Amber sat in awe, staring at the television screen. A news story, regarding a giant fossilized spider, found in an archeological dig site not far out of the city, had just concluded. The fact that the spider was over 4' long from the tip of one leg to the tip of the other was enough to make it a fascinating story, but the true wonder of the story, for Amber at least, was the fact that not only had a spider been found, but this was apparently a well known site for late Cretaceous era dinosaur fossils. The most wondrous thing of all was that the dig site was only a couple hours outside of the city, more than close enough for her to travel to and, perhaps, touch a few bones and gain herself a few more interesting and varied forms.

The last time Amber had tried to gain a form had been a museum and, although she had managed to get herself a brand new Styracosaurus form (which she still hadn't had a chance to really experiment with), it almost hadn't been worth the fight with the museum security. Almost. But a dig site, well, that was the perfect opportunity to get herself a new form or two while (hopefully) not having to worry about pesky security. After all, who was going to steal a dinosaur bone? She certainly wasn't about too and she coudln't imagine why anyone else would try either.

The most difficult part of Amber's plan had to do with her skin and the fact that it had the unfortunate tendency to burn in the sun. That, however, was easily dealt with since, as it turned out, she didn't have to worry about her skin burning while she was transformed. It would probably be an overnight trip, she decided, and thus began packing a backpack full of supplies, mainly food and water and a flashlight, just in case. After that she took her debit card to a bank machine and took several hundred dollars out of the account that Abyss had set up for her, more than enough, she hoped, to pay for a cab both to and from the dig site.

Once prepared, Amber called a cab to pick her up from Sanctuary and, despite the rather dubious expression of the cab driver, commanded him to drive her to the address to the dig site which she had found on the internet. The ride itself took just over two hours, just as the news had said it would, and she arrived just before midnight. Thanking the driver and giving him a large portion of the money in her bag, she got out of the vehicle and waited for the driver to drive off.

In the past, Amber would have been terrified at the prospect of being all alone in the middle of nowhere. However, that was before her mutation had developed, before she could turn into a man eating (well, potentially man eating) dinosaur. As it was, she felt almost confident and, turning on her little flashlight, sought out a place to stash her clothes while she transformed. She found just such a place, hidden in a little grove of trees and proceeded to remove her shoes and backpack.

Now fully prepared, all that remained was for Amber to transform. Bringing images to her mind of pain, horror and fear, she felt the initial prickling of her skin that signified a transformation. The prickling almost immediately turned to agonizing pain which didn't end until, less than a minute later, a Deinonychus stood in the place where a human teenager had previously stood. Her loose robes fell away and she made sure to hide both them and her other belongings in the little grove of trees. All that was left to do now was to discover where the dinosaur bones might be hidden, a feat made slightly easier by her enhanced vision and sense of smell. By now she felt almost as at home in her Deinonychus form as she did in her human one.

The soft rumble of her mopeds engine died, and she flipped out the kickstand and stood. Hopefully this time she had everything she needed... she didn't have Meld around to help with this one after all. "Flashlight?" Pulling it from her belt, she clicked it on and shined it around at her feet. "check. Rope?" She patted her shoulder, where a good sized length of rope resided. "check. Hammer, and icepick..." After a quick hop in place, she heard a soft clinking, and was satisfied. "Check.. and last but not least, stun gun..." She patted her right pocket carefully, and smiled. "Almighty then." Leaving her ride in the shadows of a tree on the outside of the dig site, Megan switched on her flashlight and started forward. A dirt path seemed to take her to the edge of the site, but no further. Her light clicked off, and was placed back at her side- securely held against her hip by the tightness of her belt. She shrugged off the rope from her shoulder, spat a good amount of sticky web on the ground, and threw the loose end down.

