He had his directions, and his rent money was carefully stashed in the zippered pocket of a jacket that hung well past his slender fingertips but didn’t even cover half of his ribs. He stepped gingerly off the bus, wincing as his curled and clenched feet pinched in his too-tight shoes. Someone pushed past him and stepped on his tail, but with a sigh Tobias just moved out of the way of the disembarking city people.

Once the rush had faded into the general trickle of people moving along the sidewalk, heads down and phones out, he set off. The apartment his parents had arranged was supposed to be two blocks up from the bus stop, and then around the next corner. The Charleston, or something like that. It couldn’t be too hard to find, could it? Or at least it shouldn’t be any harder than stepping on his tail, which was apparently so easy that everyone had to give it a try! He shied away from the sliding people as much as they leaned away from him, and he turned the corner to a quiet side street to rub at the dirty, throbbing bruises near the end of his tail.

”I hate this stinking place,” he muttered, trying to even out the slime on his tail without just making his fingers slimier. It never worked.

”Hey kid, you lost? Or are you waiting for someone?”

The voice was unfamiliar, and when Tobias looked up, fins and tendrils bobbing, it was to a handful of tattooed, completely stereotypical men. One of them played with the edge of his unbuttoned shirt.

Holy !@#$. That guy had a gun.

Tobias paled and swallowed against a throat that had been wet only a few minutes before. ”I - uh - no.” He paused to cough and clear his throat. ”I just stepped out of the way for a moment. I have to be -“ He started to step forward, but the guy with the gun took a half step in front of him. Okay, okay, not leaving right now, he got the message!

”Well, if you have somewhere to be, we’ll make this quick,” the first and so far only speaker said with a small smile. ”You look like you have some travelling money - why don’t you hand over everything you have, and let us look through that nice big backpack you have there, and then we’ll let you be on your way to that appointment, no blood shed.”

And there was the threat. Right. Tobias had nearly died once. He hadn’t, thanks to this whole slimy thing, but slime and gills weren’t going to get him out of a… mugging. Did muggings actually happen in the real world? Apparently.

He slowly lowered his bag to the ground and pulled the cash out of his wallet. There was nearly a hundred dollars in there. That would satisfy them, right? They wouldn’t search his pockets and find his rent money, would they?

One of the guys started rifling through his bag, pulling out his haphazard collection of clothing that kind of still fit. Tobias passed the handful of bank-straight bills to the nearest of the others, only to get a raised eyebrow and a hand pointed at his pocket. It wasn’t a very empty-seeming pocket, he had to admit.

His breath was starting to rasp past his gills by the time he finally got the sticky zipper to open. It still caught on his hand and scraped a thin red line along it, and traces of blood mixed with the slime he left on his rent money.

”That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” the man said cheerfully. ”Oh, don’t look so pathetic. It’s not like you earned it or anything, so you don’t really have any right to it. Finding anything decent in there, Chubbs?”

Chubbs? What kind of name was that? Tobias stared at a tattoo bobbing in an out of view as the Chubbs guy moved his arm around in the bag. The man might not be particularly hefty, but for a pin-up girl or whatever the tattoo was supposed to be of, the drawing sure had some extra baggage.

Chubbs grunted. ”Might get a few bucks for this,” he muttered, holding up Tobias’ old DS. Wait - I got keys!”

Keys? Tobias didn’t have any - wait, were the keys to his old, completely totalled and drowned Mustang still in there? Tobias swallowed quickly and glanced down the street.

… How could people just walk past this? He wasn’t even ten feet from the main road, not even in a real alley, and yet all those people on the sidewalk didn’t even look sideways. All they cared about was their phones, their perfect little unshattered, unmugged lives.

”Good catch. Let’s go find it; maybe the brat’s parents bought him a nice car before they saw how ugly he was getting.” The trio sauntered back to the main street.

It took Tobias a long time to be able to walk without falling to his knees. He slowly gathered his clothing back into his bag. That was all they’d left him. Clothing and a debit card stashed behind his driver’s license, which probably wasn’t even good anymore and certainly did him no good.

He still had his address too. He didn’t have the rent, though. Hopefully the landlord would still let him stay until he could get some job that didn’t care what he looked like or that he couldn’t even walk like a normal person on his stubby little legs.

