Aurion stopped mid-step, his hand just inches above the cement. He turned his head slowly, his eyes catching the dim light of the alley. He heard something, he was sure of it, but as he continued to survey he could not see nor hear anything moving. Whatever he had heard was gone, or hiding, either way it wasn't coming back any time soon. With a shrug of one shoulder he continued to move slowly down the dark alley.

Normally it wasn't too hard to find something to eat. Humans always seemed to throw out half of their food, not all of it good, but sometimes he found a few scraps of steak. "Uuuggnnnn." He had just thought of steak as he was rummaging in someones trash when he felt, and quite clearly heard, his stomach reminding him he hadn't gotten anything decent to eat all day, or the day before that. And sunrise wasn't too far away by his best guess.

His frustration mounted as he found nothing in the trashcan to eat. Pizza boxes, empty cans of food, papers, bottles, stuff he was sure came from children. Inedible trash, all of it! Aurion grabbed the can in his hands and tossed it to the side, out of his way as he huffed, puffed and angrily stormed down the alley, hitting the can with his tail before passing its crumpled remains.

Normally he would have stayed well in the shadows, or if it was too bright, gone above the shadows and walked on the walls. Normally he wouldn't have made such racket, and if he had, he'd have scampered off quick. Not then, no, he was irritated, he was hungry, and he really, really just didn't give a crap. He was walking right under lights, maybe partially in the shadows, as he whipped his tail angrily side to side while he gnashed his teeth a bit.

He was so engrossed in his pity-fest, he stopped paying attention to where he was going.

Ugh, my head. Lydia rubbed her eyes as she slowly raised her head, unsure of where she was. Her head throbbed with pain and the light was hurting her eyes, but she ignored it. The last time she’d woken up with such symptoms, she’d found herself in a bathtub cuddling with a crazy lady, so she wasted no time in figuring out what was going on. She searched her surroundings as her eyes adjusted. She was on a couch. There were other bodies around her. Unconscious bodies, mostly.

There was other furniture around, and it looked like she was in a living room. Which meant the girl was in a house. It all started to come back to her. Lyd had been at a party, a pretty wild one. She must’ve passed out with the other party-goers. At least I got the couch, she thought as she sat up. The ticking clock across the room indicated that it was three in the morning. She considered lying back down and just sleeping away what was clearly defining itself as a hangover, but she was wary of overnight stays after what happened the last time she’d had an inadvertent sleepover.

Lydia rose from the couch and tried to avoid stepping on any bodies as she stumbled to the door. She grabbed a pair of shoes near the exit that looked like hers, and walked out into the cool night air. It was actually a bit chilly, despite the weather significantly warming up for the summer, and she shivered in her glittery tank top and gray shorts.

She really hoped she was going in the right direction.

The teenager followed familiar-sounding street names and was so focused on finding her way back to the Sanctuary that she didn’t hear the hulking mutant thrashing about around the corner. She did notice him, however, when she turned said corner.

The first thing her eyes zeroed in on was its tail. It was a huge freaking tail. Lydia gasped and stopped in her tracks. About half of the monster/alien/whatever it was, was covered by the shadows, making his size questionable and all the more menacing. He was huge. And suddenly she felt very, very small. Fueled by fear and a burst of adrenalin, her mutation suddenly activated itself, and her skin started to change into champagne topaz once again.

“M-mon…Ahhhhh!” The girl squealed, and started running in the opposite direction. As opposite as possible, to the farthest place possible. If there’s a God or something out there, please don’t let this monster kill me. Please don’t let it kill me, please don’t let it kill me…

Maybe it was fate. Maybe it was the wind whistling through the alley. Maybe it was the woman's shirt glittering and sparkling in the light that caught Aurion's attention. Whatever it was, both he and she seemed to notice each other at almost the same time.

At first he couldn't take his eyes away from her shirt, entranced at how it caught and scattered light. It didn't help it moved with every breath she took. It distracted him from his hunger, and annoyance. There was a good chance, she would have been perfectly fine if she hadn't opened her mouth and uttered sounds. One stuttering word was all it took for him to really take notice of her. He looked at her eyes, and knew what was going on behind them.