After making sure her backpack was secure again, she turned and lowered herself onto the rope, shimmying down until her feet met the dirt again. "Alright... now, where are those things..." The article had said something about ancient spiders- which had led to internet searches. She had been mightily pleased. The spiders she had seen had been huge, about six inches and they had looked awesome. One had resembled a large tick- which had made her think of other things as well... But currently, her task was getting her hands on one of those amber spiders. Snatching up her flashlight once more, she clicked it on and used it to help guide her way. She knew little to nothing of the dig site other than what it contained- so she felt she had more than a little searching to do.

She swiveled her light to and fro, stopping occasionally to pick at loose piles of dirt. One never knew when one would find a jewel among rough. It was while picking through a patch of rather large dirt chunks, that she heard the sound of something walking through the dirt. Her flashlight clicked off, and she withdrew her stun gun from her pocket, holding it out in front of her as she moved forward quietly. Maybe it was a night guard... or another curious thief... or worse, a tourist after hours. One of her eyes twitched slightly, and she set her jaw. The waiting spiders in her hair chattered loudly in her head, asking questions- wanting answers. She shushed them quietly, and put her back to the dirt near a corner. Whoever it was, they were about to get a good dosage of volts straight to the neck if they didn't move on... Hopefully they would move on. Having a potential dead person on her hands wouldn't make her task any easier...

There were many things that Amber liked about her Deinonychus form. It was fast and agile with rather deadly claws and teeth, should those ever prove to be needed, and its senses were superior to her usual senses. One of the things she liked most, however, is that it had more or less usable arms and hands. Oh, they weren't nearly as dexterous as her her human ones but they were sufficient to hold things or text message if it came down to it. Hold things like, for example, flashlights.

Amber had brought a flashlight with her and, upon realizing that it was too dark to see very well even with her somewhat enhanced vision, poked around in her backpack until she manged to tease the flashlight out. Turning it on proved to be a bit of a challenge, her shorter dinosaur arms not being adapted to the moving of small buttons but, in not too much time, she met with success. Once on, she grabbed the flashlight, holding it only slightly awkwardly between her two hands and started off in the direction she hoped to find the dinosaur bones.

The dig site, Amber knew, was part underground and part above ground. There was no way that she would be able to ascend a later in dinosaur form, at least not any of the dinosaur forms she currently possessed and thus was limited to where she could search. However, the internet (wonderful glorious place that it was) and the news story both led her to believe that there should be plenty of interest on the ground level as well. Hopefully.

Amber began running, not having any particular destination in mind. She should, if all went well, have most of the night to herself and that should be plenty of time to explore the place. Once dawn approached she intended to sleep in her little grove of trees and, if she could figure out how to change from one form to another in short order, shift into her smaller Compsognathus form which would be much more difficult to spot.

With her mental plotting of her night of adventures, Amber almost missed the digging noise coming from the left and below her. She stopped in her tracks listening, still getting used to the enhanced senses of her current form. Was someone still awake and digging? But why would they do that? She prepared to flee in case a scientist should suddenly come out of the hole and spot her.

The sound of foot steps shifted, and she spun around the corner to face whoever it was. Her flashlight flickered on- but no one was there for the light to fall on. Her eye twitched again, and she frowned. She could still hear footsteps faintly, but they were softer now. Either farther away, or the other knew Megan was there. Personally she hoped for the first option. She moved out from along the wall, her steps taking her into the open, and shined her flashlight about. A brief glimpse of movement of the corner of her eye caught her off guard, and she swiveled about aiming her light like a sword, and her stun gun like a... stun gun. Surely, she wasn't just imagining it. The foot steps had sounded so real... as did the feeling of not being alone. A very brief fear flitted through her chest, but she squashed it quickly. No one had followed her, she had made sure of that.

