The ground was finally warming up. Adder tapped his toes against the concrete between steps, keeping as much of his focus on the physical world as he could. It had always been safer that way. 

Down one street, around a corner simply because.  Adder hadn't been properly lost in this massive city in years.  Many, many years.  Sure, once in a while he'd pop out of a building and be momentarily uncertain of he precise location, but that never lasted long.  There were a few pockets he didn't frequent, rich neighbourhoods and the like, but even those he had spent some time in.

This city was his home, ultimately, and he knew his way around his home. He'd just been spending more time in a different room of it than he used to.

This concrete was new.  They'd repaired the sidewalk since he'd walked here last.  Whenever that was; he didn't bother with things like that.  He just recognized it as different.  It had changed.  For something like this, it simply meant that the eternal city maintenance had rolled past here at some point.

Eternal.  That was what the city was.  It changed and grew and twisted, but it always existed.  He could see no end to that existence.  He refused to see an end to the existence of his own place in this city.  That was why he did things like stay in one place.  The place that fed him and kept him warm, and overwhelmed and stressed and surrounded and stressed and was so incredibly wrong on so very many levels, but was still safe -

That was why he didn't think about things.

Adder shifted his weight and broke into a run, tough sole-skin gripping the dry sidewalk surface as he spun around a corner without looking or scenting for danger.

It was supposed to be Spring again, but it didn’t matter; it was still freezing. It was always freezing. An eternal hell of ice. Isaac wondered how long it would take for the heat from the jailbreak to die down and he could leave this miserable city. Not yet, at least, so the thin midday air found him trudging down the frigid streets in search of the large amount of food he needed to stave off hypothermia.

Isaac’s mind was so focused on hating the cold that he didn’t bother to look around the corner as he turned, and his mood was such that he didn’t care if anyone would be in his way when he did. As it turned out, there was someone in the way. They crashed into Isaac at a sprint, knocking him to the ground and falling on top of him in a scramble of appendages.

Isaac shoved the small figure off him. “Hey! Watch where-“ Isaac stopped. It was him. The little brat that had tried to steal his food a month ago and had managed to escape without a beating. And with a steak. Isaac remembered finding his supplies short when he had gotten home and having to choose between the cold of getting more or the hunger of going without. And all while the twerp had probably laughed into his free meal.

“You!” Isaac rolled forward and grabbed the teen by his neck. No getting away. Not this time.

A low growl escaped Isaac’s throat as he hauled the thief to his feet and pushed him back into the alley, slamming him into the brick wall.

“Remember me, you little ****?” Isaac pulled down his mask with his free hand, letting red heat rise in his face. “Thought you could get away, huh? Well let’s see you squirm away this time.” Keeping firm pressure on the teen’s neck against the wall, Isaac pulled back and swung a heavy punch at the soft spot just beneath the kid’s ribs.

Fingers on his throat.

Recognition didn't soothe Adder's nerves any, and as the vaguely familiar stranger's fist hurtled towards him it was abruptly a wolf's neck in his hand, and Adder's now-longer rib cage caught the knuckles with enough force for him to wheeze a spit-filled gasp into the guy's face.

And then tuck his hind legs up to kick him where the guy had thought to punch him. And also squirm like mad to twist his teeth closer to his face. He had more reach in this form, though not much; in all honesty, he was mostly banking on GIANT SLAVERING WOLF TEETH IN THE FACE to spook his attacker. If he could get a claw or paw pad into the gap of the guy's ribs, all the better.

Later, Isaac would curse himself for not remembering that the little twerp was a wolf-shifter. He should have known. He’d seen the kid in wolf form running away from him. It was the only reason the thief had managed to escape- he should have been ready for it.

But he wasn’t. His aim was too high for the changed form, and he struck ribs instead of kidneys. Startled by the saliva flying into his face from what was suddenly a canine mouth, he was caught off guard as two feral claws cut through his hoodie and tore dark red gashes in his abdomen.

^%$@!! Issac gave a sharp grunt and instinctively began to pull his arm toward his stomach and away from the wolf’s neck. It was only through sheer force of hatred that he was able to regain control of his actions in time to keep a loose hold on the creature’s neck. He was no longer pressing against the wall, though, and with the wolf’s paws in the air it quickly started to fall.

