Since returning to the world of mutants and humans, Amber had learned that the area surrounding Sanctuary was something of a safe zone for mutants. At first it had merely been a suspicion gained from nights spent on the prowl close to home but that had later been confirmed by her sister. She didn't know the details as to the why or how of it nor did she bother questioning it. What was important, only, was the fact that she could roam, in relative (though never absolute) safety in its vicinity.

It was because of this relative safety that Amber found herself out this night, roaming the blocks around Sancutary in her deinonychus form. It was, in every real sense, her other true form when she wasn't residing in her human body. In some ways it was more her true form than her human one, with its amazing senses, agility, strength and deadly claws and teeth. In that form, she felt strong, sure and confident and these were feelings she rarely felt while human. In the city she usually wasn't free to use her favoured shape because humans who met dinosaurs tended to panic and worse but here in Sanctuary territory, that was less likely. In any case, it seemed worth the risk.

It was stealth Amber worked on, the ability to remain unseen and unheard. All ready she was proficient at it, especially given the myriad of advantages her current body gave her, but there was always room for improvement. How close could she get without another noticing, that was the question? Of course, humans weren't nearly so difficult to sneak up on as deer or coyotes, with their dulled senses and slow reflexes, but to know how to do so well bore much more heavily upon the success of her day to day life. Thus, she lurked the alleyways honing her skills as best she could.

One day, when you don’t have anything better to do with yourself, get an audience and try pretending that you’re loading an invisible cannon. You know, one of those 18th century things with the cannonballs and the gunpowder that has to be loaded manually, commonly found on ships or civil war battlefields. As Dorian has learned, it’s really difficult to make the audience realize what the heck you’re doing, especially when you’re stressed out and the audience probably wants to kill you for interfering with their drug trafficking.

But let’s set the scene, first. 1AM. Several blocks from the Sanctuary, fairly empty street at this time of night.

The target was a van containing everything needed to produce massive amounts of M. A rival gang was trying to move their M operation even closer to Order territory, for reasons entirely beyond Dorian’s comprehension. Either they knew something the Order didn’t, or they were extraordinarily stupid. Either way, he knew their destination, and he knew the routes they would probably take to get there. He was watching the most likely route, and he had some friends keeping their eyes on the other two.

When he saw the van, he leaned against an imaginary wall, and - here’s the tricky part - willed the wall to extend all the way across the road, where the van could hit it.

Crunch!

Airbags deployed, and the two men inside were not happy. First, they were dazed, but soon they would be suspicious and angry, prone to pulling out fully automatics and waving them at passerby, of whom Dorian was the only one. He thought fast, and thought it would be a good idea to cannon-blast the both of them.

So, there he was, pantomiming loading an invisible cannon, right across from a van full of angry men with full autos who just crashed into something invisible.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?”

Dorian glanced at him, then finished pushing the invisible cannonball into his invisible cannon.

“Hey, I asked you a question!” The guy finally got out of the car, brandishing his machine pistol. The idiot fired a few rounds off at Dorian’s feet, presumably to intimidate him. By now, Dorian had managed to point his cannon right at him, not that he knew what Dorian was doing.

BOOMF![/i]

It must have hit the guy square in the chest, judging from what he looked like afterwards. The van was out of commission, too; it didn’t have a working steering wheel or ignition anymore. But the other guy with the fully automatic pistol was still intact, and he wasn’t particularly happy.

Dorian crouched down and did the invisible wall routine as fast as he could manage. It became solid just in time to stop five rounds from going into him. One of the bullets was even lodged in the wall, or, as far as any onlooker would be concerned, it was floating right in front of his nose. When the man stopped firing, the mime stood up again acted like a wild westerner in a duel at high noon, hand hovering over a revolver that wasn’t there. After a few tense moments, he drew his revolver-that-wasn’t-there and shot the other guy in the face.

