((Immediately following Important Little Details))

Apparently it could be harder than he thought. The police had all left. The looky-loos had gone on with their business. Aiden had left the scene behind as well, setting off down the street to what seemed to be a bigger street. It wasn't one he recognized, though, even once he finally found a sign with a name that was probably referring to the busy road. He'd taken a while to decide which way to turn. It was way too hard to navigate in the city. He thought he was probably trying to go north, since from what he'd seen of maps of the city there was more city south of the mansion than north, but he wasn't certain if that was really the right direction to go. Was he east or west of the mansion? He had no way to tell unless he could find a map, and he had no idea how he was supposed to do that without, well, anything.

He also wasn't sure which direction was north. There were too many buildings and clouds and no natural shadows and no trees and - well, it wasn't a good environment for navigation practice. So....

He didn't want to think it. But he was lost. He could probably get back to the bank if he wanted to; he wasn't that kind of lost. He just had absolutely no idea how to get back to the mansion from wherever he happened to be right now.

This was going to be really awkward when he did get back.

There was a distinct problem with rallies; specifically, that people had to go to them. Or, perhaps more specifically, that people had to go to them willingly; Ryan didn't want to think about where people would end up if it was somehow made a legal requirement that they all attend a political rally yearly. It was a lot easier for people to accidentally stumble into prejudice than open-mindedness, unfortunately.

Still, the problem remained: the vast majority of people attending mutant rights rallies were already strongly supportive of mutant rights. That made ten useful for planning and coordinating and keeping morale up, but pretty useless for convincing anyone. That would take an entirely different approach.

What that different approach should be... was a harder question.

Of course there were ideas; there were infinite ideas, many of them useful. Obviously none was so useful that they'd solved the problem yet, though, and Ryan didn't have the time to do all of them; that would require some pretty spectacular time travel, at the least. Besides, most of them involved changing opinions one at a time, by talking to individuals. Ryan wanted to work a little faster than that.

So he ended up thinking about it. Frequently, though he had yet to actually figure out a solution. It did at least result in exercise, since while Ryan was pretty good at the second half of sit down and think, he was absolutely terrible at the first. So thinking, typically, meant wandering idly around the city eating lollipops, staring into space, and getting the occasional odd stare.

...And, apparently, finding the occasional lost teen. Ryan blinked back to reality, eyed the kid again from across the street to be sure he looked lost for real and Ryan hadn't just somehow imagined it, then crossed the street to approach him. Walking up behind him... wasn't intentional, though Ryan didn't bother not to either. He did take the lollipop out of his mouth so he could be understood, at least. "Hey! You lost?"

>>"Hey! You lost?"

Yup. Aiden did have enough pride not to admit it to a complete stranger immediately, even immediately after being dumped at the scene of a crime by his so-called teammate, who evidently thought a horrible screaming sac of wrinkly flesh was more worthwhile than him, but admitting it to himself? Done and done.

He wasn't going to leave a stranger talking to his back, though, both out of a desire to save his own skin from a potential assailant or whatever and because it would be really rude. The scrawny, tall man - young man, Aiden distantly corrected himself, though the stranger was definitely older than himself; he just didn't look to be into the 30+-settling-down-with-kids-and-a-career age bracket - didn't look particularly dangerous. Possibly completely insane, most likely dancing maniacally on the line between insane and unstable, but not too dangerous.

"I know where I've been but not how that relates to where I'm going," he said warily, trying to keep himself from letting the hilts of his batons support his palms. He would survive without the reassurance and he didn't want to look threatening to random weird guy.

Correction: the occasional paranoid lost teen. Can't forget that part. Well, Ryan couldn't really blame him for it, especially if he ever turned on a TV. It was hard not to be paranoid, if you watched the news. Ryan was much better at pretending not to be paranoid than actually not worrying, himself. Though apparently the kid wasn't so good at the pretending part. Just as well, since then he'd probably have been pretending not to be lost, too, and then he wouldn't have a brilliant, secretly-to-his-knowledge-foxsquirrel-creating Ryan to help him.

Or, you know, Ryan's phone. Same thing.

"So where are you going?" In order to not make the paranoid lost teen more paranoid, Ryan dug his phone out, opened a maps app and held it out so the kid could see. "I'm Ryan, by the way."

Okay, random guy was being helpful. Aiden was still entirely wary, but knowing how to get where he was going would kind of be very helpful. And be just a little bit more likely to keep him alive than wandering around the city forever.

... Holding out the map-providing phone so Ai could see was not quite as helpful as handing the phone over for Aiden to use, even if he didn't really know how to use it and the other guy would probably worry about it being stolen if he was at all normal. Not that Aiden would even consider stealing it, but you know, standard paranoia. Strangers were liable to steal valuables put in their hands by other complete strangers.

... Was someone still a complete stranger if you knew their name? Because apparently this guy wasn't particularly keen to stay a stranger, if that were the case. Aiden blinked. "Er - Aiden. I'm trying to get back to my school." The mansion was publicly a school, right? What was it officially called again? Aiden tried to think. "I got dropped off before the person I was with remembered to tell me how to get there from here." And out of things to say to stall. And he still couldn't remember. Greeeaaat. "I can never remember the name - everyone just calls it the mansion - but if I know where here is I should be able to get back."

Mansion. There weren't a whoooole lot of mansions in New York City. Especially not that were also schools and within walking distance of here. Ryan paused to eye the kid again. Those were some odd-colored scars. And eye. "The mutant school one?"

"Well." Ryan pulled the phone back, and poked at it until he remembered how to get it to drop a pin on where he currently was, then held it out for the kid to take. Or continue staring at like Ryan might turn out to actually be a robot filled with bombs and piloted by army ants. "Here's where here is, if that's helpful."

...

Well, the random guy wasn't openly violently anti-mutant, at least? Although that wasn't really the worst option, all things considered. But anyway. He nodded briefly but kept an eye on the Ryan-person, just in case he gave some sign that might lead to events detrimental to Ai's health.

The re-extension of the phone helped to calm Ai's still baby-routed nerves, and he did take it this time. Okay, if the pin was his location... Phew. He wasn't really that far at all. So if he went this way for this many blocks, then turned there... Yeah, that should do it. He glanced back at Ryan. "Thanks," he said quietly, handing the phone back.

"Cool." And the paranoid teen was still paranoid. Probably for a good reason, with what Ryan had heard about the purpose of the mutant school. Not nearly as idealistic as he'd originally hoped, or at least not exclusively. "I've heard of it, but I've never been there."

"You're welcome." Ryan was having such a hard time not rolling his eyes at the kid. I'm not going to eat you, really. He directed the energy into rolling the lollipop between his fingers instead. "You know where you're going now?"

Aiden blinked. Ryan thought it was cool, and something about the phrasing led Aiden to wonder if the guy were actually a mutant (plenty of them didn't have anything visible to show most of the time, or were disguiseable like Aiden) or supporter. That was... reassuring. He didn't relax much, though. You never really knew about people, after all. His wariness was entirely warranted.

And was going to be maintained. "Yes, thank you." Freeeeeeeeedom. And time to scurry away to that freedom without looking like it, because really./

"You're welcome." Normally, Ryan might try to follow the kid or say something else to him, at least to let him know that Ryan was also a mutant. Watching him scurry away like a scared mouse was entirely too amusing, though, so Ryan stayed back and waited for him to--hopefully--be out of hearing before letting himself start laughing.