That only left a stranger; Someone else fishing around in the dark for unknown reasons. Megan gritted her teeth and swallowed, putting all irrational fears of ghosts and boogie men behind her. After clearing her throat, she adopted her best impression of someone who was -not- trying to steal very expensive dead things, and called out meekly. "... hello?... is someone there?" If it was a night guard or staff member, she could always try to sweet talk her way out of trouble, or fib about being here because of a dare. Her light swiveled about once more, pointing behind and over her shoulder, and she squinted to try and peer through the darkness. For some reason, she hadn't anticipated a dig site as being this... creepy. It made her feel like she was on cursed soil, being stalked by some long dead creature with an appetite for living flesh...

Megan shook herself, and inwardly kicked herself for watching too many old horror flicks, and muttered "Just what I need, some Mummy shuffling around out there, waiting to strangle me to death..."

Mere weeks ago and Amber knew that she would feel terrified in a position like the found herself in. Not only was she trespassing somewhere she was almost positive she wasn't supposed to be, but it was also dark and she was all alone. But there was just something about being a dangerous dinosaur that helped to boost confidence and the place in particular just seemed, strangely, homey almost. Not that she would want to live there, really, but she felt comfortable there. Maybe it was because she was surrounded by her long extinct brethren. Not that i really made any sense, but she decided it was best not to think about it too much anyway.

"... hello?... is someone there?"

Apparently Amber hadn't been imagining the digging sounds she had heard and there was actually someone nearby. The voice was coming from below her and, curious despite her better judgement that she should simply run an hide until the stranger left, she walked up to the hole that the voice was coming from, peering down. What she found was not exactly what she expected to find. Oh, there was a person down there all right, but that person didn't look much like a scientist. For one thing, what scientist had black paint smeared under their eyes? And for another, weren't scientists generally older than that?

Amber chirped curiously down at the woman, cocking her head to the side and aiming her flashlight down at her. Maybe she was a mutant too, here for the same reason that Amber was? Or maybe she was some evil jewel thief, like the one at the museum. Except that there didn't really seem to be many actual jewels around, just a bunch of dirt and old bones and she didn't think bones were much of a score for any thieves. Oh, how she loved a good mystery. Well, as long as that good mystery didn't turn around and try to attack her, of course. Because that wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

A chirp... like a bird, but not a bird. Megan had never heard a bird make that particular sound. It was... curious. Cocking her head to the side, she turned and aimed her flashlight up- just as a flashlight was aimed down her way. The sudden light in her eyes blinded her, and Megan felt a brief moment of panic wash over her shoulder and down her back as a second impossible option flared to life. 'Ohmygod, Aliens!' Her eyes finally adjusted, and she was able to focus on the owner of the light, or at least its hands... Were those claws? The twenty three year old blinked, and rubber her eyes, smearing one cheek with black. People didn't have claws...

She raised her flashlight, illuminating non human arms, a non human chest, and finally a non human and all to frightening maw of glimmering teeth. No.... that wasn't an alien. That was a freakin' dinosaur. A feathery, scaly, beady eyed, man eating lizard. The resounding scream that burst from Megan's lips sent her spiders into a panic. They felt her flare of fear, and like their mother, abandoned ship. The small bodies tumbled out from inside her shirt and hair, rolled to the ground and scrambled away as quickly as they could into the darkness. Megan on the other hand, was not so lucky to be a small, fast spider. She simply fainted. A dust cloud lifted, and settled around her, and her flashlight rolled off to one side to point deeper into the dig site. She hadn't even paused to question why there was a Dino holding a flashlight...

Amber watched the expression of the strange woman change from confusion to curiosity to, finally, fear. A cloud of black skittered around her before disappearing into the shadows and Amber had not the slightest idea what that skittering cloud might be. Some kind of bugs maybe, or maybe not. It was dark, after all, and she hadn't gotten a good look at them. But even if they were bugs, what could a swarm of bugs do to a dinosaur. Nothing. Hopefully. On second thought, she really didn't want to have to find out. Some bugs were poisonous, weren't they? Being poisoned did not sound like a lot of fun.