There was no stopping the momentum. Isaac was back to his fighting senses, but he didn’t have the time or positioning to force the animal back against the wall. And so he let it fall, bringing the arm around its throat down in an arc to follow its descent before throwing his entire body down on top of it.

No escape this time, ****er!

Collapsing on top of the wolf, Isaac brought his full weight down and around its legs in a punch to what was now most definitely its stomach. Feeling the blow connect, he twisted his torso to shove his shoulder up under the dog’s jaw and pin its throat to the ground.

Had Isaac been fighting a human opponent, the move would have been very effective. But he wasn’t, and instead all he achieved was his face sideways between the creature’s slavering jaws. It felt him, and it bit. HARD. Knife-like teeth ripped their way across his mouth, cheek, and ear as the jaws clamped down, and then again as Isaac pulled himself free.

The stream of words shouted from Isaac’s lungs would have made Quentin Tarantino blush. Not even getting punched by the META bots had hurt this much. Isaac reared back and, without giving thought to what he was doing, pulled the glove from his hand with his teeth. Rage blazed from his bare skin as he brought the fist down on the wolf’s chest.

The kid was going to pay in blood.

Satisfaction glinted in Adder's forever-yellow eyes as heat brushed his toes. His claws were pretty blunt, especially compared to a cat's, but with enough force even a smooth rock could cut, and his legs were strong.

He sucked in as much air as he could while the pressure lessened on his throat, and then -

ow-

that was definitely the ground. Much of the air Adder had captured was crushed out of him, and if there wasn't anything broken it was purely because his bones were springy and as stubborn as he was. Or luck. Probably luck. He'd find out later if he had any luck or springiness, hopefully. Finding out later would mean he was still alive.

He hoped nothing was broken.

Please let nothing be broken.

He had a very, very brief moment to appreciate that the next impact was unlikely to break any bones before his assailant's fist hit his stomach.

Now that was pain.

That was also flesh right next to his face. Blinded by pain but guided by instinct and the power of his nose, Adder lashed out with his teeth, and felt his teeth dig in. More, more! Pay him back for everything, force him back, force him off, drive him away.

And then there was air in his mouth, abruptly stinging-cold though all his pain still seemed to be trapped in his belly. Pounding in his ears, pounding in his throat, pounding in every scrap of his body. He clung to his sense of smell. He could feel afraid later. All he could do right now was fight.

Fight.

Survive. The shadows around his vision cleared a bit. The guy was pulling a glove off his hand. Hah, his face looked a lot better now than it had before.

He was going to get hit again, wasn't he?

That was a heat shimmer.

That was a very human realization, and Adder kicked as hard as he could, clawless now but with human-strength legs. Human strength and old panic. His mouth burned now, and breathing sent stabbing pain through his belly, and while his throat was momentarily free he could still tell it was bruised - but mostly he saw the heat and knew one thing.

Time to get away.

He used the kick to propel himself back and try to get out of reach.

Juliette wrapped herself tighter in the thin coat she had worn out that morning over her clothes. She had been optimistic about the weather, thinking that at some point the weather would have to warm up. Didn't it? Letting out a quick breath that soon turned to fog, she continued down the path to the subway station.

Normally, she would have taken her normal route, but that morning was a bitter one and she didn't want to have to spend any more time outside than absolutely necessary. So, she made a snap decision and turned on her heel down a back alley. She had been down it a few times and figured she could probably make it over the tall fence if no one was looking. She kept her head down on the path, not really looking ahead of her.

Just a few seconds before she would have walked into a man in an expensive-looking coat, she finally looked up. She stopped suddenly to get a good look at the scene.

The man in the coat was standing over what looked to be a boy of some kind. His features were far from human, though, and he more closely resembled an animal than a human. Despite his unusual appearance, however, it was still clear to her that he had taken several hits.

Juliette walked up directly behind the man and reached up to tap his shoulder. "What the hell are you doing?" She asked him incredulously with a hand placed lightly on her jutted hip. The other was still near his shoulder. Something, a heat of some kind, seemed to be radiating off of him. She chalked it up to her overly active imagination and waited for his response as if she had felt nothing.

There was another shift of form in front of him and Isaac’s fist once again missed its mark, slamming into the pavement after just grazing the –now human- teen and melting a loose piece of nylon vest.

Squirming, squirming, always squirming you little rat. Get back here! Isaac grasped wildly at the wriggling thief.

And then he felt a tap on his shoulder.

