Amber smiled and waved to the bus driver as she got off the bus. It was somewhere around 3 am and she was on her way back to Sanctuary after a night of practicing the control of her mutation in Central Park. It was a good place to practice, lots of room and after midnight there were rarely many people around. She got off the bus about a mile away from Sanctuary because it really was a beautiful night out and she really did feel like a leisurely walk home before going to sleep.

Amber didn't immediately notice anyone follow her off of the bus. Over the course of recent weeks, she had begun to make friends with the bus driver. OK, so maybe make friends was a bit of an exaggeration, but she often found herself on his route and they had begun developing a bit of a report, he always asked how she was doing and made his cheesy puns at her. Maybe that was why the man didn't make his presence known immediately, waiting until the bus had driven off to confront her.

"Turn around mutie!" Amber froze in her tracks before turning, very slowly. Why did humans have to be so unacceptable of mutants? Upon turning she was confronted by the image of a large man with an enormous knife held up threateningly. He had to have been twice her size and even without the knife she wouldn't have stood a chance in a fight against him.

"W-what do you want?" Amber's voice quivered with terror.

"W-what do you want? W-what do you want?" The man sneeringly mocked her, keeping the knife in front of him. "What I want, little girl, is for mutants to die. Every single one of them. And I think I'm going to start with you."

Amber felt her skin begin tingling, the terror of the situation taking over. She didn't fight it, however, knowing that it was very likely that her only chance of survival lay in changing faster than the man was able to stab her with his giant knife.

In the fine city of New York, there was something for everyone, the sights the sounds and even the nightlife. The nightlife in particular was something to be noted, for there were clubs open to all sorts of people just looking to dance the night away or have fun. On this night however, Sapphire Lupin wasn't doing any of those things, she was just drinking her rum inside of the art gallery she worked in. It wasn't exactly an exciting night but it was something to keep her occupied while she thought of her next piece of art. Eventually though, around the 3 A.M. mark, Sapphire decided to call it quits for the night, deciding she would ponder more on her next painting the next morning.

As Sapphire walked outside, she just happened to stumble across the man threatening the covered girl with a knife, all because she was a mutant. The darkness manipulator rolled her eyes, Typical, the one time I decide to leave early, is the time I run into some idiot breaking my laws. Sapphire though, looking around the area for any more idiots who were planning on jumping the girl who didn't look like she could hurt a fly. When she didn't see any Sapphire summoned two darkness tendril from the ground to wrap around the mans ankle and pull him backward, knocking him off balance.

"Idiots really should learn not to mess with those superior to them, they may get hurt." Sapphire taunted the man, moving her hand ever so slightly to the side, causing the tendril to twist the mans ankle.

OOC: How does this work

Amber was really starting to develop a strong dislike of humans in general. Oh, she liked the bus driver well enough and the human students at the Mansion. Even most of the humans in the city tended to leave her alone. But then there were people like this knife wielding thug that gave his entire race a bad name. She hadn't done anything wrong and it wasn't her fault that her eyes were black. He didn't even know that she had any powers, he was just going by the colour of her eyes and that was it. It wasn't right, it wasn't fair and she was tired of constantly being the victim!

This time Amber wasn't going to try to resist her mutation trying to activate itself. This time she was going to let the change simply happen and show the bad man exactly what a real mutant could do. Hopefully a growl and a swipe of her claws would be sufficient to scare him off. Despite her growing anger and animosity, she still didn't want to have to actually hurt anyone and she most definitely had no intents on killing him. She just wanted him and everyone like him to leave her the hell alone so she could simply go on living her life in peace.

As the first throws of the changes went through her, Amber almost didn't notice the newcomer arrive and begin to attack the man who had been so intent on attacking her. Pain wracked her system as bones elongated and shifted and muscles modified themselves to accommodate. She almost thought it was her imagination conjuring up the two tendrils of darkness that served to trip her enemy until the woman actually spoke. Once the transformation was finally complete she shrieked her anger at the enemy, the sound coming out rather falcon-like. Before him and the stranger stood a Deinonychus, complete with feathers and very sharp and dangerous claws.

(OOC: Looks good)

That girl just turned into a dinosaur. Sapphire thought, watching as the dinosaur roared at the man on the ground. For a moment Sapphire looked from the dinosaur, to the man on the ground who was cowering, pleeing for his life from the human sized creature. It didn't seem that the girl wanted anything to do with him, considering how feriocious she was looking as she glared down at him.

"Well, once you are done here you are more than welcome to come into the studio." She told the girl, acting very casually about the maiming she was about to do to the man. Sapphire walked back inside of the gallery, leaving the door open behind her so when the dinosaur girl felt like it she could come roaring her way in. She then went over to her easel and acted as if nothing was wrong and as if no man was about to get horribly murdered outside. Picking up an unopened bottle of rum she opened it, taking a long swig. "My days just get stranger and stranger."