His abdomen tightened as his stomach growled again. Remembering he hadn't eaten for a while, he wondered how she would taste. It wouldn't be much of a jump from killing a human to eating them. He had seen the slight change in her skin, but he had never met another mutant, so he dismissed it as he saw her turn and flee.

Aurion narrowed his eyes and tightened his muscles. A low growl built up in his throat, 'I'll give you a reason to,' "Scream!" He said in a bellowing roar as he went after her. He wouldn't run, oh no, that would take the fun out of it. He hadn't eaten, he was irritated, and this human looked tasty. He'd chase her and make a game out of it, staying just far enough back........unless he got too hungry.

>> “Scream!”

Lydia swore and cursed and prayed as she fled the monster now pursuing her. She almost did scream, but she didn’t want to give him (at least, she thought it was a him) the satisfaction. Her mind settled for gasps and squeaks as her bare feet pounded against the pavement. Her shoes had been discarded some feet ago, but she forgot all about them as her heart raced. The thing certainly was living up to its reputation as it chased after her.

Her mutation slowly worked its magic, and the skin on her arms and torso started shifting into the sparkling topaz, gleaming under the streetlights she passed. Eventually it would start crawling down her legs and up her face as well.

Lydia didn’t know where she was going, nor did she know where she was. All she knew is that she had to run to survive. Hopefully all of those cardio workouts would pay off. She ran into a trash-littered alley, but paid no heed to the gross objects her feet brushed past. She rushed through blindly, her eyes not having time to adjust to the sudden darkness. Hey, seriously, some godly lightning bolt or something would be great right now!

And then she tripped. Damn.

Lyd’s foot slipped on a slick, wet part of the ground, and she fell squarely on her behind. “Oh no no no no no…” She panicked, trying to get up quickly and restart her flight, but she only managed to crawl to the other mouth of the alley. The light from a street lamp shone on her mockingly.

…thanks for all the help, up there. She closed her eyes and braced herself for what would surely be a painful, horrible death.

Oh the little pretty was quick on her feet. Aurion kept pace with her easily enough, but she was quick. She would have left most people eating dust, those poor, fat, lazy people. During her flight, somehow her shoe came off her foot and met his acquaintance, in his face. Not just once, but twice. Now there's almost no way that could have happened by chance. Maybe once, but not twice. She had to have done it on purpose, to distract him or something.

It wasn't a very good tactic, not while her running was threatening to distract him from what he wanted to do. Her hips moving side to side as she ran, those shorts not doing anything to hide her legs, that sparkly shirt he kept staring at, and her glinting arms. Aurion slowed down when he noticed her arms. 'Not normal.' He thought to himself.

It was his slower pace that let him notice the world around him more. Specifically the people that were turning their heads to look in his direction after following the woman's frantic fleeing as they crossed a street into another alley. Their reactions to her were normal, confusion, curiosity, indifference. He on the other hand received a myriad of reactions; Fear, hate, disgust, outrage, being chief among them.

As she stepped on and over the alley trash, Aurion barreled through it and over it, kicking, throwing or swiping it aside as he passed. She seemed to be having some issues navigating in the darkness, which made him smirk, but only a little. He couldn't quite get over her arms, he hardly felt hungry as he began to catch up to her. Straight out of a cartoon, she slips on something and lands right on her little tush. She didn't even look behind her as she began crawling towards the end of the alley. Which was probably a good thing.

Aurion jumped on the side of the building next to him and began scaling, in a diagonal way, until he was between the second and third floor. He was above the height of the alley light as he passed by one of the windows. Inside, looking out, was an old bat of a woman watching the crawling one, crawl down the alley. Aurion looked up and caught her eye, bared his teeth and narrowed his eyes. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell oped, it stayed that way as she fell over. If he wasn't holding on with his arms, he would have shrugged. The old crone probably had a heart attack, serves her right.

When the woman with sparking arms reached the end of the alley, she was right beneath a street light. Aurion could see the brown coloring clearly then, and that it seemed to be expanding to cover more of her. He had an idea, but he wasn't sure, how could he? He could ask? No, she'd just run. So what if she did, he could just catch her.

Tick, tick, tack, scrape. That's what each of Aurion's steps on the wall sounded like as he moved to be over the woman. He thought of climbing down, or talking to her from where he was, but neither sounded quite as fun as dropping right in front of her. Hopefully that would elicit the scream he had mentioned before. Then, yeah, then, he would ask her.

