Predator smiled as he looked down on the scurrying figures on the street below him. It never ceased to amaze him how people unfailingly never looked up. Though they were three dimensional creatures, that had onced lived in the trees, humans thought two dimensionally. For hundreds of years those who dreamt of flight were regarded as crackpots and loonies. The Wright brothers had fundamentally rocked the mindest of the human race. Especially at night, most of the humans seemed to keep their gazes firmly fixed on the path in front of them, hesitant to look a stranger in the face. It was an instinctual fear, the fear of the dark. It was hardwired into the DNA of humans, even into adulthood. The fear of the dark. Fear of the hunters that stalked it. Fear of Predator.

It was that thought that brought a smile to his face. All of these little maggots feared him, and they had no idea what he was truly capable of, why he did what he did. They knew what he was, but they had no idea who he was. And it was the who that mattered, not the what. The humans were the dominant race, for the moment, Predator was forced to admit, but even the lowliest virus was more worthy of life than the humans. Without their technology that was destroying the world, the humans were just weak, bald, akward apes. They were the true freaks, and Mutants were nature's way of trying to bring humans back on the evolutionary track. The extinction of homo sapiens sapiens was inevitable. It was homo sapiens superior's time to rise to the top of the food chain, and remake the world.

That pleasing chain of events in his mind, Predator stepped back from the edge a bit, and began his transformation, tucking his clothes under a corner of the roof before beginnning. Muscles rippled, bones shifted and cracked, and golden fur began to grow along his skin. Within half a minute, Predator had assumed his Foo Dog form. The place where he was going to was actual a few miles from where he was, but his body ached for the sweet release of his Foo form, and he figured it couldn't hurt to go along the rooftops in that form rather than his human one.

As such, the people in the office buildings he traversed wondered why the building was shaking, and the people on the streets below wondered why bricks were showering off of the roofs. Run across a roof, leap a gap to a lower one, run, jump up to a higher roof, turn left and leap, run, jump, turn, leap!! He was having entirely too much fun, and he knew he was being a little reckless, but he needed the feeling of the wind running through his mane, the roof speeding past his paws, and the sound of his claws clicking on concrete and steel.

As always Juka reveled in the freedom his glorious bubble offered him. He bore no ill will against the humans far below him but on nights like this, oh how he pittied them. They would never know what it was like to simply step off the balcony and instead of plummeting to a horrible untimely death on the pavement below, float gloriously into the sky on a beautiful bubble of force. His soap bubble, as his good friend Jewel so enjoyed calling it. He grinned at the thought of his beautiful little Jewel. She truly was a sweet little doll and almost as fabulous as he himself was. Quite an amazing woman, she was.

Juka watched as the humans scurried about their lives far below them, a soft smile playing on his lips. He loved them, in their own way, loved the fact that they admired and sometimes even worshiped him most of all. Dark as it was out this night there really wasn't any risk of them seeing him floating far above them, not that they had a tendency to look up even in the brightest daylight anyway. Humans were funny like that; never expected that anything could be above them and certainly never expecting that someone could be watching them. They really had no idea how beautiful they were. Juka laughed a little at the strange, melancholy mood that he found himself in this night. It wasn't really like him to be so contemplative and it certainly wasn't like him to be concentrating on the lives of others instead of his own glorious self. But sometimes his midnight flights did this too him and put him in this strange mood.

Juka was drifting aimlessly, his thoughts wandering just as much as his bubble when he spotted a strange sight down below him. It was...some sort of giant lion-like creature? Jumping from rooftop to rooftop? How very fascinating, not to mention exciting! It must be another mutant! Having not the slightest thought that this mutant could be potentially dangerous, indeed any strange mutant could be potentially dangerous, Juka brought his bubble down closer so that he could get a better look at the thing. It was quite beautiful, he decided, not to mention the fact that it looked like it could more than take care of itself.

At first Juka followed, a few feet above it, easily keeping up as it bounded from rooftop to rooftop. He wasn't exactly trying to stay hidden from it, but he didn't immediately make his presence known either. Then, deciding that he simply must have a better look, he maneuvered his bubble so that he could circle it, beginning behind it and then floating in front of it, keeping about 10 ft distant from it at all times. "Hello giant kitty," Juka said happily. He dug in his purse for a kitty treat that he had stored in there for his own kittens and, despite the fact that it was kitten sized and plainly not foo-dog sized, bubbled it into a mini bubble, extended a tendril and offered it to the giant lion-creature.

If twelve foot tall rampaging Foo Dogs could smile, Predator would be. He could almost see the faces of the too-serious self-centered all-important business men and women in the buildings he was bounding across. He could certainly imagine their looks of complete confusion and panic as the entire building shook. Earthquake? Tornado? Tsunami? No, George started eating volcano tacos again. Wrong, and none would guess what was really going on. Even if they would think that Predator was making his way among the rooftops, they would dismiss it, as he was supposed to have left town several days ago. That particular bluff had been fun to do. Kill a few roaches, then run out of town and hide. An hour or so of work, and nobody was looking for him in the town.

