say'n" she said, giving him a freckled smile.

...she was a social butterfly, wasn't she?

Adder was honestly kind of weirded out by social butterflies, and people who were always excited, and that whole sort of energetic people. Just why.

At least she was still distracted by the bindings, and she hadn't tried to hug him. He might have to play up the whole wolf thing if she did. Get his teeth a little closer to her skin, and at a more aggressive angle.

But as long as she didn't do anything rash, all would be well. Hopefully. The longer he hung out here, the more he itched to be under cover again. Who knew what might come by? Zoo people, cop robots, mutants who glowed pink and stank of murder...

Where the hell did she get off thinking he was a knight? Not that he knew much about knights, but what he did know was all about them being stupid fantasies for entitled rich people. Or figures of speech. Either way, they weren't part of his world and they certainly had nothing in common with him. He'd get her stupid purse and probably leave a few more toothmarks than he absolutely had to, and then he'd leave her richness right where she was.

Harrumph.

When he dropped the purse by her hands, there weren't really a lot of unnecessary toothmarks but there definitely were some, plus he'd casually scraped his tongue on it to try to change the flavour stuck in his mouth. At least it wasn't sound, right?

"Thank you!" she said, oblivious to any damage done to the thing. It was like a big crocheted bag with leather handles rather than a standard purse. She tipped it over on its side, and started digging through it. When that didn't produce anything, or at least didn't get results quickly enough, she started taking stuff out. Here's what began to build a growing pile by the owner:

Spare change. Mostly pennies and dimes. With each new item, some got drug out. The whole purse must be laced with it.
iPhone - purple case. Not currently working.
plastic container with a half-dozen small protein bars
several pieces of string
A (dead) flashlight, which produced a "oh darn it!" when she hit the button but nothing happened.
A paperback book, "Gates of Zion"
Another book "Origami made Easy"
A pad of paper.
A lighter
An inhaler
An orange plastic waterproof match holder
A 3x5 notebook
A Kindle
An ancient-looking orange tin that says "100 No. 6 Atlas Blasting Caps" (see below)
A pepper spray key chain. "Oh! That's where that went!"
A vast array of mismatched pens and pencils
Some... girl stuff. That she quickly shoved under the pile.
A tiny first-aid kit.
An M-80 firecracker, looking rather worn. "Oh, hey! Forgot I even had that!" she chirped happily at her discovery, before adding it to the pile.
Pieces of what might once have been a cell phone. It was hard to tell now.
And, finally, scissors!
If there was actually a knife in there somewhere, she didn't find it, but the scissors seemed to fit the need.

The scissors were for cutting paper, not cords, but they were sharp and with some effort she worked her way through the one on her waist, then freed her other wrist before getting her legs free.

"Umm, protein bar? They're chocolate peanut butter" she said, pulling the lid off the container they were in and pulling a couple of bars out, before she started to scoop everything back into her purse. As she did so, the flashlight came on. "Oh great. Now you decide to work. Really? Just Really?" she said with some obvious irritation. She shined the light into the purse though, and a moment later fished out an actual swiss army knife.

"Well, at least I know I haven't lost it" she said, giving a 'oh well' shrug, then dropping it back in the bag.

Any hint of gunpowder scent on the tin is very faint, and very, very, old.

Adder sat back to watch as the girl picked through her bag, melting into the shadows with enough practice to combat his paleness. Definitely rich, he mused to himself as he eyed the growing pile of money. Not a ton of cash, but he'd stretched out less. He figured there was enough there for a bit of food -

he didn't have to scrounge for food right now.

That -

That unsettled him. It was unfamiliar, and unfamiliar things were always concerning. Sure, he'd known some of what he was getting into with this place, but the depth of its effects on his habits and needs was starting to prove, well, deeper.

He shifted uncomfortably and nearly lost the fur spread across his skin. He had to stay shifted. He didn't want her to have more information on him, to associate him as an individual with this. He didn't want to be associated with anyway.

Breathe. Feel. Be.

The fur around his extremities stopped wavering as Adder forced his mood back to a stable, appropriate place. He could be curious, curious worked. Especially suspicious-curious.

FOOD.

Need to scrounge or not, not being hungry was a very rare state for Adder, and as soon as the smell hit him from the just-opened container his ears shot forward and he had to swallow.

And then the flashlight came on and he ducked his head, lifting a wrist over his eyes at the sudden brightness. Rude.

Claire rolled her eyes at the fussy flashlight, clicked it off and dropped it back into the purse. Not really necessary now that she'd found what she needed and could stand up again. Being able to dampened her desire to do so at the moment. Still no bus. Lovely. Well, eat something and then start walking she supposed. If the bus suddenly showed up, she could always try to wave it down.

She sat up cross-legged on the ground, and pulled open one of the protein bars.
"Did you want one?" she offered, holding up the unwrapped bar, then looked around. Gone. Wow. Here one minute, but gone the next. Go figure. She needed to get moving pretty soon anyways she supposed.

That's when she saw the eyes in the darkness. Good thing this guy was friendly, or that would have really creeped her out. Guy? It dawned on her that she didn't really know if this was guy. Could be a girl for all she knew. Oh well, not really pertinent she supposed. The kitten construct jumped into her lap, purring away, and she began to give it a quick pet.