With the threat eliminated, the mime took a moment to get a better look at the guy he hit with the cannon. It was pretty gross, to be honest. Lots of things were all over the place that really didn’t have any business sitting around outside of his body. Speaking of things that didn’t belong outside of people, Dorian didn’t feel like vomiting. Not to mention getting spotted. He ran towards the nearest alleyway.

It was always surprising what sorts of things one encountered when one lurked unseen in the shadows. Over many long months, Amber had become quite proficient at hiding herself while listening and watching what went on around her. Perhaps she had a few unfair advantages; mainly eyes and ears keener than any mere human senses, but that wasn't really the point. The point was that, advantages or no, she could see the hidden things that humans preferred to keep hidden.

Sometimes those hidden things involved clandestine affairs in alleyways. At times those were not the sort of thing she cared to watch, but at others it was delightful to hear the stories of husbands cheating on wives or wives on husbands. What secrets she could reveal, if only she knew who to reveal them too! At other times she bore witness to crimes; theft and simple assault being the most common. Rarely did she care to interfere, unless a mutant happened to be the victim. After all, she was not human and her loyalty was not to humanity.

A loud CRASH was what drew Amber out of her nook in the alleyway. Not that anything especially exciting had been happening thus far anyway and, if nothing else, the crash might just be worth looking into. Keeping stealth in mind she began moving closer, doing her best to keep the the shadowed walls. With the light the city offered, navigating at night was not so complicated a matter and it was with some speed that she made her way towards the scene of the accident.

What awaited Amber's reptilian eyes was not at all what she expected. The van with the crunched front, of course, was not unexpected nor were the two very angry looking men. What was unexpected was the fact that the van appeared to have crashed into nothing at all. Which was, of course, impossible. Unless a mutant was involved. Well, things were really starting to get interesting and Amber cracked a toothy grin from her vantage point.

BOOMF!

Amber hadn't immediately seen the man loading the invisible cannon but the loud bang followed by one of the men crumpling to the ground as if he'd been hit in the chest with an actual cannon-ball quickly brought her attention towards him. Mutant. Definitely mutant.

When the other man drew his gun and started firing, it was almost without thought that Amber exited her little shadowed nook and pounced onto his back, claws sinking into tender flesh. Of course, it also turned out to be entirely unnecessary as the mutant with the invisible cannon also, apparently, had an invisible gun which he proceeded to shoot the second man in the face with. So much for rescuing her fellow mutant.

Of course, it was only after her rash act that Amber realized it might not have been the best course of action to allow herself to become visible. After all, mutant or not the man might be dangerous and, possibly worse, might perceive her as a threat. Jumping off the fallen human's back and onto the ground, she stood starting at the other man, black eyes searching him for clues as to how he was going to react to her presence.

There was a dinosaur in the middle of the road.

Dorian stopped and did a double take. Yeah, that was a dinosaur. It looked like it had tried to help him take out the same idiots he was trying to deal with, too.

He stood there for a moment, staring like some idiot who’d never seen a zombie dinosaur before. Or at least some idiot who hadn’t lived with mutants long enough, and was still capable of being surprised by the existence of a zombie-dinosaur-animating mutant. He rated “animator” as more likely than “shifter,” because he hoped that no sentient being living in Order territory would be stupid enough to stick their nose in this kind of work.

Yes. It was far more likely that he was dealing with an undead animal intelligence, here. And it was probably lost, and sorely missed. He could just imagine some poor mutant kid leaving the door open and thereby losing his status as the coolest kid in existence, the only one to have his very own pet zombie dinosaur.

He whistled to it, calling it over as if it were a dog. If it was domesticated, he hoped, it might respond to that.

Amber was used to the stares she received when shifted and the mime was no exception. She could see the question in his eyes; who and/or what was she? One might think that so close to the mutant Sanctuary it'd be more expected to have a dinosaur near by, but it seemed dinosaur shifter was strange even by mutant standards.

Amber stood staring at the man, her own black eyes searching his for a sign as to how he was going to play this game. He didn't seem overly concerned that she was going to run up and maul him, which was good, but perhaps someone who could create a cannon out of thin air didn't have anything to worry about from a wayward dinosaur, deadly claws and teeth or not.

