Whenever life took a turn for the overwhelming, Amber retreated into the things she knew.  Those things, often, involved solitude, night and transforming into a deinonychus and hunting.  Lately, certain events had started to feel a little overwhelming.  Okay, so maybe it was only one specific event that had started to feel overwhelming and that specific event happened to be another change in her powers.  Only a short while prior, she and another mutant had been mugged by a gang of mutant haters.  Death was a very possible conclusion of that unfortunate encounter but death was not the result.  Fortunately for them both.  Instead, she had somehow shifted into the crest and horns of the styracosuarus while still remaining humans.  Her powers didn't work like that.  Or at least, they hadn't.

Maybe others would tell her to simply be happy that her powers had taken on a new and useful change.  After all, hadn't she always felt her human body to be weak and inferior and didn't this newest change now mean she had the means to enhance it?  That might have been true, but she couldn't help but think about the last time her powers had mutated and how that mutation had changed her, forever, into a walking corpse.  What would be the price of newest power?  What curse would accompany it?

To those questions, she had no answers.  Despite that, her brain kept spinning in circles imagining the worst case scenario and almost convinced that some sort of doom was just around the corner.  The only solution was to do something to help get her mind off her problems.

Making her way to a nearby park, one she often spent time in she stripped and hid her clothing in a bush. The cold night air barely bothered her; there were advantages to being half dead.  She then proceeded to change forms into the deinonychus, which she considered to be her second true form, above all others.  It was well past midnight so the chance of being spotted in this form was minimized.  With luck she'd find something to hunt, her usual fare including wild (or escaped domestic) dogs, coyotes, raccoons and deer.  Sometimes she'd go after smaller fair like cats but they didn't provide much sustenance.  Remaining still, she tried to pick up the scent of appropriate prey.

Jay had been having one hell of a few weeks. From cons gone wrong, to being chihuahua-napped and taken to Xavier's, to being stiffed in pay by punk bands, he'd well deserved to blow off steam. So, he found himself once again, jogging to his favorite park, well after midnight. Once he reached the park, he picked an area that he could easily remember--right next to a bed of flowers, then stripped down to his birthday suit before stuffing the clothes in the sports bag he always carried with him.

In the blink of an eye, a golden retriever stood where Jay once had, and he dug a hole, dropping the bag inside before burying it. Then...he "marked" the flowers. He never usually did that, but after one too many mishaps of losing his clothes, he decided it was time to start covering his bases. No more shifting into chihuahuas for awhile, either...

Now, once he was finished taking care of business--pun intended--he took off running, tongue lolling out of his mouth as the cool night breeze rippled through his blonde fur. He stopped after a few minutes, sure that he smelled something was off. He looked around, his ears perked up and his eyes looking around, in an almost human manner. He didn't stop to sniff the ground, but he kept an ear out as he continued his run. Whatever the hell may have been out there wasn't going to get the jump on him.

Then again...maybe he was just paranoid.

As always when she changed shapes, a world of sounds and smells erupted around her that those trapped within their weak human bodies would never understand.  Among the reasons she had so long resented her human self was it's underdeveloped senses.  Although she was curiosity on some level, she'd probably never know how her senses compared to those of modern animals.  How had evolution affected the creatures of today compared to the creatures of yesteryear?  It was almost worth considering her power mutating to allow her to take on those shapes as well.  Almost.

Starting forward, she began scenting the ground, trying to pick up the trail of something interesting.  It didn't take long for her to find a marking from a dog next to a bed of flowers.  There was clearly a hole that had been dug which, in and of itself, wasn't unusual.  The scent of human lay heavy as well which, given the proximity between dogs and humans also wasn't entirely unusual.  It was a place to start.

Once the trail had been found it wasn't difficult to follow.  The human scent appeared to end where the dog had left its marking which meant is was probably a stray or a wild dog, just the sort she was looking for.  Silently and stealthily, she stalked forward until she had it in sight.  For a stray, it certainly looked healthy but it wouldn't be the first animal whose owners had left behind when they moved.  Unfortunate for the dog.  Fortunate for her.  Only a little bit closer until she was withing run and pounce proximity.

He was starting to loosen up as the wind blew through his fur, his paws padding against the cool grass. But he still couldn't shake the odd feeling that he wasn't alone. His nostrils picked up an unusual scent; one he wasn't familiar with in the slightest. On the one hand, it smelled like some sort of rotting bird, but at the same time, it was alien; foreign. It gave him this eerie feeling, like the guy that's about to die in a horror movie.

He stopped, sniffing the air, his ears perked up to listen. His keen hearing didn't pick up much, but it smelled like whatever it was was getting closer. He couldn't shift back, because a dog was much more apt to defend itself than a naked human who can't see in the dark. While his human senses were keener than most, they were still somewhere between human and dog. So...if this thing were to kill him...he'd die a dog. Not that anything was necessarily wrong with that.

He looked around, sniffing the air, using his dog senses to his advantage, but his actions didn't look remotely dog-like. Instead of sniffing the ground or running to get away from the danger, he stood, ready to face it head on if need be. This wasn't playtime, and at the same time...going on his stress-relieving run seemed to make it worse.

Some might say there was something immoral about hunting animals that could very well be someone's pet but she disagreed.  She wasn't hunting for sport, she was hunting for food.  Once her prey was caught and killed, she would eat her fill and the rest would go to the many scavengers that lived virtually everywhere.  While in the city, perhaps she didn't need to kill her own prey, but she did need to keep her skills up for those times when killing her own prey was a matter of survival.  Besides, what was the difference between killing one's own food and having someone else do the killing for you?  If anything, it was more ethical to do the deed yourself and have the full understanding of what that deed meant.