Aurion pushed of the wall with just enough force, twisted and landed a few feet in front of her, with his tail coming down and going around him and her a bit, in a wide arc. He grinned broadly, showing his 50+ teeth, then pointed to her arm, then her chest as he tilted his head to the side a bit.

Lydia heard a clicking noise, at first faint but growing louder, from somewhere in the alley. She searched around wildly, but could not see anything amiss. She never looked up. In the short pause, she thought she might have actually escaped the frightening beast. Her pounding heart started to slow, and the adrenalin began to wear off. And she began to feel pain in her ankle, the one she had fallen over with. She wiggled it a little, and was met with a sharp, unwelcoming sensation. It must’ve twisted when she tripped. Which meant that even if she did get up, she probably wouldn’t be able to get very far. And there was still no monster. Had she…had she really outrun that thing?

Not a chance. The terrifying behemoth made himself known once more, landing solidly in front of her, his tail sweeping across the ground. In the darkness of the alley, he looked even more warped and impossibly large. That was it. Lydia’s throat readied an ear-piercing shriek, pushing it up to her mouth, but it didn’t come out. It wouldn’t come out.

The girl found herself unable to scream, or even breathe for that matter. She was too shocked to let out her terror. All she could do was stare at the monster, at his multi-colored scales and huge teeth, his claws and…beard? Huh, the dude had a scraggly, stringy beard. She tilted her head at the sight of the facial hair.

But fear found its way back to the number spot in her mind. Her eyes fell on the monster’s huge tail, with a dangerous looking fin at the end, and she finally let out a small, choked noise.

It almost looked like he was smiling, the way he was curving his mouth. Lydia somehow mustered the energy to look away from the beast. She didn’t want the last thing she saw to be his leering face. She settled for the tattoo on the wrist, the initials of her parents. At least she’d be able to see them again.

'Yes yes yes yesyesyes!' He thought as he watched the woman's reaction. She was going to do it, he'd get the scream, he just knew it. His grin grew larger and larger as the scream built up. It was going to hurt, he was sure of it. Three, two, one....

.....

.....His face fell, and shoulders slumped. Aurion's disappointment was palpable. Even though he was as inhuman looking as one could probably imagine, there would be no mistaking how he felt. All that buildup, that excitement...gone. Poof. Like a planet caught in a supernova, gone, with no trace of coming back anytime soon. All that, and what did he get, a little squeak of a sound. He really wanted to shake his head, or facepalm, or both, at the same time!

She turned her eyes from him, looking away. Well, that wasn't too abnormal. Who really wants to stare at him? Not many people. But too frikkin bad. He was curious, and she might have answers. Besides, if it made her more uncomfortable, the better. She ruined his fun by not screaming, he can at least interrupt her brooding, or whatever she was doing staring at her wrist.

He lifted one hand and curled a finger under her chin and lightly lifted it trying to make her look at him. He covered her other hand with his and tapped her topaz skin with the tip of his claw. He couldn't really feel it, but it didn't do much when he tapped and slightly scraped it.

His voice was about as soft as he could make it, while still being deep, it also had a bit of a hissing sound to it. "W-w-why, change? W-what are....Not skin." He clicked on the topaz again. He wasn't exactly sure what to ask, how to ask, or what he was really asking about. "You, run. Baaaaad."

The next thing she knew, the beast had his hand to her chin, lifting it up with an unexpected gentleness. Well, that and Lydia wasn’t putting up much resistance. Those claws looked mighty sharp… With his other hand, he took her hand and tapped at the skin. It didn’t hurt, but it made her raise an eyebrow. She squeezed her eyes shut as her face was turned towards his, tears springing up in the corners. Why he was even doing so was a mystery. He was a monster! Shouldn’t he get on with the mauling and murder already? That’s how it was always played in the movies. The scary beast never hesitated or paused for trivialities like mutated skin.

>> “W-w-why, change? W-what are....Not skin.”