Then the poor woman fainted and Amber chirped forlornly. She wasn't that scary was she? She hadn't tried to attack the woman, just stood there watching her. Maybe the woman had a dinosaur phobia? Either way she felt horrible about it.

Amber stood where she was, indecisively. If she was smart she would probably just run off and continue her quest to find her some dinosaur bones, but she coudln't just leave the poor woman fainted in the middle of a hole could she? The real question was, however, what could she do? She coudln't climb down the ladder after her and she didn't have any way to communicate with her. She couldn't speak and her cell phone was far away hidden in the little grove of trees. But she also couldn't just abandon the poor woman so, thinking of nothing else to do, she remained where she was, hoping the woman would wake up and trying her best to look non-threatening. Not that she had the slightest idea how to do so.

Dreams were nonexistent, but irrational fears weren't. As he eyes cracked open again, she already had scenes from Jurassic park running amok behind her eyes. So it didn't help that the first thing she saw upon reawakening, was a dinosaur, -still- holding a flashlight. And. It. was. Staring. at. her. With a groan, she draped an arm over her eyes and searched for her spiders via mind link. Not a single one of them had remained on her person... How utterly disappointing.

Then again, she had never been quite so scared in all her life, as she was now. Dinosaur was much more frightening than say, a handful of goons with automatic weapons. At least they weren't supposed to be extinct. She lifted her arm as her nerves calmed, to blink at the creature. Her spiders were on their way back, nervously, so she propped herself up on her elbows and frowned. "Alright... if your not going to eat me.... then what?" Maybe it was a vegan dinosaur... and only ate plants. Or, a much more amusing idea... Maybe it had already eaten all of the staff.

Sniffling quietly, she scratched at her nose and sat up. "Are you... a person?" She asked, raising her eyebrows with the question. If it was mutant, or a mutants pet, that would explain the flashlight... Flashlight. Her head turned and she reached and picked up her own, once again pointing it at the creature again. Its eyes reflected back for a moment, and she felt a twinge of fear return- which didn't help with rounding up her spiders any. Slowly, as if making any sort of quick movements would startle the beast, she got to her feet. With both hands empty, her mind wandered temporarily to where her stun gun might have gone to...

The woman wasn't unconscious for very long, which was a good thing. Amber had been starting to worry that maybe it was more than just fear that had caused her to pass out, maybe she had some sort of serious medical condition. If she did, then why had she come all this way out her to a dinosaur dig? Finally, however, she saw the woman's eyes flutter open and she felt a sense of profound relief. Calling an ambulance would have caused all sorts of difficulties, not the least of which was the fact that she couldn't currently speak.

"Alright... if your not going to eat me.... then what?"

Amber shook her head at the woman. She had no intentions at all of eating her. Didn't she realize that a lone Deinonychus couldn't really eat fully grown human anyway? Maybe if she had herself a large pack then she might be able to hunt human (not that she had any interest in doing so even if she did somehow find herself a pack, which seemed rather unlikely anyway). On her own, however, she really couldn't hunt anything much larger than a medium sized dog. Not that she intended to hunt family pets anytime soon either, of course.

"Are you... a person?"

Amber nodded enthusiastically and even let off another chirp. A very non-threatening chirp if she was to be any judge. Now they were getting somewhere. The woman now knew she was a mutant (because no normal human could really become a dinosaur) and hopefully wouldn't think she was going to eat her any longer. If only she could ask questions in return they might really have something. Like, for example, if she was also a mutant and why she was here. If only she had her cell phone with her this would all be so much simpler.

The creature shook its head, and Megan blinked. So, it was smart, or at least smart enough to understand her. Her inner workings paused. No... it was smarter than just some creature. When it nodded, her suspisions were confirmed. The dino was a person- a mutant- unless there was some freaky scientist running about making people into Dinosaurs.

