As dawn broke through, casting a little light on the city that never sleeps, Ty practically floated down the sidewalk on his way home, a smile on his face and a slight spring in his step. His thoughts were clouded with sweet, sappy feelings. Nothing could possibly ruin this--

"YAP YAP YAPYAPYAP!" not even the little black chihuahua that came trotting around the corner, saw his red-headed arch-nemesis, and ran up to tug ferociously at his pants leg.

Snapped out of his daze, Ty looked down, pulling his leg away. "Go away...." Ty murmured, but the dog didn't heed the not-quite intimidating warning. He merely latched onto Ty's pants leg again, growling and trying to pull him across the street. Ty kept walking, dragging the poor lapdog behind him.

Now, the pickpocket loved animals, but this chihuahua was the rare exception. This same dog had chased him around a block once already, though he had to give the little rat credit for that since that was how he met Tses. So technically he had to give him that one. But today....was not the day. Ty didn't want any trouble today, especially not from a dog that weighed all of ten pounds soaking wet.

Yanking his pants away, Ty turned to face the little demon-dog, stomping his foot. "I said GET!" That southern accent rang through as Ty yelled, and the dog froze, suddenly finding himself standing in a small puddle before turning and running around the corner.

Ty smiled, but now was not the time to celebrate tying the score with a yappy lapdog. For no sooner than the chihuahua disappeared, another bigger dog came bounding around the corner, eyes locked on Ty and lip pulled back into a snarl. If Ty didn't know any better, he'd say the little rat-dog had called for backup.

Ty paled as the poodle started barreling towards him. No time to think, Ty just turned and ran as fast as his feet would carry him, but the dog was closing in the space very quickly. Chihuahuas weren't too bad to outrun, but something this big....no way.

Quickly Ty turned into the alley, leaping over trash bags and nearly tripping on the landing, he saw what he was looking for. Making a daring leap, he grabbed the bottom rung of the fire escape. Take to the rooftops, and the dog couldn't catch him.

"AGH!" As he was climbing, feet still dangling, the dog jumped, teeth latching into Ty's ankle. Giving the dog a kick with his other foot, he got loose, and made it to the first landing. His leg was badly injured, and he just lay there, pride hurt as bad as his left leg...

Butterfly was walking down the street from going from place to place filling out job applications when she passes by a cop. "Oh, how I hate the stupid police and government." she thought to herself. Just seeing the policeman reminded her of the video she had seen on the news about a mutant being beaten to death. She tensed up in anger. She was so focused on her thoughts and anger for humans that she didn't even notice that she had changed into her butterfly form. It was only after she passed by a car window that she realized she had changed. "One of these days I'm gonna have to learn how to control that." she said to herself. Just as she was fluttering amongst some shrubs on the main street, she saw a guy trying to walk with a chihuahua attached to his pants leg. She watched as he tried to get the dog to leave him alone. She thought it was funny as he steadily dragged the dog along with him as he walked.

The next thing she knew, the guy had yanked his pants away and had scared the dog, making it pee on itself before running away. "That's not very nice." Just as she was thinking this, she saw a snarling poodle come up the street right towards that same guy. She started laughing hysterically. "Serves him right." she said. She thought this was so funny that she decided to follow him and watch as he got chased. She laughed steadily as she watched. "He's such an idiot. Poodles are not that scary." shaking her head and laughing. Then as he finally jumped to get to the fire escape, she gasped, "Wow, he actually figured out a way to get away from the dog." Seeing that the dog had grabbed his ankle as he tried to climb the fire escape, she complimented the dog for gaining adequate payback for the other dog. "Looks like he'll guess again before messing with someone that's smaller than he is, even if it is a dog." she said, chuckling and watching him up on the fire escape.

Ty lay on the fire escape's landing, pain shooting through his left leg. He sat up a little, propping himself on his elbows to survey the damage. The sight made him cringe; his pants were torn, and this was definitely going to scar. Oh well, at least it was a grated surface, meaning he didn't have to lie in a puddle of blood. The wound was deep, but it wasn't that deep; luckily gravity had been on his side today.