"Some help you are" she said, as it curled up in her lap. Other than being a conversation starter, or in some cases a conversation stopper, her power seemed pretty worthless to her at this point. Why couldn't she have been one of those cool mutants that flew or something?

"Guess you can't tell me your name, but mine's Claire. I also answer to 'hey you ditzy redhead', but honestly Claire is a lot shorter" she said with a chuckle. "I'd give you a hug for getting me outta that, but you're clear over there" she offered. It was just her nature.

Adder had been about to move closer to the girl so he could snag some food. Then she mentioned hugging, and he stopped where he was. Wait, he'd actually stood? Er. Fine, that was intentional.

...

Hugs versus food.

He could just bite her if she tried to hug him? It wasn't like she could possibly taste worse than that string stuff. He could smell her, and her power was associated with paper. Maybe she'd taste like paper, but that wasn't a bad taste. Not really. It was just kind of... bleh.

Food won out and he padded forwards. He also kept a very wary eye on her, ready to glare and snap and be a general pain in the butt if she moved to touch him, and did his best to make it very clear that he was only coming over for the food. Food plus a change in flavour. Really. Not much decision on that front.

Claire quirked her head to one side, with a hint of a smile. Wow, this guy was, um, cautious. But she held out the unwrapped bar, holding just the very tip so that it would be easy for him to take, and so it would be easy to pull her own fingers back if he got overly enthusiastic. After all, he did have rather big teeth, so a little caution on her own part was warranted. She did have some sense of self[-preservation after all. Not that her parents wouldn't argue that point and say that she didn't, or that it was marginal at best. Parents... Can't live with them, can't be born without them.

The slight girl began to study her companion as she sat there in the dark, but then roused herself and got ready to stand to leave.
"Welp, guess I ought to start walking. I've been here quite awhile, and no bus, so I'm betting I missed the last one of the day this far out. Wherever here is..." she concluded, looking about. She was fairly sure which way home lay, but not entirely certain. But she was sure she'd come to something eventually if she just got moving, and then could ask for directions or maybe even phone back to the school.

Adder gave the girl a quick squinty almost-glare once he was within reach of the bar, hesitated as if to see if she would react to his nearness now that she was free, and then leaned in to take the bar neatly between his jaws.

And then he quickly fake-casually stepped backwards, tossing his head back to keep every crumb in his mouth as he chomped through the bar, teeth shearing through the crumbly-smooth texture like it were room-temperature snow and head moving as needed to avoid dropping anything. It was a very practiced motion, for all that the majority of the time Adder ate in his human-ish form.

Girl - Claire was leaving? It sounded like she wasn't sure of where she was.

Well, he knew that she was from the mansion, and that was where he was headed. He... could... lead her back. Except travelling the populated routes she was undoubtedly used to taking would take him through areas too loud and scented and busy for him to tolerate. He didn't just want to avoid shifting in front of her, he also really wanted to avoid a headache. Seriously, who liked having a pounding headache? It made everything miserable, limited options, confined and bound and punished and starved.

He fidgeted. He was assuming that she couldn't identify him between forms, wasn't he? Yes, he was. What was he basing that on?

Living near people was complicated.

Adder gave his head a little shake and leaned back uncertainly.

If she tried anything, he could fend off her and her papery cat long enough to bolt. He was confident of that, especially with so much food (if not sleep). And when he got back to the mansion, he could... try to get Cafas or the not-cop to deal with her?

Not a solution he liked. Not one bit. He shouldn't have got into this mess at all. He should have just kept going, and left her lying there.

At least he wasn't under any weird impression that someone not seeing his actual shift would be unable to connect his before and after. He wasn't that stupid, although 'stupid' was definitely a good description for what he'd been so far today. There'd been a lot of stupid. Did it come from sleeping in the same place? From going back to something, even if it was just pillows and blankets?

Hesitantly, warily, and with careful attention for how Claire reacted, Adder slipped from four feet to a two-footed crouch, fingertips brushing the ground and eyes never altering as the fur melted away like evaporating fog.

The girl watched him take the bar and eat it, pretty much the way she'd expected. The way a stray dog might. Just close enough to get the handout, but not so close that getting nabbed would be real likely. She idly wondered how he'd gotten here. What was his story? She'd met some interesting people since changing schools. Many had it rough too. She was one of the lucky ones. She'd lost some friends, but still had a supportive family.

"So, we've got..."Claire began to say, when something weird began to happen to her companion. Claire's expressive face looked a little bit surprised, her red eyebrow lifting as the shift began to happen. She seemed very alert, ready to bolt if she had to, but not willing to do so without reason. No, her curious nature had her bolted to the spot to see what was happening. Someday, it might be the death of her, but try to tell a headstrong sixteen-year-old that.

"Well, um, that was different" she said, blinking her light blue eyes once. "Do you always go around as a wolf, rescuing girls from crazed robots?" she asked with a smirk. The paper cat, which hadn't been perturbed by his wolf form, had now puffed out its tail just like a real cat and run behind her, though it was starting to settle down again. It peeked out, then walked back around in front of her, trying to figure out where the wolf went apparently.

"Some protector you are" she said to it, but gave it a pet anyways, a little smile forming on her freckled face.

"So, um would you happen to know the bus routes around here? Or maybe how to get to Salem Center?" she asked. True, she needed the information, but it was also nervous conversation. When she was scared, or just really off-balance she tended to either freeze and not say anything, or talk - a lot. Apparently she was opting for talk tonight.