Adder glanced quickly at the metal girl, ears taut and jaw muscles tensed. Play along? What, was she going to hold them up and distract them if he had an opening? Was she actually trying to get him caught? That was it, wasn't it? She was trying to help the animal control people. So the longer he stayed here the more it played into her plots -

of calming the situation? His ears flicked hesitantly, but the about-to-bolt tension lingered full-force all through his neck and back and legs. Even his fingers were slightly flexed, ready to react. He glanced between metal-and-electric-girl and tracker-weirdo and annoying-animal-cops, suspended between complete motionlessness and stressed vibration.

And then he eased back and to the side a bit, putting metal-and-electric-girl more between him and the other people. Just in case. Barring additional senses, she probably had a more limited field of vision, and anyway keeping all of his potential pursuers in the same direction was better than being surrounded.

“Then explain.”

So far, so good. The wolf boy was antsy, but cooperating – at least for the moment. The animal control lady was tapping her foot, wanting an explanation ASAP.

A small, nervous gulp played on her speaker before she spoke. “You see, we ran into some drunk guy. He started screaming 'mutie' and stuff. My friend here was just trying to get away,” Glitch lied. Hopefully that story would win sympathies, especially those of the tracker mutant's. Thank goodness her robotic face was harder to read.

“So yeah. He's sorry.” She tried to nudge the other teen forward. Hint hint, wolf boy.

Adder didn't breathe easier once metal-and-electric-girl started 'explaining.' He didn't have a problem with lying when it saved his skin, but he wasn't the one doing the lying. Someone else was, and he didn't know why. And he only had META bot experience to predict if he could outrun her or not. They were made to catch, but she was a mutant and therefore less predictable.

Her nudging was at least predictable enough to dodge, although Adder refused to move forward at all and kept his ears flattened against the sides of his head. He didn't want to go closer and she wasn't going to get him to go back between her and them. Not without a fight, anyway. A vicious fight; what was the point in fighting fair when no one else did and it was your life on the line?

He managed a sort of shrug at the officers, reluctant and stressed and everything else that made him into such a believably easily targeted young mutant. Not that that was intentional, but if it worked then he wouldn't complain. Much. If he somehow had someone to listen to a complaint.

Glitch shook her head. If the wolf boy was her, she would have apologized out the wazoo. But, his way of dealing with people was very different from hers. Nothing could be done about that.

As far as she could tell, the animal control lady wasn't completely satisfied. “Fine. But one more thing before you two go.” Wide-eyed, Glitch watched her pull out her tranquilizer gun. “I wouldn't have known the wolf was you. It would have been serious if I accidentally shot you with this. You understand?” Yep, she was rather... passionate about the issue.

Glitch stayed silent and kept nodding. Lying tended to get harder the longer it was kept up, so she just wanted to end the conversation there. The wolf boy, she wasn't so sure about.

Annoying-animal-cop thought she could threaten him?

Adder's coiling and roiling stress thought very poorly of that action, although at first all he did was raise one hand, empty-palmed, and present an upright middle finger at the officer.

And then he darted into the crowd, ears flicked down and under his shaggy hair, eyes narrowed, and mouth closed, all so that he could disappear without simply running for it. He kept an eye out for the tracker, but in his experience (as hunter and hunted) crowds were horrible for tracking individuals.

He also kept an eye out for metal-and-electric-girl. He still wasn't sure what to make of her.

Well, the wolf boy chose to show them the wrong finger and run off.  “Hey!”

“Idiot,” Glitch muttered. Even so, she found herself laughing slightly. The audacity of it was, in a way, funny. Yeah, that woman was getting a little preachy.

With him gone, Glitch found herself in the awkward position of explaining that to the animal cops. “He doesn't get out often.” That sounded about right.

“Uh-huh.” She'd picked up her radio and shooed her away. Judging by her tone, she wasn't the least bit convinced. At least they weren't hell bent on punishing either one of them. Still, Glitch didn't plan on showing her face to those people again any time soon.

After seeing the wolf boy's actions, Glitch kind of wanted to get an explanation from him. Or at least try. Moving through a crowd quickly wasn't easy for someone made of steel. Simply put, being rammed by almost two hundred pounds of metal hurt. She made her way through it slowly, taking care to avoid accidentally hitting someone. She caught a glimpse of the wolf boy, but he was moving through the crowd a lot faster than she could.

Lurking in the crowd again, moving as it shifted so that everyone around him would think he was just part of the group, Adder watched the animal-cops turn and gather their nasty tools. Good. Now they could go away and he could relax a bit. He chafed at their slowness. They were leaving, now they just had to hurry up about it!

As he drifted, Adder caught the odd glimpse of metal-and-electric-girl. Was she following him or just trying to leave? The crowd was beginning to disperse, painfully slowly, but she seemed to be looking around.

He saw her movement catch, so briefly. She was looking in his direction until it wasn't his direction anymore. She didn't seem... angry at him. Although it was hard to tell. She didn't have the same sort of expressions. But she didn't smell like a nasty person, even if he wasn't fond of the smell of metal. It always seemed to carry a trace of heat, although maybe that was the electricity that seemed to follow it everywhere. Sharp-tzpp nastiness. But that was just what that smelled like. It wasn't nasty-person stink.

Adder drifted in her direction again, gradually circling around behind her. "What do you want?" he asked when he felt he was close enough. Close enough to hear, but far enough to be out of reach.

It was official: Glitch lost sight of the wolf boy. She envied the tracking guy's power just a bit – it seemed useful for situations like this. She would have given up and left, except he found her instead.

Was he going to keep his distance? She placed her hands on her hips and eyed him for a few seconds. Fine, he could do that. Might make conversation a little awkward, though. “Well, I helped you with your animal cop problem,” she said with the type of voice that normally would have been accompanied by a big grin. “So, in exchange for that, why don't you tell me why you were wandering around as a wolf?”

Whether what she'd said to animal control actually helped or not was debatable, but she wasn't anticipating results anyways. She didn't know what to expect from the wolf guy.

Helped? "They wouldn't have noticed me at all without you," Adder retorted. Because she'd responded to his comment. Which totally made it all her fault, and there was nothing she could say to convince him otherwise.

But answering her question might make her make less of a fuss when he inevitably left her behind. Because that was what he did. He went away from people with no intention of ever seeing them again.

"Didn't I already say? The ground's cold. And sometimes I'm just more comfortable on four feet. Got a problem with that?" If she did, he'd just leave her behind in this minute and not a future one. People who couldn't wrap their heads around someone sometimes preferring a different aspect of themselves weren't people worth hanging around.

Um... no, that was on the tracking mutant. Sheesh. Oh well, what could she expect? If he wanted to pin the blame on her, fine.

“A problem? Nah, I don't give a crap,” Glitch answered, shrugging. She had no reason to; he was a complete stranger whose name she didn't know, a complete stranger who didn't like talking to people. “I guess I'll let you go back to enjoying your cold ground or whatever. Take care,” she said with a wave. With that attitude, he needed it.

With that, Glitch turned and walked off. Time to go back and finish that English assignment.