Then the mime whistled at her like one would whistle to call a dog and Amber couldn't help but sneer indignantly, gleaming teeth visible. She wasn't some dog to be whistled at nor was she about to respond as such. She was a noble predator and, more than that, she was a mutant.

Amber let out a trilling chirp at the mime and shook her head. As always was the problem of communication and there was no ready solution at hand.

It sort of screeched at him and shook its head, as if to say ‘no.’

As if it was smart enough to understand the concept of ‘no,’ and smart enough to communicate that concept to him. While Dorian was no paleontologist, he thought it would be safe to assume that an actual dinosaur wouldn’t be that smart. Meaning this probably wasn’t some kind of reanimated zombie dinosaur, but…

Dorian introduced his face to his palm. This was an actual person who just decided to get involved in the Order’s gang warfare. Clearly, there was a memory-altering mutant somewhere who just ran through Order territory and made everybody forget how to survive in Order territory today. Some idiot was probably about to call the police, too.

Well, at least this little guy was trying to be on his side. Or girl. Whatever gender that dinosaur was. Dorian thought it might be rude to walk over and check.

Speaking of rudeness, maybe s/he took offense to the whole communicating-with-him/her-like-s/he-was-a-dog thing. When the Orderling was done face-palming, he gestured for the creature to follow him (with the kinds of hand gestures one would expect a human being to understand) and walked towards a nice alleyway for sneaking away.

Whoever the mime was, he didn't seem especially glad of Amber's help. Then again, he hadn't especially seemed like he needed her help to begin with so perhaps the error had, in fact, been on her part. Still, her motivations had been in the right place and how was she to have known that he could take care of himself so adeptly? Not every mutant was able to do so and she'd rather attempt something that turned out not to be needed than to not attempt something and have a mutant hurt or worse because of her inactivity.

When the man gestured for her to follow, this time in a fashion that didn't suggest beckoning a dog, she nodded her head and did so. There would be time to work out the rest of the mess she found herself in after a clean getaway was completed. Maybe she had made a slight error in judgement, but she wasn't so niave as to realize the import of getting away quickly and without drawing any further attention upon themselves. Besides, she had all ready committed herself to joining The Order so this was just the sort of thing she'd have to get used to.

As Amber followed the strange mutant, making hardly a sound, it occurred to her that he hadn't yet spoken a word. Didn't that seem a little bit strange? Perhaps he took the mime thing just that seriously. Well, perhaps she'd figure that out once they made it to safety as well.

If this dinosaur was actually a person, Dorian needed to have a little chat with it about interfering in organized crime. Because Dorian, being the good-hearted organized criminal super-mime that he was, thought that people who were too stupid to live should have the opportunity to live and learn from their mistakes. Unless allowing them to live and learn would unduly inconvenience him later; in that case, they would have to die.

But that wasn’t the case, here. The dinosaur person seemed to be on his side, and he probably owed it a favor. There was a chance that, if that second thug didn’t have a freakin’ dinosaur trying to kill him at the time, he might have actually managed to shoot Dorian.

After the two had gotten a few blocks between themselves and the Order’s most recent victims, Dorian stopped in the middle of another alley, pulled out a dry-erase marker, and seemingly wrote on the air itself:

’Can you read this?’

The mime man seemed to know where he was going and, for the moment, Amber was content to follow. She felt confident when shifted, far more so than when in human form. As a deinonychus she had natural weapons, not to mention thick skin and reflexes and senses superior to any mere human. Probably even if mime man were try try something on her she could react faster than he could. Probably.

Finally the other mutant seemed content with the distance between them and the crime seen as he stopped in a dark alley. Amber watched in fascination as he took out some kind of marker and started writing words, seemingly in thin air. She tilted her head to the side, trying to catch a glimpse of what it was he was writing on but, despite her best efforts, it still seemed like thin air. Mutants truly were fascinating creatures.