And of course it made sense that, as Predator was in the best mood he had been in several months, it would be ruined just when it was getting good.

Some gussied up boy.. or girl, Predator couldn't really tell which, floating around in front of him most certainly would ruin any good mood. As such, he stopped on the next rooftop, and shook his head, rolling his eyes. Maybe he wouldn't have to deal with this, and scaring the kid away would most certainly improve his mood back to it's previous condition, maybe even more. Normally Predator wouldn't be rude to a fellow mutant, but he just wanted to continue on his way at that point. Just as he was building up for an ear-splitting roar, he was interuptted by the kid.

"Hello giant kitty!"

...
...
Giant.
Kitty.
...

Predator cocked his head to once side, and his left eye twitched a little. That was a first for him. Giant kitty? Nobody he had ever met had the guts to even consider calling him that. Well, that was probably because he was often covered in blood and gore and surrounded by dead bodies, but still. I mean, come on! He didn't even really look like a kitty! Sorta like a lion, and sorta like a dog, but really? Predator slowly turned to face the kid directly, looked him (her??) in the face, and roared as the treat was extended towards him, an ear-splitting sound just a hair short of forcing someone to clap their hands to their ears. Then he walked forward about five feet, reached out with one of his paws, claws back, and softly swatted the bubble with enough force to punch through a brick wall. And people say Predator's not subtle.

If Juka had known how to read the expressions of a foo dog he might have realized that this particular one didn't take kindly to being referred to as a giant kitty. As it was, however, this was the first foo dog that he had ever encountered and he had no idea that one could even have expressions, let alone expressions to express dislike and indignation. Nor could he possibly conceive that giant kitty would be any sort of an insult anyway. It was meant as the most wonderful of compliments because everyone knew that kitties were, of course, the most fabulous creatures around and this giant one was indeed a most beautiful and fabulous kitty. It moved with such power and grace that Juka couldn't help but admire it. He only wished that he had a more appropriate gift to offer the great kitty, his little kitten snack seeming woefully undersized.

When the kitty walked forward a few feet Juka didn't even think to move his bubble backwards; even the roar wasn't enough to truly get across the fact that he should be afraid and the kitty really was much more dangerous than any other kitty he had ever encountered. After all, he was offering it a treat (though he did notice that it didn't deign to actually take his treat which was quite disappointing indeed) and what kitty did not like kitty treats? And then, almost in slow motion, or so it seemed to Juka, the kitty lifted one of its great paws and swatted at Juka's bubble. He shrieked in pain as his bubble compress around his leg and felt a great kitten paw collide solidly with his ever so delicate leg. Meanwhile, he momentarily lost control of his bubble and it spun wildly in the opposite direction of where the attack had come from, several feet away from the great cat.

It only took him a few seconds to regain control of his bubble but when he did he was certain to hold it many feet above the wayward (and very much dangerous as he had just discovered) cat. "That hurt!" Juka cried dramatically. He was going to bruise, he was certain of it, and it would be a horrible purple welt that would last for days. He would have pouted if he was not so dismayed that the giant cat had turned on him and spurned his offering so deliberately. Looking around furtively (but not quite willing to take his eyes of the mean nasty kitty) he spotted a few bricks on a nearby rooftop and sent 3 tendrils over there in order to bubble himself 3 bricks and kept them protectively in front of him in case the cat could jump far higher than he was prepared for.

"Bad kitty," Juka scolded. "All I was trying to do was make a friend and give you a treat and you had to swat me like a giant cat swats at a giant mouse. Is that any way to treat the only creature on this earth as amazing as you?" He hovered about 15 feet above the foo dog.

Predator was a making a strange sound. It was a sortof deep 'chough, chough' rapid fire sound that almost sounded like he was choking on something. To anyone familiar with dogs or lions, they would know that he wasn't choking on anything. In fact, he was laughing. Oh, yes, it was just too much fun to mess with the little guy. Oh, sure, Predator should have been nice, but man, he was having too much of a good time messing with his head...

"That Hurt! Bad kitty! All I was trying to do was make a friend and give you a treat and you had to swat me like a giant cat swats at a giant mouse. Is that any way to treat the only creature on this earth as amazing as you?"

Bricks. Predator was absolutely terrified. He had been shot, tortured, stabbed, and hit with a rocket propelled grenade, and this kid was threatening him with bricks. It was laughable, and Predator shook his head from side to side. Not only did the kid have an enormous ego and over-estimated both his own and Predator's importance, he also under-estimated Predator's power. Combine those two and in many other circumstances it would have been a fatal mistake. Though Predator was pretty amazing.