Amber didn't immediately acknowledge the words of the shadow mutant, her attention focused upon the man who had threatened to kill her. Somehow he had managed to hold onto his knife, despite his tumble to the ground. When the woman retreated back into her studio, the man wavered, looking up at Amber as she towered over him. He seemed torn between the prospects of fleeing for his life, which had suddenly become very much endangered, and completing his initial threat of trying to kill Amber.

For a second time Amber shrieked at the man, causing him to scramble backwards, retreating from her. She allowed him to make his way to his feet and when he lunged at her with his blade, she was ready for him. As he came in with his sharp instrument of death, she dodged and counterattacked with her claws, causing a large gash on his knife arm. It began bleeding immediately and, it seemed, that was enough for the man and he turned heel and fled for his life. Amber saw no need to follow, she wasn't a killer and was just looking to defend herself, after all. However, it was a very satisfying experience knowing just how well she actually could defend herself.

Once the man was gone it only took Amber a minute to regain her sense of internal calm enough to shift back into human form and, once she was also re-garbed in her robes, she walked up to the door the shadow mutant had retreated into. She opened the door quietly and stood awkwardly by the door. "Th-thank you for helping me."

With the dinosaur outside attacking the man, Sapphire had made it a point to busy herself with other things in the shop, while they did whatever little dance they were going to do. Sapphire really didn’t care if the man died or if he lived all she wanted was for the girl to be safe and judging by the zombie dinosaur she didn’t think that would be to much of a problem. Cool blue eyes scanned her latest painting, one of more symbolic meaning than most of the paintings she kept in the shop to be sold. She would never sell these paintings, oh no, she kept them at her house to almost chronicle what was happening in her life at that very moment or to chronicle the lives of others.

The painting she gazed at was one of a massive wolf like creature standing over a blood stained battlefield, facing down against a woman in a white dress with long black, curly hair. It’s eyes looked hungry and while the woman was facing the creature, meaning the viewer couldn’t see her face, her stance was filled with confidence, showing she was unafraid of this monster.

As the dinosaur girl walked in, Sapphire turned her cool gaze to her, breathing out a sigh. “Do not worry child, It is people like that, that causes monsters to be born,” Sapphire told the girl calmly, “Was there something else you wanted?”

As satisfying as it was for Amber to realize that she had the ability to scare potential enemies away like she had and, even more surprising, to actually do damage to them, she was grateful that she hadn't actually had to really hurt the man. She knew her sister Aura was a killer, but that didn't mean that she ever wanted to become one. In the most dire circumstances of self defense maybe, but even then she simply couldn't conceive of actually taking a life. The thought was a truly horrible one and she hoped with every fiber of her being never to be put in a circumstance in which she might be forced to make such a decision.

"I j-just wanted to say thank you," Amber answered. She stood awkwardly in the doorway, eyes downcast and unsure. She always felt uncomfortable talking to strangers and this was the first time she had been in the position of talking to a stranger that had just saved her life. "I m-might have b-been killed if you d-didn't show up." How was one supposed to react in such a circumstance anyway? Words seemed like such paltry payment, but she had not the slightest idea what would be appropriate. If Aura saved her (and she had) then that was different because she was family and sisters did that for one another, but this woman was a complete stranger. She waited for the other woman to speak.

The child kept thanking Sapphire and acting as if she had saved her life or something. Sapphire didn’t think so, she was just bothered by the fact that there was some idiot breaking the law outside of her gallery, the last thing she needed. She didn’t like negative attention to be drawn to this place, after she had helped the owner worked so hard to build this place from the bottom up. Then again, she didn’t like it when young people who seemed so innocent were attacked by someone so corrupted by, idiocy.

”It is fine my child, I do not like seeing young people being wounded by the likes of those ruffians. Truly, some people are not fit to live on this earth with gifted people such as us.” Sapphire told the girl, gazing up at her easel and at the painting she had not yet finished.

(Sorry its a bit short but here ya go!)

The woman talked a little funny, Amber decided. It wasn't a bad funny, just kind of archaic sounding. Of course, she with her perpetual stutter couldn't really judge anyone else on the way they spoke. She smiled up at the older woman. It wasn't the first time she had heard such sentiments in regards to mutants and humans, though her sentimants were a little more directly stated than those of most. She had been starting to get the impression, however, that some mutants were deliberately a little less direct with her than they were with others. Maybe they thought she was young and innocent and while she was young, she was quickly becoming less and less innocent.

"I just wish p-people like that would leave me alone," Amber said with just a little bit of a pout. "I d-didn't do anything to them." She was a stronger person now than she had been before discovring she was a mutant, in more ways than one. In the past she might have broken down crying, but not now. Now she just took things in stride.