In answer to the mime's written question, Amber nodded her head. Maybe he couldn't speak? Well, she had written out her words while shifted more than once and certainly understood that difficulty. Of course, he had the advantage of proper human digits which she was presently lacking. As such, his writing was much clearer than hers ever had been but at least her hands, such as they were, actually functioned which was more than she could say about some forms.

Okay, yup. Definitely a mutant. ‘Thanks for the assist’ he wrote.

And he was just about to launch into his little written lecture about how interfering in organized crime is an excellent form of assisted suicide, when he realized something. Maybe dino-boy here wasn’t so stupid after all. Maybe he was looking at an Order man, who just happened to know about Dorian’s scheme and felt like helping out. Operational security was a joke when you lived with mind readers.

He thought about it for a moment, then added: ’That was pretty stupid of you, but I appreciate it.’

Then, ’Can you talk / shift into a talking form?’

Amber nodded her long neck, acknowledging the words of the mime mutant. So the mime might have thought she was a little brash in her decision to help but maybe that wasn't so far off the mark so she let it slide. In truth, her enthusiasm to help might have somewhat surpassed her experience in the ability to actually do so. Well and good, at least she had good people around to help her learn and she didn't have so much of an ego to shy from admitting that she still had quite a lot to learn.

Then came the question about speech and that was a little on the tricky side. On the one hand, she could very easily shift into human form but on the other hand, she would be naked. Not that human modesty concerned her, but there was the cold weather and the fact that others tended to react...strangely when she appeared without any clothing to cover her. Whether the one before her was the squeamish type or not she had no idea.

Amber chirped and nodded and gestured for the mime to follow. She usually stashed her robes somewhere they weren't' likely to be disturbed that wasn't too far from where she decided to hunt and train and tonight was no exception. If she could convince the mutant to come with her, that would solve her lack of clothing and/or speech dilemma.

And so, after wiping off the words he’d seemingly written on thin air, Dorian started following the dinosaur. Which had apparently decided to lead him somewhere, instead of talking or shapeshifting, which he’d asked it about. And he had a sinking feeling, the entire time he was following it around, that it was trying to lead him into a trap.

What? It’s not paranoia if there really are dangerous, powerful people who’d want you dead. It’s not like he was doing a great job of keeping a low profile, either, with stuff like that stunt he just pulled. Though this would be a really far-fetched scheme for an attempt on his life; you couldn’t count on a guy to follow a dinosaur around, and make that a key part of a larger plan. That would just be stupid.

…And that’s exactly what they’d want him to think. He pantomimed a gun into existence, then put it in an invisible holster. Just to be safe. You never know.

Good, the mime was following her. Amber didn't lead him far, only a few blocks from the original location. It always paid to keep her robes nearby because one just never knew when they would become necessary. She kept to the shadows, something that had become second nature and kept her eyes and ears open for anything unexpected. Nothing unexpected occurred, much to the better, however.

Once she had reached her chosen location Amber held up a finger to indicate for her companion to wait and went just around the corner. Going into the shadows was more for his benefit than hers as she knew how disturbing her shifts were to look upon, not to mention the whole human nakedness modesty thing. As always, the shift was quick but painful and a few moments after shifting, her dark purple robes were on her person and she came out from behind the wall.

"I apologize for taking you on a trip. Speech isn't possible while I'm in any other form and its rather too cold to go without clothing while human." She kept her voice quiet, still not wanting to draw unwanted attention especially being without her natural weapons.

…Dorian was expecting the dinosaur shifter to be a guy. And also not ten years younger than him. Teenage girls typically don’t turn into dinosaurs and assault organized criminals. Though that kind of behavior wasn’t really normal in any demographic, and it was really kind of silly that the gender of this zombie dinosaur shifter mutant was more surprising to him than the fact that somebody had the ability to transform into an undead dinosaur in the first place. Why did anything still surprise him?

He shook his head, trying to indicate that it was quite alright that she would rather be wearing clothes while having a conversation with him. He could sympathize with that.

Speaking of being able to have a conversation with him… ‘so,’ he wrote on the air with his marker, ’why did you jump in like that?