Amber knew she wasn't supposed to be at the Mansion, especially not late at night. She knew that she wasn't a student yet and that only people with an actual reason to be at The Mansion should actually, well, be at the Mansion. She even knew that she wasn't going to have to be patient for all that much longer because Abyss had all ready told her he didn't mind if she became a student. All of that logical thinking just didn't seem to matter however as, for not the first time, she found herself just outside the Mansion gates.

The first time Amber had seen the Mansion, shown to her by the most fascinating and sweet mutant ever, Koga, she had been immediately enchanted. The very idea of a school dedicated to mutant students was simply too good to be true. She thought it must be to good to be true, at least for her. Far to many good things had been happening in her life recently that they surely had to stop sometime and when they did something horrible was sure to happen to make up for all the good things in her life. However, her tour of the place had shown her that it was, indeed, a real place filled with students and books and learning and powers, everything a curious mutant teenage girl could ever want.

The day after that fateful tour Amber had convinced herself that it must have all been some sort of bizarre dream. Her imagination had always been overactive and while a reptile boy and a mutant school were a little unusual even for her, it was probably more realistic than what she thought she had experienced. That night, however, she confirmed the reality of the existence of the school and this was the third night she had come to the Mansion since then. Even if Abyss had said she could register, she just kept feeling the need to reaffirm its existence and the fact that she was soon to be going to such a wondrous place. Because life, simply speaking, just couldn't' be that good. Something had to break, some horrible malady had to occur, it was just a matter of when and what. Either that, or the school was all a personal delusion.

Amber stuck her head up to the bars of the Mansion gates, trying desperately to see inside. All she needed was a glimpse of all the wondrous happenings on the school grounds, just one glimpse and she could go home. That wasn't so much to ask was it? And surely she wasn't doing anything all that wrong, was she? Surely no one would mind? A nagging corner of her mind kept telling her that she should just leave and that she'd probably get in lots of trouble if anyone actually caught her spying, but she pointedly ignored it.

Guard duty? Really? Sam wanted Ghost to keep an eye on the grounds much as Neena once had. With Shawn gone though, it was easier to see where Sam was coming from. Ever since the Night Owl had left her roost, the Mansion had seemed a little bit less... together. So here she was. On the roof. Late at night.

And MAN was it boring. She had volunteered for earlier days in the week hoping that being closer to the weekend would mean she was entirely rested up for her late night snooze fests.

She had started by diligently sitting. Which degraded into lazy lounging. Which degraded into Ghost laying on her back and playing with her toes up in the air. She never could position her feet in the air juuuuust right to block every pin prick of light from the sky.

Which was a good thing, right? There were a lot of pretty stars up there.

Ghost sat up and got a head rush from the blood pooled there. She stood, took one step and then another with her eyes locked on Polaris, the biggest baddest star out there. Ghost had to get moving or else she was not going to stay awake.

The most dangerous part of walking on a roof while looking up at the stars was that eventually the roof ended.

"Whup!" Something pale dropped suddenly from the roof toward the ground.

Amber just couldn't see very much going on in The Mansion. That was the problem, really. She had come here to, well, not to spy really but just to watch people but there was no one actually visible enough to watch. And no, it most certainly was not creepy that she had come here to watch people. And no, she most certainly was not thinking of trespassing onto private property. Nor was she currently eying the bars on the gate to gauge whether or not a compsognathus could get through those bars because only bad people broke into other people's places and she was not a bad person.

But really, if Amber just happened, by chance, to be able to fit through said bars, it wasn't really breaking in was it? It wasn't really her fault that the gate wasn't designed to keep out small reptiles was it? This was a mutant school, after all, so they really should plan for these sorts of things. If they really didn't want shapeshifters inside they really should make sure those bars were closer together. So really, it was their fault not hers because they were virtually inviting her in by making them just large enough for her to fit through.

Almost before Amber really had a chance to consider what it was she was about to do, she found herself removing her shoes and placing them in a bush next to the gate. She had shifted on purpose once before so she was pretty sure she could do so again. Never mind the fact that she had had problems shifting back to normal at that time, maybe this time would be different. Besides, she was going into a mutant school so they probably had people around that could help her if she got into any serious trouble. Hopefully. If they didn't punish her for trespassing first. And speaking of punishing, surely they woudln't set her on fire or anything for an innocent visit, would they? The little voice at the back of her head that said this was a bad idea got louder but she continued to her pointed ignoring of said voice.

Amber began thinking very strongly about everything that she was afraid of, from human mobs chasing poor defenseless dinosaurs down the street to blood to general social awkwardness and tried to interlace those thoughts with images of her compsognathus form. Fear seemed to be the trigger to her power and, much like the last time she had succeeded in shifting at will, it seemed to work. This time, however, it was faster than last time, perhaps due to her increased practice. When the pain hit her this time she even managed to to scream or utter any sound at all and, after a minute to catch her breath when the shift was complete, she let out a happy little chirp.