"Well..." She pushed herself to her feet, and brushed her bum and legs off. "Now I just feel silly." She swivled her flashlight about, spotting her babies at the edge of the light, and narrowed her eyes. They pretty much abandoned her, they could rot for all she cared. Snubbing her nose at the curious spiders, she turned again and finally spotted her stun gun laying among a clump of weeds. "There you are!"

After retrieving the weapon, she tucked it in th back of her pants and turned back to face the Dino-person. "Alright, now... how the hell am i supposed to talk to you?" Pursing her lips, she thought on that question for a moment, then took notice of the way the dino was holding the flashlight. Maybe it could write... to bad she didn't have a pen and a pad of paper. Her eyes dropped to the ground. Soft, loose dirt. An idea sprouted, and she turned to search for a stick...

What she came back with was a decent sized length of wood, with wich to write in the dirt. "Alrighty, this aught to work." She held the stick out, and climbed up to Ambers level... Boy, she was big. Not super dino size... but still. "You know how to write, right?" After she got her response, she nodded. "Sweet. Are you a girl, or a boy? And what the crap are you doing out here in the middle of the night?"

(OOC: Bold is writing)

Now that the minor details of Amber actually being a mutant that just happened to look like a dinosaur were out of the way, she had a good feeling about how the rest of the night was going to go. Well, as long as the woman didn't try to do anything stupid like try to capture her and turn her into the scientists or something like that. She really did not want to become someone's science experiment. In fact, that was about the last thing on her list of things that she ever wanted to do. But the woman wasn't acting like she wanted to put Amber into a cage so she had to take that as a good sign, right?

Of course, there was still the minor problem of communication but even that was solved a moment later as the woman handed Amber a large stick and asked if she could write. She nodded her head that yes, indeed, she could write and dropped her flashlight onto the ground beside her. Hopefully no one would try to steal it while she scribbled in the dirt with the stick. She didn't think the woman would try to steal it given her fearful reaction earlier but one never knew with people. Still, she could probably run faster than the other woman, if need be.

"Are you a girl, or a boy? And what the crap are you doing out here in the middle of the night?"

Girl. Amber. Name?

There, now that those minor details were out of the way, how exactly was she supposed to explain why she was here? The stick provided some communication, but it was a clumsy and slow sort and it wasn't exactly easy to write out long sentences.

Want to find bones.

There, short and to the point. She was, by this point, pretty sure the strange woman was no scientist and if she was no scientist she probably wasn't supposed to be here any more than Amber was. If that was the case, maybe she would be able to help Amber in her quest to find dinosaur bones.

Why you here?

That was the remaining piece of information that Amber really did need to know. Maybe, if it wasn't something really horrible like assassinating one of the scientist or something, they might even be able to help each other.

Watching a dinosaur scribble in dirt was highly amusing, even more so than it was awkward. She blinked, and tilted her flashlight down, eyeballing the crude writing as it was being written. "Girl. Your a girl. Awesome." Men were to fickle. She blinked, at the second part, Amber, and looked up to the dino briefly. "Amber huh?" The the last part, and Megan smiled a foxes smile. "I'm Charolette." She stated, and glanced at the girls menacing claws. "I'd shake your hand, but it looks like I would lose mine in the process."

Next the girl scribbled down an answer to her second question, and Megan squinted. She was here for bones? What, was she building a dino skeleton back home in her closet? "Bones huh?" At least she hadn't run into the girl in a graveward. Then she asked why Megan herself was here, and she felt her smile shift into a grin. "I'm here for the amber, Amber. Spiders, that is."

She spied the small creatures skittering to and fro behind her, catching night critters haistily, and whistled. They knew what the call was, and scrambled back to her with fangs imbbedded in prey of all types. Moths, crickets, other spiders. One greedy little thing came back dragging a small lizard with it. Megan laughed, and stooped to pick up the eager spider. "I am here... in hopes of getting my hands on a really really old arachnid. The Trigonotarbida."