"I am becoming less and less of a dog person...." he groaned, not bothering with trying to stand right now. Or trying to find a way down...

Suddenly, he jumped, hearing a small voice from....somewhere. "Who's there? God, if that's you, this ain't funny...."

Butterfly fluttered closer, still watching him. When she heard him ask if she was God, she laughed even harder. "I'm by no means God. And I'm pretty sure you wouldn't like me if I was God. Oh the things I would do if I was God though." she said. She decided that since she was still in her butterfly form, she would mess with him a bit. Fluttering still closer, wondering if he'd ever figure out it was the butterfly was speaking to him. "It took him long enough to figure out how to escape a poodle. Let's see how long it takes for him to figure this one out." she thought. She giggled. She was being so mean, but it was too funny to pass up.

Ty didn't see the butterfly, but he did take his shoe off, followed by his sock, then wrapped his already bloodstained sock around his leg, tying it at the ends. Then, he put his shoe back on. That would serve as a bandage for the time being, at least.

Then, he lay back down, waiting for the pain to at least ease off a bit. And of course there was another pressing matter...the voice. He positioned himself to look around the alley, but saw no one anywhere. Even the poodle got bored and walked away, so now he was the only one there. "Great...I'm stuck on a fire escape, I'm bleeding, and I'm hearing voices...Okay, who are you and what you want? And before you answer, no I will not build model airplanes." Okay maybe this was a bad time for a joke, but maybe he was only half-joking.

Butterfly shook her head as she watched him use his sock as a bandage. She knew that the injury would need medical attention, but could somehow tell that he would be too stubborn and hardheaded to actually go see a doctor probably. And a dirty sock surely would not suffice enough to be a bandage. "Let's just hope that poodle didn't have rabies" she said to him, still watching. When he asked who she was, she replied with "Well I'm not God, so guess again. And what in the world would I need an airplane for? I don't need an airplane to fly. And from you looking around, you can obviously tell that I can be here without being seen and yet I can see every little thing that you do." "How does that make you feel?" she asked.

"It wasn't foaming at the mouth. Drooling, yeah, but I think that's cause it thought I was a bone," he said dryly, trying to force himself up, then letting out a yelp of pain and sitting right back down. Between the pain and the mysterious voice, Ty was starting to get a little aggravated.

"The airplane thing was a joke...since I'm hearing voices. Honestly it freaks me out. Especially since all I see around here is trash, dead plants in windowsills, and a butterfly...Nothing in this alley is exactly healthy to talk to...." He sighed. "Well, I've done tons of other crazy crap in my life, so why not, right?" He shook his head, lying back before he realized something.

Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a half-empty bottle of aspirin, took two, and popped them dry. Hopefully that would ease the pain a bit. Putting the bottle back in his jacket, he merely waited for it to kick in. Lying back, he put both hands behind his head. His left hand was covered by a cloth glove, and the right, a leather, fingerless one. It looked weird, but the getup did what it was supposed to do.

"Or maybe...I've finally gone off the deep end and this is all in my head."

"Nah, you haven't gone off the deep end yet. And use your brain to think. You must have some sort of logical thinking up there. Though if you are human, I have less faith in you for figuring this one out." she said. Butterfly fluttered a bit more obnoxiously, seriously hoping that he wasn't that much of an idiot. She watched him as he pulled out a bottle and popped two pills into him mouth. "I don't think that taking a couple of aspirin will help with that leg pain.", Butterfly said, dryly and shaking her head.

"I'm not human!" he snapped, eyes darting around the alley as he lay there. Taking a deep breath, he calmed, not realizing being called a human would set him off that much. Then again with what he'd been through, maybe it was understandable.

He gave a dry laugh, focusing on her other comments. "That's what you think. We haven't even met yet." He noticed the butterfly flying less....like a butterfly, then shrugged at her statement about aspirin. "Gotta do what ya gotta do. And I'd be willing to bet I'm talking to a butterfly." He let out a sigh, at least the pain was subsiding, as long as he didn't apply pressure, anyway.