His hopes were crushed a few minutes later when the landlord laughed at him and pointed at the door. He stood back on the street, alone in the oblivious crowd, and looked around. He was supposed to live here. Now what was he supposed to do?

It had been a rather fruitful day for Alex. Early morning practice at the park and then research in the library. He didn't care if it made him a dork. It was useful stuff and he could actually catch up on everything he had missed for the past 3 years.

He had never been so glad to have his backpack weighed down by library books. Books to help him catch up on math and history and all sorts to hopefully put himself in the proper grade. Plus he had spent a good chunk of time catching up on pop culture and had a whole list of shows to watch. All in all, he was feeling pretty good.

That is until he caught sight of a rather confused and unfortunate looking mutant. It wasn't hard to see that this guy was a mutant. And while most people would impulsively pull away from such a strange looking man, the teen was rather intrigued. Even at a distance he could see there were some interesting adaptations going on. Longer torso, shorter limbs, the tail seemed stiff so it wasn't a balancing appendage or a prehensile tool, so...

He quickly pulled himself out of observation mode and carefully approached the distraught looking mutant. "Hey, are you okay, sir?"he asked gently, adding the sir to let the other know that he respected him. At least as one sentient being to another. He was pretty sure this guy wouldn't be able to handle any more gruff. It seemed like life had already handed him a heaping portion already.

His complete lack of everything that made life normal made no impact on the people walking past. They had their lives, and their lives had nothing to do with his. The most notice anyone gave him was if someone noticed his tail, and then it was usually more annoyance at the space he took up than anything. He curled it closer to himself, awkwardly and with far more intent than moving any of his original limbs.

And then someone approached him. Even though it was just a kid, younger than Tobias but probably a bit taller at the moment, he still edged back towards the unwashed wall. If people walked straight past muggings, who knew what a street kid would be willing to do in broad daylight? Or as broad daylight as such a grimy town could get, anyway. The tone seemed too soft and unthreatening to be real; surely it was some gimmick to get him to lower his guard so that he could be lured into something.

Well, it wasn't as if he had anything worthwhile left to steal, except maybe the bank card and its measly hundred dollars. "I don't have anything left to steal," he said suspiciously. His throat was really starting to rasp now, but he'd been counting on refilling his water bottle once he got inside. From what he remembered, there were only a few drops left.

The response he got was less than promising, "I don't have anything left to steal." This guy definitely hit hard times recently, maybe even just today if the look on his face was anything to go by. He put his hands up, attempting to look non-threatening. "I'm not going to hurt you or steal from you. You just looked out of sorts. I want to help."he said softly.

Once he had gotten closer he was able to spot some prominent features that spoke of a sea creature. Gills, holes along sensitive parts of the face, a lateral line system maybe, tendrils, etc. The man was a mesh of interesting aquatic features that Alex found himself automatically categorizing. He wasn't too familiar with fish, having not much use for them whilst traveling but this could be a good reason to start.

Slowly he reached back to his backpack with one hand and unzipped one of the side pockets. "You're aquatic right?"he asked pulling out a full water bottle. He usually carried one around, a habit formed after learning the hard way how important water could be. "Here, you need this more than me." He held out the water bottle, a peace offering for the down trodden mutant.

Out of sorts? Was that really how he looked? There wasn't exactly a mirror handy and he hadn't bothered to look in a mirror very often for the last little while, but honestly it was probably true enough. He still eyed the kid suspiciously, since really what sort of innocent, helpful, nice person would hang around in as cheap and mugging-friendly part of town as this, but he couldn't keep his full array of fins from perking up at the sight of the full water bottle. An actually full water bottle. Probably filled with actual water.

He swallowed and rubbed his hands together hesitantly. What if it were drugged, and this was some weird kidnapping attempt thing? If he could be mugged in the middle of the day and have people walk by and not care, chances were he could be kidnapped just as easily. Well, at least the kid clued in enough to offer him something he really kind of needed right now.