Lydia opened one eye, and looked at the behemoth, then to her skin, then back to him. Then she opened both of them. He…he could talk? How could he talk? Unless he was…

“Are you a mutant, too?” She whispered, incredulity plain on her face. “Because…that’s why my skin is, uh, ‘not skin.’ I’m a mutant and my power is to change my skin.” She tried to explain in the simplest terms, unsure of how much the maybe-mutant-monster could understand. Lyd felt extremely uncomfortable in her current position, but she didn’t dare move. She was still unsure of the beast and his genetic status, and there was no telling what he would or could do.

>> “You, run. Baaaaad.”

She swallowed. “I-I’m sorry. You, er, surprised me. I didn’t mean to, uh, hurt your feelings?” Assuming he had feelings, or even knew what they were. “In my defense, you did chase me…” But she immediately cringed when she finished her sentence. Now was not the time for cheek.

“Can you let me stand up? I promise I won’t run away.” She was being sincere. Her ankle was twisted up. There was no way she was escaping anymore anyway.

Aurion tilted his head when she spoke. She seemed so surprised. Why was everyone surprised when he spoke? No one ever really gave him a chance to speak before doing the same thing she did, basically freak out. When they look at a retarded kid, do they assume they can't talk? No. What just because she, and the rest of them, look human, do they think they're better than he is? Makes a guy really wanna hurt someone, maybe her...but, no. No, she was talking to him right? It might have taken a chase, a fall, and having no choice while being face to face with him to do it, but, she still was.

The thing that irked him about it, just because he can't speak well, doesn't mean he can't understand perfectly fine. He nodded to her question about being a mutant. That's what his doctor had said, and his parents, and a lot of people that he seen, or that had seen him, on the streets call him. He looked her in the eyes, hard, as he focused on speaking clearly. "Talk, bad. Not. Dumb." He punctuated the last two words as hard as he could to get the point across. He lifted his finger from her chin, but not too far from her skin. "Skin," He tapped the topaz, "Not skin." Obviously he wanted to know why.

He shrugged at her. "You ran. Just saw. So reason, just run. Everyone. Chase." He pointed at her with his claw. "Fault." He stepped back from her a bit and let go of her hand, giving her room to stand. "You no...nnnng," He growled softly trying to think of how to say what he wanted. He could talk just fine in his head, but vocalizing it was a whole different story. He held his thumb up and his index finger straight out while curling his other fingers in, like a finger gun. "BANG." He jerked his finger in a firing motion. "You run. They BANG!" He pointed to himself, "Chase. Me," He made a fist as hard and quick as he could while giving her a hard stare. Aurion then drew the back of his thumb claw across his neck, so she knew he meant, 'Dead.' The moment would have been great, maybe dramatic and deep, or something equally as good, if it hadn't been ruined by his stomach grumbling and growling at the equivalent volume of a chainsaw.

Lydia felt so stupid. Of course he was a mutant. Monsters didn’t exist, but mutants sure did, ones with mutations like his. And they weren’t monsters. She felt ashamed for even thinking that, even if she hadn’t known he was a mutant. Her heart relaxed a little, and her breathing became less shallow. She remained a bit on edge, since the guy had proved to be a temperamental, but she wasn’t wildly terrified anymore.

He had human mannerisms, such as head tilts, and the way he was looking at her was distinctly…well, there was something distinct behind it. An intelligence that his words and appearance hid, or something like that.

>> "Talk, bad. Not. Dumb. Skin. Not Skin.”

“Of course you’re not,” the girl replied, nodding her head, “And as for the skin, like I said before, it’s just part of my mutation. Like your…skin.” Well, they were scales really, but whatever, same difference.

>> "You ran. Just saw. So reason, just run. Everyone. Chase. Fault.”

Lydia tried to understand what the mutant was saying, but his choppy language was even worse than Rhythm’s. Obviously it was about her flight, and why he had chased her. He made it very clear at the end that it was all her fault. Hmph…my fault…you didn’t have to chase me buddy… But she didn’t dare say her retort out loud. She thought over her response for a moment, standing up whilst she did so, but the scaly mutant said something again, interrupting her thoughts. He seemed to be mulling over something himself. Lydia waited for him to continue, hobbling over to a wall and leaning on it. She could stand and walk, albeit painfully, but she was glad it wasn’t too serious.

>> "You run. They BANG! Chase. Me."