Butterfly smiled when he sort of got offended at being called human. She would too, but his reaction was too funny. And she smiled when he figured out that she was the butterfly. "Looks like you do have some sense about you after all." laughing as she said this. When all of a sudden, she started to change back into her human self. Thankfully she was hovering about the fire escape grate and not in the middle of the air. She realized this as her feet touched the bottom of the grate and no longer felt her wings beating against her body. "Well I guess this is as good a time as any to officially meet each other." she said, standing in front of him wearing her black flats, purple knee high socks, black skirt, vest, and button down shirt. She began to rest herself against the banister of the escape. "I'm Chloe."

"Maybe," he muttered. Due to current events, some aspects sort of had him wondering exactly how much sense he had. After all he was the one injured on a fire escape thanks to a freaking poodle. Then, the butterfly hovered above him.

Suddenly, however, the butterfly....was no longer a butterfly. Ty now found himself looking up at a well-dressed female--though he judged she was a girl from the sound of her voice. He forced himself to a sitting position, then tried to stand, wincing and quickly lifting his foot as a bolt of pain shot through the injured leg. So, he leaned against the wall of the building, crossing his left leg over his right, taking special care not to touch the bite again.

"Ty," he answered, then wondered if she'd punch him for what he said next. "Nice to meet ya. Think I'll just stick to Butterfly, though."

She watched him manage to get up and stand. "Look who's not helpless anymore." she said with a smirk. "But you didn't have to do all of that just for me. And I like it, more than I like Chloe anyway."

She stood there for a moment, saying "Butterfly" over and over to herself, loving how it sounded.

"So should we climb down or go up? Or do you need another minute to rest?" she said, wondering if she really wanted to stick around or just get lost. To her, Ty wasn't anybody special yet, but she was in a big city and might need someone to help her find a place to stay. If anything she could use him to help her get ahead. Who knows, maybe he could be a friend?

"Nah" she thought to herself. "He'll leave just like everyone else did. Never trust anyone. Only rely on yourself. That way it doesn't hurt so bad when people do leave you."

He smiled; Tses and his old friends weren't the only ones who could come up with obvious yet clever nicknames. "I wouldn't be much good for either, but I'm not exactly keen on bein' stuck up here all freaking day. So....here goes nothin'..."

He put a little weight on his left foot, then a little more, then his full weight. He winced, biting his lip, okay so maybe that wasn't the best idea. He limped over to the ladder, easing his way down, to the bottom rung. As he was hanging from the bottom rung, his feet were still a foot or two from the ground.

"Well....crap..." he muttered. "Here goes nothin..." He let go, landing flat on his feet, then falling flat on his butt, pain surging through his left leg now.

She watched as Ty tried to get ready to climb down and then proceeded to climb down. She then looked down the ladder and started to climb down. Then she realized that he was on the ground and that she was wearing a skirt. As quick as she realized this, she quickly yelled down to him "If you so much as look up my skirt....Well, I don't know what I would do, but trust me it won't be good." She continued to climb down the rungs. When she got to the bottom rung, she let go, but she didn't land very well. Her feet buckled underneath her and she fell. As she fell, she managed to land on a broken beer bottle and cut her thigh. "Crap." she said, looking at the cut.

Ty blinked at her warning; he didn't even notice her come down, what with his own leg being wrapped in pain. "I have a girlfriend," was his very quick reply. Though I'm sure I'm not allowed to look up her skirt, either, he thought to himself. It was then that he'd realized she'd fallen too. He planted his hands firmly on the ground, sliding over to her since he wasn't quite prepared to stand again, when some of her blood touched the exposed fingertips of his right hand.

"What the?!? What did you do?" Ty asked, frantically wiping his hand on his pants, then smacking it against his right leg. His whole hand felt like it was 'asleep,' and in that painful, pins-and-needles kind of numbness. "My hand is like, NUMB. I can't even make a freaking fist...." The redhead paled as he shook his hand, trying to get the feeling back.