As she crept slowly towards her target, something struck her as unusual about it.  Not just the fact that it looked rather healthy for a stray, but something in the way it was acting.  She'd spent enough time in the wild and had killed and eaten enough dogs that she had a good sense of how they were supposed to act and how they were not.  As domesticated animals, they didn't act the same as truly wild beasts, but there was still a pattern and a certain degree of predictability.  This dog did not follow that pattern.  

Halting her progress and watching for a moment, she decided there was something almost human about the way it was walking around and sniffing the air.  Was it possible she had found a fellow mutant who had changed into a dog?  It wouldn't be the first shapeshifter she'd encountered.  With just a little bit of disappointment that she wouldn't be catching any fresh meat for the night, Amber let out a trilling chirp to alert it to her presence.  Food or no food, meeting another mutant shifter could prove interesting.

His heart was racing as blood and adrenaline sped through the golden retriever's bloodstream, his ears perked back and his entire body stiff, both scared for his life, and at the same time ready to defend it with every fiber of his being. He still couldn't quite place the smell, but then, his ears were greeted by a still unfamiliar chirping sound. He still had no idea what he was stepping into, but at least now he could pinpoint a direction.

Hunching low, he edged toward the direction of the sound and smell, keeping a defensive stance and ready to attack if need be. His muscles tightened, still fueled by the rush of adrenaline and the looming threat.

Not long after, he found...holy*** that was a ****ing dinosaur! He took several steps back, his heart now feeling like it was about to explode out of his canine chest. Taking several deep breaths, he shifted back to his human form, sure that he was dealing with a mutant now. After all, how many actual ****ing dinosaurs were roaming New York on this side of the ice age?

He held his hands up in a surrender position. Hopefully this stranger would show more mercy on him than the chill night air was granting his naked human body.

The dog spun, spotting her, and it was almost comical watching its reaction.  It wasn't often that most people saw a living, breathing dinosaur running around and she was used to reactions ranging from surprise to wonder to terror and something all of the above.  All of the above seemed to apply, in this case.  At least the reaction confirmed her impression that the dog was, in fact a mutant.  Now, how exactly did one appear non-threatening when one had a mouth full of very sharp teeth and a pair of very sizable sickle claws upon each of one's back?  It wasn't easy.

The question became less of an issue when the dog changed shape into a very naked and very cold looking human who held his arms up in surrender.  The whole situation struck her as rather humorous and, had she had the vocal ability to do so at that moment, she would have burst out laughing.  Sometimes it was fun to be a little bit terrifying.

Instead of laughing, Amber took this as her que to return to her own human body.  Unlike the stranger's transformation which had been virtually instant her own took around a half a minute and was far from a pretty picture to watch as bones and muscles stretched and contorted as her body forced itself from one shape into another.  At the end of it, she stood as well equally naked but feeling only slight discomfort at the cool night air.  She made no comment nor showed any discomfort at the lack of clothing.  Clothing was, after all, human convention and one that puzzled her at how obsessive they were about it.

"Hello.  I'm not going to eat you."  She cracked a small smile.  As a general policy, she didn't eat mutants. The instincts of a predator might be a part of her, but she was no cannibal.

His heart was still racing, almost certain that he was going to die cold and naked, but at least getting eaten by a dinosaur is a badass way to go, right? But then, there was another naked mutant standing in front of him.

"Does no one know how to shift clothes? he asked, half joking. His heart-rate began to slow, and the adrenaline began to cool down. He gave a dry chuckle, shaking his head as he folded his arms across his chest.

"Yeah, thanks for that. Though you did have me thinking otherwise for a minute...but something tells me I only saw you because you wanted me to. I mean, I picked up your scent, but other than that..." Even now, his keen senses were picking up her scent. So apparently dinosaurs smell like decaying bird? Interesting.

"My name's Jay, by the way."

Now that they were nothing more than two naked humans standing alone in the middle of a park at night, the stranger no longer seemed to feel like his life was in danger.  That was probably for the best.

"Not that I've ever met," she replied with a smile and a shrug.  "You look cold.  Do you have your clothes hidden around here somewhere?"  Given her own tendency to hide her robes at times like this it seemed to be a safe assumption that he did the same.  Unless he'd traveled from somewhere far away, which was probably far more easily done for something natural like a dog compared to something decidedly unnatural like a dinosaur.  Dogs could go virtually anywhere without people given them a second glance.  Must be nice.

"Oh, I was going to eat you, until I realized you weren't exactly acting like a normal dog."  She shrugged, exhibiting no sense of shame in the statement.  Nothing wrong with eating, after all.

"My name's Amber."  She offered him her hand to shake.  Even in his human body, he was clearly able to blend in far better than she.  She was a dead thing while he looked completely normal and natural.  That, also, must be nice.  

"Heh. Well, at least I'm not the only one, then" he replied with another slight chuckle. "Yeah, I've got my clothes buried next to a flower bed nearby.

"Oh, I was going to eat you, until I realized you weren't exactly acting like a normal dog."

Well, that was simultaneously comforting and needlessly unsettling... "Well then. No judgement, either way," he replied with a shrug, then shook her hand when it was offered to him. Turning around, he gave the air a sniff, walking towards the flower bed he'd buried his clothes near. Even though he was in human form, his enhanced senses still allowed him to track his own scent.

Walking over to the obvious burial spot, he reached down, finding the strap of the gym bag, which he'd purposely left unburied, and gave it a sharp tug, pulling the bag up. Then, he unzipped it and began putting on his clothes.

"Yeah...I can't tell you how many times I've lost track of my hiding place. Wouldn't be so bad, but every time I do it tends to be somewhere that could result in a legal issue..."