"Thanks," he said slowly, the long tendrils at his temples twitching in anticipation - and nervousness, both for the potential kidnapping or whatever and because BREATHING WATER WAS FRICKING STRESSFUL - and then accepted the bottle. Fortunately, finger nails were not required to open the lid, and with a moment's pause to brace himself he dumped about a third of the bottle down his throat. A breath later a trickle seeped from behind the curve of his jaw and the associated fins, running down his neck before soaking into his slime-damp shirt.

He coughed a little, vaguely nauseous and shivering from a sudden inexplicable burst of cold, took another breath of water, and then offered the mostly-empty bottle back to the kid. "Thanks," he said quietly. His throat already felt smoother, and as far as he could tell (so far, anyway) there was no sign of anything in the water other than water.

The guy seemed hesitant to take the water and Alex didn't blame him. This was a dangerous block after all, lots of people would take advantage of this situation. If they had anything to gain from it anyway. Most mutant folks however weren't exactly the top rung of society. Hell, plenty had nothing but trouble when it came to making their powers useful. Alex was one of the few fortunate mutants who had generally a pretty strong control over his.

Still, the guy took the water and gulped down nearly all of it. He watched with some fascination as the gills twitched when water was reintroduced. He was thanked and the bottle was handed back with little else said.

"It's no problem. Happy to help, really."he said tucking the bottle away, "So uh, I'm guessing you got mugged earlier, huh?" It wasn't that hard to tell from the way this guy talked, mostly defensive and afraid. He had seen it before while traveling, but this time, this time he might actually be able to do more to help.

Tobias sighed. "Is it that obvious?" It wasn't like he'd been beat up or shot or anything. He'd given in long before then. He had no desire to die, even if he had zero purpose in life. "They took my rent money, and the landlord insisted on being paid up front. So now I don't even have that..." He sighed. "You don't need to hear about my !@#$%^ luck. Sorry."

With a sigh that was torn between relief and regret, Tobias cleared the last of the clean water from his messed up lungs and dabbed at his neck with a wrist. Even if the t-shirt sleeves were unnaturally long on him, they still weren't long enough to help with the drying, never mind that the slime ruined any hope of anything drying off in any manner.

"They took my rent money, and the landlord insisted on being paid up front. So now I don't even have that...You don't need to hear about my !@#$%^ luck. Sorry."

He listened, nodding sympathetically, only shaking his head when the other apologized. "Nah man, !@#$%^ luck is kind of the mutant anthem. I understand."he said smiling gentle. He offered his hand, "I'm Alex by the way, also a mutant."

He hoped that the offered hand and mutant admittance would let the guy trust him a bit more. An 'I trust you, you trust me,' silent agreement sort of thing. At least he hoped as much. From what he knew of interactions, things went a lot smoother if you gave something of yourself. There was an unspoken obligation to return the favor. Again, at least he hoped so.

Mutant... anthem? There was a thing like that? Tobias really knew next to nothing about mutants, other than they existed and did weird stuff and sometimes looked weird and he was one (since there was really no denying that one at this point). He certainly hadn't realized that there was any real sort of community or association, although it did make sense. People with things in common tended to group together. He'd just been very focused on one group, and ignored the rest around him.

Accepting the handshake was more ore less automatic, even if he immediately regretted getting slime all over the kid's hand. "Tobias," he replied. "As you can see, not related to the animorph. No feathers." He awkwardly flexed the fins on his head to prove the point. "So, what brings an unthreatening but apparently unthreatened kid through somewhere like this?" he asked idly.

Alex didn't mind the slim too much and wiped it off on his pants with little more than a small grimace. "Tobias, as you can see, not related to the animorph. No feathers." He chuckled at the show of fins, glad to see the guy had a sense of humor about his new adaptations. Or at least he assumed new. It was probably too early to assume things.

"So, what brings an unthreatening but apparently unthreatened kid through somewhere like this?"

Alex shrugged at the question, "The library to be honest. I'm not to familiar with the metro yet so I walked there and now I'm on my way back home. As you can see I got a little sidetracked to end up here but I'm pretty certain of where I am now. Besides that this area isn't that scary." Not when you carried a hunting knife in your bag and had the power to create vicious animals but that was beside the point.

Tobias did his best to hide the vague, entirely expected sinking feeling as Alex wiped his hand clean. If he made it through this... enormous bankrupt hiccup or whatever this was, he should find some gloves that fit his hands. Rubber gloves, or latex or something. The least he could do was try to keep from getting his slime on everything he touched.