Once shifted Amber took a moment to pull her discarded robes into the same bush she had hidden her shoes in and now that she was little larger than a chicken, getting onto the Mansion grounds was as easy as walking through the bars on the gate. All that was left to do now was to find someone interesting to watch. At least, that was the plan until, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a falling figure who, in a matter of moments, was about to land directly on top of her! Her let out a fearful chirp and tried to cover her head with her little dinosaur arms.

It was natural instinct to inhale sharply when the brain caught up with what was happening. And boy did she inhale. Ghost fell toward the ground one moment and in the next moment she was a puff of cool air settling quickly to the ground around... something small... and... unusually shaped.

Something that chirruped and put its arms over its head. The skin of the creature was tough and scaly feeling. It was large for any reptile she'd ever sensed and it behaved unlike an animal. It had to be a student.

"Excuse me." The air around the little reptile vibrated with the feminine words, "Are you breaking curfew?"

As awkward as it was to have something standing inside the molecular structure of her body, it was weirder to swirl herself around it and use her own particles to pick the little reptile up. Ghost buoyed the both of them toward the roof with the same floe of air.

The body hurtled down towards Amber and she cowered there, completely frozen in fear and unsure what to do about it and then...it disappeared? She chirped in confused bafflement. Falling bodies didn't just disappear like that. Except that she was trespassing on the property of a mutant school, so perhaps they did.

"Excuse me. Are you breaking curfew?"

The air talked and air wasn't supposed to talk any more than falling bodies were supposed to disappear. The logical conclusion could only be that the falling body was a mutant that somehow turned into talking air. Talking air that appeared to believe Amber was a student. She chirped back at...wherever she thought the voice might be coming from which was actually rather confusing as the voice appeared to be coming from everywhere all at once. Maybe it was best if it thought she was a student, maybe she wouldn't get in trouble that way.

Amber was forced to completely reassess that opinion as the air began lifting her from the ground. She trilled hoarsely in fear as her tiny dinosaur feet left the safety of the very nice and very solid ground. She wiggled frantically, completely unsure how to escape from a pillow of air. How was she supposed to explain that she wasn't a student, had no curfew to break and, most importantly, very much proffered the safety of the ground?!

It squeaked. It struggled. She nearly lost it near the gutter system, but eventually Ghost wrangled the problem student up onto a somewhat flatter portion of the roof before letting the little reptile loose. "Are you a boy or girl reptile?" And if it was Calley she would going to give him a good talking to about sneaking here and there, off and onto Mansion property when it pleased him.

"The windows to your left are the girls' rooms. To your right are the boys'. You'd better get back to bed." And both of them would know if she chose the wrong room.

Ghost formed up into more of a humanoid shape. It would not do to frighten any of the newer students just because they'd been caught sneaking. (Calley had better not be giving sneaking lessons.)

Amber felt blessed relief at finally be on solid ground again. She had been considering trying to find herself a flying pterosaur form but after that terrifying little ride, maybe she should reconsider that particular idea. Solid and very much unmoving ground seemed vitally important to both her physical and mental well being.

"Are you a boy or girl reptile?"

Amber chirped back at the floating air woman. At least, she was assuming it was a woman based on the voice. How exactly was she supposed to answer that question? Clearly she couldn't speak. If she still had her cell phone (hidden within her pile of fabric far below) she might be able text the woman. Or even without it, if she were to ask nice simple yes or no questions (as opposed to either or questions) she could nod or shake her head. Maybe she should consider taking up sign language.

Floating air woman solidified to a solid non-air woman, which was a relief. Said woman then proceeded to tell Amber that she needed to return to her rooms, which was not. She hopped up and down in agitated manner, chirping all the while and shaking her head. How could she explain that she didn't have any rooms to return to because she was a horrible person trespassing on private property? Her hopping brought her to the edge of the roof and she realized just how far up she was. This was not good. Not good at all.

A little guiding wind helped corral the jumpy little thing back to the middle of the roof. Mr. Dinosaur (and that's certainly what it looked like, a dinosaur) was fit to be tied with all that hopping and skipping around.

"Hey, hey. Easy now. We don't want to wake the whole house. You're not in that much trouble if we can just go back inside together and get you back in bed. I won't even both to tell Sam if you don't want." But she would probably tell Shin. Someone would need to know.

"What about some hot chocolate? Would you like some?" That might calm him enough to get him to turn back. Right now Ghost wasn't entirely sure she wanted to be solid. The reptile was on the smallish side, but it also had teeth and claws.

"You're lucky you didn't accidentally set off any of the proximity alarms. Nets and tasers... this form might not weigh enough to set them off." That is probably how Calley got in and out come to think of it. "Security is pretty tight around here now-a-days."