She jumped at the bang, to another shot of pain from her ankle. The teenager gritted her teeth at the injury and furrowed her brows, utterly confused as to what he meant. Who were ‘they?’ And why was he making a gun sign with his hand? But the gun quickly morphed into a whole new symbol, the classic knife-slitting=throat motion, and he accompanied it with a glare. Oh, that’s what he meant. Lyd started to quiver in fear again, unsure of what he was going to do, but suddenly a loud, obnoxious noise captured her attention.

It sounded like a motor. And it seemed to be coming from the mutant’s belly. Huh. “Uh…are you…hungry?” She guessed unsurely. It sounded somewhat like a growling stomach, sort of.

Aurion wanted to throw his hands in the air in frustration. She seemed to get what he was trying to say, at least a bit, but not all of it. Why wasn't she all hard, shiny, and glittery like her arm was all the time, but he was? Why could she change her skin and he couldn't change anything about himself? He let out a heavy sigh. He wished he could be like everyone else sometimes, then no one would treat him like they did. 'On the bright side,' He thought to himself and he smiled a small smile, 'She knows I'm not dumb.'

He watched her as she stood up and moved to the wall. More specifically he watched her feet, she had hurt it. He remembered spraining his ankle when he was young, but nothing like that had happened to him in such a long time, he didn't remember how it felt. The closest he could compare it to is when he stepped on something sharp and it caused him to limp slightly, favoring whichever foot he had pained.

Without thinking of it, his tail twitched and lifted off the ground when she jumped. He didn't touch her with it, but it was there to catch her. He could easily lift her off the ground with his tail if he wanted to. But he could also hurt her easily at the same time.

"Uh...are you...hungry?"

It was embarrassing hearing his own body out him like that. He nodded slowly, "Two days. Food." Just thinking of food made his mouth water so much he drooled just a small bit. He swore at himself, swore at his body. He didn't see a lot of people drool on themselves for any reason. Aurion blamed it on the difference in their mouths and his.

He opened his mouth to say something else when he heard then felt something strike the ground next to him before hitting his leg. He looked down at the object as it rolled away from him. A mostly full water bottle. He looked up from it to see a man at the corner of the block. "Get out of here freak! We don't want your kind around here!" The man tossed something in the air and caught it before he threw it at Aurion. This time it hit him square between the eyes. If it wasn't for the plate there, Aurion's eyes might have gone cross.

Aurion moved swiftly from near the woman to a car parked on the street. He grabbed a tire and ripped it off. He glared at the man, the light reflected from his eyes made them seem to glow. His mouth opened to show off his impressive and deadly teeth before he let out a bellowing roar which he punctuated by throwing the tire at the man. It went wide but the man still dove to the side and into the street.

He moved towards the alley again and looked at the woman. "Not safe. Go now." He was on all fours, his fingers curled as his weight rested on his knuckles. He tried to gesture with his head for her to move or follow.

>> "Two days. Food."

Two whole days without food?! Lydia frowned as the multi-colored mutant drooled a little. How was he still standing, running, chasing? “I’m sure we can find some corner store or something that’s open. I’ll get you something.” The poor, hungry guy. The girl shook her head, realizing how difficult his life must be with his incredibly visible mutation. She had heard stories about street life from countless Sanctuary residents, and they were all plenty cringe-worthy and tear-jerking.

>> "Get out of here freak! We don't want your kind around here!"

All of a sudden, a water bottle flew at them, landing right at the lizard (?) mutant’s feet. It was quickly followed by another object, one she couldn’t identify, that hit him right in between his eyes. Ouch. She groaned and glared at the man who had yelled. Did humans want to make themselves look bad? First those stupid protesters… Lydia snarled and wished, for the umpteenth time, that her mutation allowed her to do more than just change her skin. It wasn’t very useful when she wanted to knock someone out.

Her companion promptly retaliated by tearing a tire off a nearby car and chucking it at the human. It didn’t hit the man, to her disappointment, but it did make him dive away and land, none too softly, onto the street. She was told to go, to run away, but she didn’t move. There was no way in hell she was running from some homo sapien bigot. Her ankle aside, she was tired of always being protected. She was tired of never being able to help.