Instinct told him to turn around. Anger told him to grab the wolf shifter. Between the two of them he managed neither, twisting jerkily to the side while clutching vainly at the air. And then it was too late. The teen shoved away and scrambled to his feet. Isaac looked up at his target, now a slight distance away.

@&#$! He knew how this went. Isaac’s face flushed with rage, catching his mask on fire. Again. Spinning around, he glared up through the flames and the haze of anger at whoever had dared to interrupt his vengeance.

“WHAT?!!!!!!!”

Juliette pulled her hand away immediately and stepped back, visibly frightened by his sudden outburst. She composed herself quickly, though and waved her hand over his burning face. She pulled the flames away and held them in a ball in her hand. As they danced slightly, she looked back at the man in front of her.

"What the hell are you doing?" She repeated calmly, still holding the flames. "From what I can see, you're beating up a teenager while on fire, and I would rather not have to interfere. Burns are difficult to treat with only a first-aid kit."

After another moment, she turned her hand over and absorbed the flames in a quick motion. She studied him carefully, wanting to give the young mutant a chance to get away as she distracted Calcifer.

The skin seemed to glow a little and was very warm. Definitely a mutant, she decided. Wanting to disable him further, she quickly absorbed any light that he produced.

Distraction.

At this point, that was as far as Adder's assessment of the newcomer went. She distracted the guy trying to burn and pummel him (the burning was currently the most concerning) and therefore he was going to take the narrow chance she offered.

If he could haul himself farther away. Moving kind of pulled on some very angry abdominal stuff.

Very. Angry.

But hah! Stupid fire guy missed! Wait that was a horrible smell. A head-spinningly nauseating smell. Adder's moment of relief vanished, and his attempts to skitter away were even further reduced as he had to take an entire hand away from dragging himself to cover his nose and mouth.

... He touched his mouth. That was apparently a bad idea. Okay. Cover nose, don't touch mouth. Or move it. Ow. Also don't touch or move stomach. Ow. Also don't breathe. Ow and ew.

It was probably all for the best that Adder was too distracted by his own state to fully notice that his assailant was now on fire.

Nope, he noticed. He stopped hurting, at least. And actually made it to his feet, and some metres away before his forgotten muscles ran out of imaginary steam and he more crashed than leaned against the wall.

Oh hey, no more fire. He could go back to noticing his injuries. They were starting to be quite concerning. If he'd felt at all safe, he would've sat down right there. As it was, he took as much time resting against the wall as he could.

Ow.

Figurative (and perhaps some literal) steam shot from Isaac’s nostrils.

Why you dirty little- his mental categorization of the girl was not kind. Some prissy little princess who got off by making herself look like a better person than anyone else. A glitter and cardboard “angel” who just had to poke her nose into every perceived injustice. And now she was standing in front of him with her hand on her hips in a pose that just screamed “I’m better than you.”

Isaac instantly despised her, but she wasn’t worth his time and he started to turn back around to his actual target. But then she moved her hand, and he felt it:

COLD

Freezing, biting cold ripped the fire from his face and into her hand. The sudden pain of it shocked him, stabbing into the cut on his check and drowning out whatever it was she was saying.

The previous disdain he’d felt toward her froze over into an unmoving monolith of hatred. She was smug, she was pretentious, and she made him cold. Isaac hated the cold more than anything, and she made it WORSE. She moved her hand again, tearing heat from his exposed face and hand.

She needed to be put down.

Swiftly- without a snarky remark or any showiness- Isaac stood and punched her. He didn’t know if there was some secret to knocking a person unconscious with one hit, but he was sure going to try.

She hadn't seen it coming.

The punch came out of nowhere. It was a hurtling projectile that seemed to erupt from thin air and hit her with a deafening smack. Her face felt like it had been hit by a truck. It had been so long since she had been punched that she had almost forgotten the feeling. She had become so desensitized to pain over the past few years that she had forgotten what it truly felt like to be in pain.

Her body remained in a bent position that it had been forced into by the punch, and she was too shocked to stand back up. Instinctively, she touched her face where she could already begin to feel a bruise form. She pressed on it gingerly, wincing from the pain. One thing was for sure: the man had a nasty uppercut.