Amber nodded happily as Charlotte asserted her understanding. Communication was such a wonderful thing that people had a tendency to take for granted. One never knew just how imperative it was until one lost the ability to speak. She didn't even mind that the woman didn't want to shake her hand. After all, if the situation was reversed she probably wouldn't want to shake a pointy dinosaur hand either.

The black cloud that Amber had spotted earlier, this time coalescing into a swarm of spiders. She watched, fascinated, as countless spiders skittered up Charlotte's legs and into her clothing. A mutant, obviously, and Amber was thankful that she had never been afraid of spiders. She wasn't positive, but wasn't the spider mentioned the one that had been on the news earlier that had compelled her to make this trip also?

Work together?

Amber wasn't positive either where the bones would be or the prehistoric spider, but chances were good that they would be in the same general area. Besides, it might be good to have an ally just in case someone should stumble upon them in their not entirely moral deeds. Not that she actually planned to steal any of the bones, she didn't really need to keep the fossils, but she was still trespassing and so was the other mutant.

Her eyes dropped back down to he stick in the dirt, and she blinked. Work together. With a nice little question mark at the end. Her eyes popped back up to the dinosaur in front of her, Amber, and she grinned.
"Sure! We can help each other out." She couldn't really see a downfall either. A dino mutant on her side, ready to slash and maul anyone who tried to stop them!... Okay, maybe not the slash and maul part. But she would certainly scare them away easily enough. "Alright, now that were a team. Where do we start? I know the gist of where mine might be... but bones could be anywhere."

She turned a curious look down at the spider munching away at the lizard in her palm, and smacked herself quickly on the forehead. "oh, DUH!" Dropping the spider to the ground, it was none to happy to have its meal interrupted. "Go scouting. Report back to me if you find any interesting bones, or spider filled amber..." Heh... Amber amber. How funny that she'd meet a dino with the same name as what she was hunting. The rest of the hoard dropped their meals and scrambled off into the darkness, but the spider with the lizard stood its ground. "That means you too!" She shooed it away with her hands, then propped them on her hips when the little creature tried to take its meal with it.

"Ah! Drop it, GO!" One stern point of a finger and a swift glare later, and the spider abandoned its dinner and scurried away into the darkness to join the search. She could hear its faint grumblings even once it was out of sight. "Minions... so hard to create these days..." Turning back to Amber, she grinned and crossed her arms. "They'll inform me if they find anything. In the meantime I suggest she have a look around of our own." Sweeping an arm out, she motioned for Dinogirl to lead the way, and turned her flashlight back to surveying the area.

Amber never thought she'd be fortunate enough to meet up with someone who might be able to help her find the fossils she so dearly wanted, let alone someone who also happened to be a mutant. Not only a mutant, but one with a fascinating power at that. What must it be like to have a pack of spiders follow one around and obey ones orders? She vowed to ask once they had finished their little act of thievery (well, not thievery in her case but she had a funny feeling the other woman might actually want to keep the amber encased spider) and once she had her vocal chords back. Spiders, while not among her great loves, were still pretty interesting.

Amber watched curiously as her new partner in crime sent her spiders off to go scout for bones and amber. They even obeyed the mutant woman, if with some reluctance. Now, the question was, where exactly would be the best place to start? She had only the most basic idea of the general layout of the place, mainly gained through the wonders of the internet. They had all night, however, so it probably didn't matter all that much which direction they started in. Between the two of them and the spiders, they should (fingers crossed) have plenty of time to find what they needed.

Dropping the stick that Amber had been using for writing, she awkwardly picked her flashlight back up. While she could see a little better than when she was human, she didn't appear to be able to see much better in the dark than anyone else did. She pointed in what she hoped would be the most obviously direction to start, remembering pictures of structures in that direction, hopefully structures leading to actual areas of digging. Of course, it might also lead to potentially angry scientists but they'd deal with that if it came to it. She started off, making sure to go slow enough for her new ally to keep up.