As such, Predator's continued good humour at the kid's expense forced him to keep up the, as he saw it, little mind game. He backed up a bit, and sat back on his haunches. He then bunched his muscles, and sprang, more than fifteen feet into the air, and soared over the little bubble, landing solidly on another building and accidentally knocking over an air conditioner as he did. He then turned to face the kid, to see him starting to turn and float away.

Thinking fast, Predator began to transform back into human form. Just over twenty seconds later, having gotten lucky with a rather quick transformation that time, Predator called out to the kid. He was butt naked, but was not self conscious at all and didn't really notice, he was so used to it.

"YO!! Wait up, kid, grow a spine! I was just having some fun!"

Juka couldn't figure out what that strange noise was that the giant cat was making. Was it choking on something? Was it sick? Or maybe it was afraid of Juka now that he had weapons (such as the bricks were). No, that didn't seem right the cat definitely did not appear to be afraid of Juka. If anything it looked...a little amused? And how did a giant lion-cat look amused anyway? Juka really didn't know but he was fairly certain that this particular one did.

Then the cat moved and jumped right over top of Juka and his bubble (he hadn't realized he was still even close enough for it to reach him let alone jump right over him) and Juka floated backwards some. He was about to turn around and face the giant cat once again when he heard a voice yelling at him and, upon maneuvering his bubble around in the direction of the voice, where the cat previously had been, he saw a naked man. It was much more of a surprise to see a man there at all, rather than a giant angry amused kitty, then it was the fact that the man now standing there was naked.

Then there was the fact that the man just insulted Juka and he would have been patently indignant had he not still been so plainly surprised at the change from the cat to the man. "You're not a kitty at all," Juka finally said, after a lengthy pause while he digested the fact that the giant kitty was now a naked man who was most certainly neither furred nor giant. "You're not going to hit me again are you," Juka asked tentatively and a little fearfully. As much as he liked kitties, he most certainly did not like kitties that gave him bruises.

"You're not a kitty at all." The kid looked sufficiently surprised to not be seeing a giant Foo Dog, or, excuse me, kitty, standing there that Predator cut back a scathing retort.

"I wasn't a cat in the first place." He patiently explained. "I can change into a Foo Dog, an ancient chinese celestial lion. Not quite a kitty, I'm afraid." Predator walked forward to the edge of the roof, and lept across the gap to the next one, so that he was even closer to the kid.

"You're not going to hit me again are you?" Wow, the kid really was a scaredy cat. Predator hat hit him with enough force to smash through a wall, and all he had to show for it was a bruise. Obviously that bubble protected him somewhat.
"Naw, I was just joshin' with you, kid. So, what's your name?" What Predator really wanted to ask was 'Are you a boy or a girl' but that wasn't very polite and now that the adrenaline from being in his foo form was wearing off Predator was feeling a little sorry about scaring the kid like that. A bit. Not much. Though they were as much a part of his body as the nose on his face, to Predator, his lack of clothing meant that the innumerable scars on all parts of his body were clearly visible.

Juka blinked confusedly at the assertion that the man was not a cat at all. And then began nodding as the explanation progressed and things finally started making sense. It had looked a little odd for a kitty, even a giant kitty, after all but he had just assumed that it was a mutant kitty or something. Well, it turned out to be a mutant all right, just not exactly a mutant kitty. "I've never heard of a foo dog before," Juka said. He tensed a little as the man jumped closer to him, but since he didn't seem to be in any danger at the moment he didn't command his bubble to move.

And then to discover that the man was just playing with him? Well cat's did something play a little rough so maybe that was understandable. But he just said that he wasn't a cat, didn't he? Juka was confused all over again and he couldn't help but have that confusion show on his face. He never had learned the art of hiding his emotions. What was the point, after all? He was to be a huge rock star and rock stars needed everyone to see their emotions. The emotions rang in the music or else the music meant nothing.

"My name is Juka," he replied with an elaborate bow. "And you would be?" It was in that moment that it occurred to Juka that the next time he met a mutant it might be more than just a non-kitty wanting to play. They might actually be dangerous and all he would be able to do was run away. He frowned visibly wondering what to do with this unfortunately intruding thought. What if there was no one to defend him? What if next time someone actually wanted him to bleed? Horrified emotions played across his face.

"My name is Juka, and you would be?" The kid bowed to Predator as he gave his name.
Damn, Predator thought, a name that could be either boy or girl. No help there. "My name is Predator." Predator then returned the bow, though it was much more simple and a lot shallower than Juka's. He wasn't one for anything that implied subservience to anyone. Especially not someone like Juka. Predator had nothing against the kid, personally, and Juka had actually come off as pretty nice, if a scaredy cat, but anyone who dressed the way Juka did and had as big an ego always started off with a bad first impression to Predator.