The library? What interest could the kid have with the library? Was he some sort of ultrasmart egghead? There had been a few people like that in his high school, once upon a time. He seemed to remember them all being girls, but he paid way more attention to cars than them.

Isn't that scary. Tobias sagged at the kid's words. He got threatened with a gun, mugged, and kicked out of the place he was supposed to live in an area that wasn't that scary. How was that for pathetic.

Oops, alright, he might have said something the had disheartened the other mutant. If the silence was anything to go by. Okay, review...ah, right, the guy thought he was harmless, as well as he had been mugged earlier, and then he, himself, turned around and said he wasn't scared of this place. That might be it. Alright how to fix that.

"Not to say that this place isn't dangerous. I'm just kind of used to it I guess. Desensitized."he said hoping that, that clarified that he wasn't ignorant of the dangers. Okay, change of subject. "So, um, your landlord was being a dick. That sucks."

He thought about it for a moment. He had already brought one other mutant to Xavier mansion, he was pretty sure it'd be okay to bring another. Sure this one wasn't a girl his age like Margo had been but plenty of the people there were adults or at least close enough. So it should be alright. "If you want I know a place you can crash that's mutant friendly and it's way nicer than this place."he suggested, "I'm kind of living there myself to be honest."

A flicker of something passed across Alex's face. Tobias hadn't spent enough time paying attention to people to catch what it was, but he figured it out well enough when the kid started explained. He flushed a little and scuffed the ground until he remembered how painful that sort of movement was for his confined feet.

"That makes sense," he said quietly. "I'm not from anywhere near as big as this, although I'm not from all that far off. It's just... different being alone." Agreement about his landlord, though, countered the whole dark cloud of horrible situation-ness enough for a murdered reincarnation of a smile to poke at one side of his mouth with a very long stick. "It does, doesn't it?"

He stopped cold. Heh, cold and slimy. Good match. Wait, a place to crash? A nice place? That wouldn't have issues with him not being anything even superficially resembling human anymore? Tobias felt wobbly. His prior dehydration and stress probably didn't help, but there was enough relief on his head that he had to drop as much of his tail to the ground as would reach and sort of lean on it. "....Really?" he asked in disbelief.

Or was this that kidnapping thing again?

...

Oh, !@#$ it. Walking into a kidnapping was really sounding better than hanging around here.

He chuckled at the guys disbelief. He was beginning to like giving people the good news. Really he should be getting paid to hand the information out. Do an ad campaign or something. More folks should know, it was the information age. Word of mouth really wasn't how one should do business these days.

"Yeah, really. I know, I was just as amazed as you. Couldn't believe it until I actual went and saw it for myself."he said stuffing his hands in his pockets. "It's a bit of a walk though..."he murmured looking down at the guys short legs with some worry. That and the fact that the guy had be dehydrated made him worry that an hour or so walk was absolutely out of the question.

"We should probably catch the bus. Do you have enough for bus fare?"he was pretty sure he had fare enough for himself. But this guy he wasn't so sure he could cover. Which could be a problem. Maybe he could bug Mirror for a mirror pick up...Wait no he had no way of contacting the guy. Geez he really needed a cell phone.

There was a place he could go.

A place he could actually go.

He wasn't completely adrift.

The concept of security, even as minimal as having somewhere to go intentionally, somewhere to be able to return to, spun around his head and danced a reel around his fins and tendrils.

Then Alex looked down at his legs and mentioned walking a long distance, and Tobias' hope cracked. It wasn't that he wasn't fit (well, he used to be!). Having really short legs and such weird balance just sort of multiplied any distance he went... by quite a bit. The bus! They could ride!

Except he had no change or physical money of any sort. He had his bank card... but he was pretty sure even fancy city buses like this place undoubtedly had would not accept debit. Which meant... Well. What was one more stop? There ought to be a store of some sort around here, if not a bank. He fished out his wallet and the one financially useful thing he had left. "I have a bit on here, if you know of a store around here somewhere that'll do cash back. They were more interested in money they could feel than chunks of plastic from someone as broke as me."