“Hey, I’d walk away if I were you, you colossal douche,” Lydia called out, “Unless you want this big guy ripping off your limbs like he did that tire.” But the man paid no heed to her. Instead, he scrambled back up and picked up something littered on the side of the street. A dirty glass bottle. He threw it at the scalier of the pair again. “Watch out!”

Aurion's reaction to the man was normal and almost instinctual by that point. Usually having something thrown at them, like the tire, was enough to change someone's mind. He hadn't expected the man to get back up. But even more unexpectedly, no one had ever stood up for him. He was in a bit of shock, but not enough to miss her reaction.

Her eyes gave it away before she even uttered a sound. His body tensed as he turned to look at the insane man. Instead of charging the man as he normally would have, his tail snapped around the woman and pulled her close to him just before the bottle smashed against his shoulder. It shattered and sprayed the area around him with a mess of tiny glass fragments. Glass had filled the area where she had been.

Aurion started growling steadily as he lifted the woman with his tail and dropped her as gently as he could onto his back. "Hold neck." He said before he tore off towards the man, his growling growing louder and louder. He hoped the woman could hold on as he leaped at the man who had begun to run down the street. His claws clutched the back of the man's head as he caught up to him. He bellowed as he dragged the man's head against the ground and hit it against any hard object he could.

It didn't take long for the guy to go completely limp. Whether that meant he was dead or unconscious he didn't know. Aurion could hear yelling coming from behind him, he knew he could hide, he had spent quite a bit of time in the sewers and abandoned buildings. He didn't know what to do with the woman though. His voice was a bit frantic as he spoke, not for himself, but for her. She was the first person in years to treat him like a person. "Go where!?"

Lydia shrieked when he lifted her up (with his freaking tail!) and deposited her onto his back. But she quickly realized why when glass shards flew into the area she had just been in. Her topaz skin would probably have protected her from the worst of it, but she didn’t fail to appreciate the gesture. She was told to grab his neck, and did so right before he bounded across the street, nearly slipping off. His scales were surprisingly smooth, almost too much so, and she had to hang on with all of her muscular might.

She gasped when her carrier snatched up the human and pounded him against the sidewalk. She was slightly horrified, but her anger was much greater. She almost smiled when the man stopped thrashing. Almost.

She looked away from the body, unsure if it was still breathing, and instead focused her attention on the approaching people who had seen the attack. One woman had her cell phone out, dialing 911.

“F***!” She cursed, ducking her head down from a guy taking pictures with his phone. “The Sanctuary! Go to the Sanctuary!” Lyd frantically looked around for the nearest street sign, located it a few feet away, and gave a sigh of relief when she recognized it. “That way!” She pointed, but unfortunately there was a man in the way, the one who was snapping photos. She rolled her eyes.

They were farther away from the Sanctuary than she had been when she’d bumped into Tall, Dark, and Scary. She must’ve run in the opposite direction during their initial encounter. She swore again. Lydia hoped he was fast. She also hoped she didn’t fall off.

Aurion could feel his blood pulsing and pumping through is body, the arteries in his neck throbbed with each heartbeat. He could hear the thum-thumthump-thumthuthump in his hears. It wasn't abnormal for his pulse to be so high or so loud, but usually it was preceded by someone holding a gun. No one had pulled a gun, or anything too dangerous, like a knife, so he assumed it was this woman on his back. But he couldn't give it too much thought since they were trying to flee.

“The Sanctuary! Go to the Sanctuary!”

What the hell is The Sanctuary? He had never heard of it, but he knew what a sanctuary was, sort of. It sounded fine to him as long as she could give him directions. Which she did after figuring out where they were in relation to it. He almost missed which way she had pointed, distracted by the flash on someone's phone. Aurion noticed the direction she pointed was the same direction the man with the phone was.

He hissed as he took a wide turn towards the man. To late he realized Aurion was heading towards him. Aurion snapped his tail and connected with the man's chest, sending him careening into a car and sending his cell flying from his hands. A hissing snicker snuck through his teeth as he refixed his direction and barreled onwards. He hoped they had a fairly straight shot to this 'Sanctuary', that way he could go full speed the whole way and not loose time with twists and turns. He didn't want to try and go up the side of a building with her having nothing but his neck to hold on to. She might not be able to handle that and he might get choked in the process. No, the ground was the only choice. 'Please no cops, they all have guns. Pricks.'