Predator watched as confusion, concern, fear, and horror played across the young kid's face, and the change from the smiling visage he had been faced with but a second ago was so great that for a split second Predator thought that something had come up behind him. He whipped around, his claws gleaming in the light coming up from the streetlights, but there was nothing there. So, the conflict was internal. Predator turned back to the kid, and asked "What's wrong?" Predator wasn't one to hide his emotions even the slightest bit, though he had become slightly more tight-lipped since his capture. It was probable that Juka could see at least a bit of genuine concern on Predator's face.

"Was it something I said?" Jeez, kids. Predator wasn't exactly the happy-fun type, even to other mutants, and kids were totally out of his league.

Juka thought briefly about making some comment regarding kitties being wonderful predators and toying with little mice but then thought better at it. He might be absent minded, oblivious and more than a little self centered but he also had a strong respect for his own personal well being and something told him that this Predator individual might not take kindly to such a comment. Besides, he had the uncomfortable sensation of being rather mouse like just at the moment and didn't care to bring up the comparison in case Predator agreed with his unvoiced assessment.

"What's wrong?"

Juka watched as Predator spun around, seemingly weary of some sort of danger and then blinked at his question. "Um...you're kind of scary." He hoped it wasn't the wrong thing to say even if it was truthful. Juka decided right then and there that he really didn't like this feeling of fear and discomfort, rare as they were for him to experience. He considered merely floating far away and returning to his his warm, safe apparent complete with kitties of an actual kittyful nature but something prevented him from doing so. Instead he merely floated there looking down, discomfort plain on his features.

"Um...you're kind of scary."

Predator, scary? Well, he had never really thought about it. Looking down at himself, he realized that he did indeed project a fearsome aura. Despite being nude. Most people become so used to clothes that the lack of said articles makes them more fearful and skittish. Not so with Predator. He was one of those people that had nothing to hide under clothes, and the muscles in his chest rippled as he shrugged, the prominant scars on almost all parts of his body pulling and tugging a bit.

"Sorry, didn't mean to be a jerk. I have just been so freaking bored lately. I'd bet you haven't even seen me on the news in weeks!" Predator truly was bored, hence why he was out in the first place. Why this kid was out, however, was a mystery. "So, kid, what brings you out here tonight?"

Juka was getting more and more confused. Fist the mutant kitty which was most certainly not a kitty hit him and went all grrish and now he was just bored? What kind of person hit someone because they were bored? That was just plain mean. He didn't even register the fact that Predator had been on the news and even if he had he probably would have assumed him to be some sort of performer. After all, what other reason was there to be on the news? No reason that occurred to Juka, that was for certain.

"Sorry, didn't mean to be a jerk."

Juka sulked before finally deciding to forgive the big guy. After all, he was sort of kittyish even if he wasn't actually a kitty and tht had to say something good for him right? And even if he wasn't, everyone deserved at least one extra chance.

"I guess you can be forgiven," Juka announced with an air of self importance. "And like you I was bored and when I'm bored I go floating in my bubble." He grinned down at the other man. "There's just nothing to do in this city." A funny statement coming from most, but he was used to the glitz and glamor of Tokyo and New York just found it hard to compare.

"I guess you can be forgiven. And like you I was bored and when I'm bored I go floating in my bubble. There's just nothing to do in this city."

Predator fought with himself to avoid putting the scowl that normally would have found it's way to his face. He did feel a bit bad for scaring the mutant like that, and so he was trying his best to appear happy. Predator wasn't a happy person by nature, and all that had happened in his life had only made it worse. Combine that with the fact that Juka was entirely too self-centered for Predator's liking, and Predator realized that he was beginning to dislike Juka, at least a little.

"I will agree with you on that point. Oftentimes the only place of solitude I can find is either my room in the Sanctuary or on the rooftops." Predator paused, and turned to look out over the city. "You know," he said after a lengthy silence, "There is a place for those of us that wish to get away. Many mutants, including myself, call it home. It is known as the Sanctuary. Look it up."

Juka had never heard of this "Sanctuary" place before and wondered if it was like the Mansion. Maybe he should ask Jewel when he saw her later. She was smart, surely she would know. Then it occurred to him that he did have this giant non-kitty mutant here with him and, despite the fact that Juka still thought him a bit scary, maybe he would be willing to show him Sanctuary? Only one way to find out.

"Say, you wouldn't be able to point me in the direction of this Sanctuary place would you? I always like meeting mutants with their many shiny powers." Juka beamed, trying to forget this this man had tried to hurt him and look to the positives. After all, he wasn't scowling or making any offensive moves now was he? So maybe he had just caught him at a bad time. And there were shiny new mutants to meet, after all.