OK, so apparently chirping and jumping around wasn't getting Amber anywhere and it was time to reassess her options. If only she could figure out how to change back this might be a whole lot easier because then she could actually explain what had happened and (hopefully) be allowed to leave. Unfortunately she hadn't the slightest idea how to do so. She might have more or less figured out how to change into a dinosaur, but changing back was the hard part.

Stopping long enough to make sure that the strange woman was watching, Amber ran to the edge of the roof and pointed down, roughly indicating the bush outside the gate where her robes were stashed. Robes and, much more importantly, her blackberry. Her blackberry which would allow her some manner of communication in the way of text messages. A small patch of red could be seen peeking out of the bush, but she wasn't sure if that would be visible to a regular human eye. She knew her current form had better vision than she was used to, though didn't' really know by how much.

At the mention of security measures, Amber felt a sinking queasy feeling at the pit of her stomach. Sure, she knew that she wasn't exactly supposed to trespass, but the thought of tasers and nets hadn't even occurred to her. This was most definitely the last time she would ever do something so stupid and thoughtless.

That baby dino had a death wish. It just kept running toward the edge and flailing like it was drowning. Ghost used a gentle push of air to keep it from throwing itself off the rooftop once already and she did so again now. He was really anxious to get out and away.

"What's wrong?" Did Timmy fall down the well? "Let's go inside and talk about it. Come on. This way." There was a hatch that led into the attic where Ghost, Kat and Zephyr had once all tried on costumes from the jumble of clothes and trunks stored up there. Well... Kat had tried things on...

Another gust scooted the little reptile along. Poor thing. It wasn't really fair that she could push him around like that, but he had been caught sneaking off grounds. "Do you like milk in your hot cocoa?"

Apparently the strange woman just wasn't getting the fact that Amber was trying to tell her something. She let out a disgruntled chirp as, once again, a gust of air pushed her away from the edge of the roof. It wasn't like was was about to jump off or anything and she had shifted enough into her current form to be almost completely comfortable with it. Apparently, however, there were disadvantages to being only a foot high.

Reluctantly deciding that this was not an argument that Amber was going to win (nor one that she could even participate in which was the most unfair part of all) she reluctantly followed to woman to the hatch. Feeling another gust of air at her back, however, she sent a glare up at the woman. Now that just wasn't playing fair!

At the offer of milk and cocoa however, Amber nodded her head. If she had to go into the Mansion and (if she could somehow figure out how to change back) explain her horrible crime, at the very least she may as well enjoy some hot chocolate in the process. Hopefully her punishment wouldn't be too severe. For that matter, hopefully Abyss would be willing to come and pick her up and save her from the funny air lady.

Communication was a very important part of existence, Maya decided. She was grateful that her other form had the ability of speech now that she was seeing the other end of the spectrum. The air elemental pushed down the ladder that would dump them into the hallway on the second floor.

"Can you make it down or...?" Or were they going to have to try something different? Maya just wasn't sure that the baby dino's arms and legs were long enough.

If only Amber could talk things would be so much simpler. Or at the very least if only she had a cell phone. Butten pressing she was getting quite proficient at, having had to utilize her mad dino texting skills a few times since discovering what she could do.

Looking down the indicated ladder, Amber realized in rather short order that there was simply no way that she was going to be able to make it down the ladder on her own. She chirped at the strange air lady, hoping that she understood her rather serious dillemma. Compsognathus' were simply not meant to climb.

Oh She got this one. "Okay. I got it. I'll go down first." The reptile was obviously worried about seeing up her skirt from his reptilian pantomimes. Such a sweet little boy.

Maya started down the ladder, but paused when her arms were level with the attic floor. Her going first really didn't help the little dino get down though.

"Come here, I'll carry you." It was safer that way. Then there was no skirt slippage and they would both get down. She would tuck the reptile under her arm like a football and then let it loose once there was solid ground in sight.

The attic ladder went back up with more noise than she had hoped, but they could be quiet from here. "Kitchen is downstairs from here." People often got confused when returning from the roof. She could navigate these halls blindfolded, but the again she had a bit of an advantage as an air elemental.

Amber was a little apprehensive about the prospect of someone carrying her, down a ladder or otherwise. What if she was accidentally dropped? She remembered when one of the other children at her orphanage had brought home a kitty and ended up dropping it. It was a very unhappy kitten sound that had resulted. Being dropped did seem fun.

Amber was, however, very still when the woman picked her up. The more well behaved she was, the less chance there was of unfortunate droppings of tiny dinosaurs. Before she knew it she was back on solid ground and chirped her thanks back up at the woman.

Following the woman down the stairs, Amber paid special attention to her surroundings so that, hopefully, if she ever went up to the roof on her own she'd actually be able to find her way back again. Her slightly enhanced vision aided her in actually seeing where she was going. The only question was, how exactly was she going to enjoy her promised hot chocolate if she remained the size of a chicken?