After a moment or so, she looked up at him, her eyes flashing yellow-gold with rage. She rarely ever let herself lose her cool, but she figured that now was as good of a time as any. The man, after all, definitely deserved it. The muscles in her hands seized into a fist as her nails bit into her skin, drawing a little of the attention away from her face for a brief period.

She shifted forms in a quick motion, her veins already flooded with energy. The pain disappeared instantly and was replaced by a searing hatred.

Her knee moved up above her waist and she released a swift kick to his groin, expecting him to double over. She shook herself off, ready to go another round.

Casually unaware of the details of the squabble nearby, Adder gingerly prodded his lips and ignored the whole heat-stealing situation. It wasn't his lips that hurt so much as his gums and the insides of his mouth. Well, not entirely. There were definitely some blisters along the lower inner edges of his lips, and his tongue was a bit sore. Not blistered, though. Just the weird almost-saltiness like drinking something too hot. Not that he got hot things to drink very often. They just tended to be way too hot when he did get them. More or less illegally.

Hot drinks didn't blister his gums. How was he supposed to chew? He cast a very angry eye at the distracted assailant.

Who was in the middle of getting kicked in the nuts.

Huh.

Served him right.

He should go away. He tried to time his casual, pretending-not-to-be-stiff-and-in-pain shuffling away to when the stupid fire guy would be about to react in some obnoxiously violent manner. Might as well distract him and let macho girl get another shot in.

Of course she went for the nut shot; it was the move of a coward, someone who knew they couldn’t win on actual strength. She probably expected it to have some sort of effect, too. Isaac merely flinched. He almost laughed: by the time the kick made it through the basalt fiber and insulation of his pants, it didn’t hurt any more than the time he was hit by a motorcycle, and that had hardly hurt at all.

Isaac wiped away the blood oozing from his cheek. Now that hurt, but it was the result of something sharp with a lot of force behind it. As long as this was just a battle of punches and blunt blows, the girl didn’t stand a chance.

Isaac pressed forward with another shot to her jaw, aimed to knock her off balance. He’d seen the way she’d reeled from his first hit; this would be quick.

The man barely flinched, seemingly unharmed by the blow. Juliette's stomach knotted aggressively. If he wasn't hurt by that, what would hurt him? Obviously, he was impervious to heat, and by the looks of it blasts as well.

She was more prepared as he swung again. She sidestepped it quickly but was clipped a little on her way. It didn't hurt her as she was still in her energy form, but the force of it sent her reeling.

As she stumbled to the left, her eyes fell on the purse that she had carelessly tossed to the side when she saw the pair fighting. She grabbed it greedily and dug around, her hand securing around a mid-sized object. She turned around and held it out in front of her, the taser turned to max. She wasn't sure exactly where she had intended to aim, but she ended up striking him on the side of his face where he already had an open wound.

Lucky shot, she thought as the thing vibrated in her hand.

She dodged, and Isaac’s punch went wide. He felt it graze her a bit, but it wasn’t at all worth the momentum he’d invested behind it. He stumbled forward a few steps, regained his footing, and spun around to face her. Wait, what was she hold-

A train made of thunder and knives slammed into his cheek, whiting out his vision and knocking him to the ground. The barbs couldn’t gain a purchase on his cooled skin, but they contacted the blood and that was enough. Isaac rolled over on the ground, clutching his face where the Taser had struck and groaned through gritted teeth. The ache of the shock wormed in next to the stabbing pain of cut and twisted its way through his head and down his neck.

Slowly, Isaac got to his feet. He look at the girl, then to thief slumped against the wall, then back to the girl again.

**** this. **** it all. The opportunity was gone. He spat on the ground, turned, and stormed out of the alley.

He’d have to finish this later. He’d seen the way the wolf-changeling had reacted to the sight of fire, he’d just need to use it when the girl wasn’t around to take it away. As for the girl- he raised a hand to his cheek- he could take her as long as he didn’t have a weak point cut into him by the thief.

Isaac probed the wound on his face. It was painful, but most of it seemed superficial and the blood was already starting to clot. There was one deep cut, though, that would probably leave a mark. He felt his stomach where he had been kicked: just some scratches on his skin. But his clothing had been torn. Again. He’d have to fix that.

As he rejoined his original route, Isaac thought back to the girl. She was now the second mutant he’d met who had been impervious to his heat. More than impervious, actually: she could steal it. He’d always used his heat as his trump card, but after the fire lizard and now her… maybe he needed to look into carrying a gun.