Amber hated humans. She hated them because they hated her for no reason other than her eyes being black. She hated when they made fun of her, pointing and laughing, although she could deal with that. What she truly hated, however, was when their mockery turned violent and they came after her. Didn't they realize that even if she looked like a fragile pale girl, she was actually a dangerous potential killer? Maybe if they feared what she could do to them they might not be so willing to come after her. Maybe if she looked threatening rather than just unusual she might not have to worry about putting her life in danger simply by walking out of the safety of Sanctuary and going to the store. Fear might not be as good as respect, but it was better than hatred, surely.

The evening hadn't really started so badly. Amber had left Sanctuary when the skies had just begun darkening towards night because she wanted to get herself an early summer slushy. It was just dark enough for her to be able to leave safely without her skin burning to a crisp, so long as she remained safely covered. She didn't even have that far to travel, just outside of Sanctuary borders (or where she roughly thought them to be). Going into the corner store was fine, even, the cashier not blinking twice at her odd appearance and allowing her to pay for her drink and then leave. It was once she had gone back outside that the problems started.

The problems came in the form of four teenagers. Amber spotted them immediately upon leaving the store, although she hadn't noticed them on the way in. Her heart sunk almost instantly, catching the eye of the largest of the four and knowing instantly that he had bad intentions in mind. Maybe it was a teen thing, involving rebellion and having too much spare time. Maybe it was simply a mutant hatred thing and had nothing to do with age or rebellion. Regardless of the motivations involved, the four began following her.

It didn't take long for Amber to realize that their intentions weren't good since they weren't taking any pains at all to hide them. She walked, they followed, slowly gaining distance on her. Why they didn't attack immediately, if that was their intent, she wasn't sure. Perhaps it was due to a sick sense of wanting to play with their victim before striking. The longer the slow stalking went on, however, the more nervous Amber became, before finally she bolted. Unfortunately her stalkers bolted too, hunting her down like an animal. She didn't happen to see any weapons on them, but in a four on one fight they didn't particularly need any weapons nor was there any guarantee that there weren't any hidden.

Amber could hear her attackers gaining on her and she looked back, frantically trying to figure out what to do in order to get away. If only she could shift, they wouldn't stand a chance against a dinosaur that was half claws and teeth, but shifting took time and during those precious seconds she was entirely vulnerable. She looked forward again, just in time to see a woman in front of her, but not in time to do anything about it. Attackers still close on her heels, she collided directly with the woman, going down in a heap of fabric.

Allison always enjoyed the middle of long runs more than the beginning or end. The beginning was nothing but anticipating how exhausted she’d be at the end, the end was being exhausted, but in the middle she felt okay, and was generally in the middle of places she didn’t know. She wasn’t quite lost, she knew the path she was on, but two blocks off that path and she’d have no idea. It gave her a bit of an adventurous thrill, which she tried to simultaneously enjoy and ignore, as she was fairly certain that feeling adventurous for going near places she didn’t know was really kind of pathetic.

She didn’t have one of her more spontaneous ink patterns today, but what she did have was still enough to get looks. Thin lines of ink in blue, green and black, covering her in as organic a pattern as she could make while having to pay so much attention to making them, in what had become a weird combination of vines (which she’d been aiming for) and tracing muscles (which she’d not been aiming for, but was admittedly organic). Not the strangest or most obvious thing she’d done by far, but having ink on literally every square inch of skin was still a bit unusual. Maybe she’d trace veins next time. Probably better to save that for Halloween. She was getting some odd looks, from people who were rarely outside or didn’t live in the places she ran, and some curious looks from people who were outside often, and saw her running enough to know she always had some kind of pattern, and it was always different, even if not why.

Not that she thought why would be hard to figure out, but people could be incredibly stupid at times.

Allison half-jumped over a tree root, speeding up a bit as she stepped over and between varied cracks in the sidewalk. She’d tripped here before, though the scar had disappeared already.

Another ten minutes of running took her through several smooth sections, and left her stumbling as her toe collided with the first crack in a new section of broken and upheaved sidewalk. Allison glared at the cracks in front of her, too tired to say anything like she’d like to, ducked automatically under a tree branch that probably wasn’t actually low enough to hit her, and promptly collided with something. She stumbled back a step, tripped over a raised edge of cement from a crack, and fell with a yelp that was more surprise than pain.

She ended up sitting, on the raised edge that had made her fall, and looking at a large pile of cloth that she was quite sure had not been there or anywhere nearby any time she’d run through the area before, and was not high enough for her to have run into anyway. A few blinks turned the apparently pile of cloth into a person covered in lots of cloth, and Allison was up and holding out a hand, words falling out before she could think of them. “I’m sorry, my fault, I wasn’t watching where I was going, are you alright?” Are you insane? It’s summer, I’m wearing less than I want to think about and still melting. What did you do, teleport here from Alaska?

Amber gingerly picked herself up off the ground, testing her muscles to make sure that everything still worked and that nothing was broken. With some relief, she realized that aside from a slight twinge in her ankle she was fine. She looked behind her, eyes filled with fear, only to see her hunters gaining on her. Only once she had ascertained the severity of the situation did she turn her black eyed gaze upon the woman she had accidentally collided with.

“I’m sorry, my fault, I wasn’t watching where I was going, are you alright?”

"It's not your fault th-those men are chasing me and I fell." Amber's eyes darted nervously behind her once more. She barely noticed the strange tattooed pattern on the woman's skin, both because of the fear of her present situation and because tattoos were hardly unusual when compared to some of the stranger suspects that resided in Sanctuary. Her own eyes, she knew, would be obvious to anyone looking upon them, the obvious mark of a mutant and she could only hope that the unfortunate woman she had run into wasn't going to make her life even more difficult than it all ready was.

"You sh-should probably leave. Quickly. Otherwise they might come after you too." Amber accepted the offered hand in order to be helped up, preparing to continue running just as soon as she had regained her feet. Just because she was fleeing for her life (potentially) didn't mean that she was going to sacrifise an innocent bystandar so that she could escape unscathed. Even an innocent human bystandar shouldn't be thrown away in such a fashion.

Allison was distracted from her Alaska theory as she helped the person up and noticed her eyes were black. Hm. Probably a mutant then. Maybe that explains the... outfit. Excessive cloth. Maybe she controls cloth. Or can turn it into stuff. Like tears. Where did I even come up with that? Tears? Something reasonable. Like.... I have no idea. Felt. Because that’s not fabric already. Stingrays. Miniature flying happy stingrays....

"You sh-should probably leave. Quickly. Otherwise they might come after you too."

Allison’s attention was brought back to reality as the guessing it’s a woman by the voice spoke. She blinked and glanced up to see four teenagers running toward them, and getting closer quickly. One looked vaguely familiar, but not enough for Allison to have any clue who he was. She blinked. Huh. Come after me? “I’m not too worried, thanks though.” With the speed they were running, there was no way they’d catch her if she decided to run, even if she had been tired. She glanced back at the woman she’d run into, more curious about the whole situation than anything else. Which is probably not a good sign for my morality. Or empathy. Or something. Possibly survival instincts. “What’s going on?” I believe that is the most generic question I could have possibly come up with.

Amber got to her feet as quickly as she was able to, thankful that nothing seemed to be broken or sprained. The tumble to the ground was more embarrassing than anything, although she might have been more concerned about the embarrassment if she wasn't currently worrying about the four angry teenagers coming after her. Why did being a mutant have to be so difficult? Why did people insist on hating her simply because she was a little bit different than them.

“What’s going on?”

"They're trying to kill me because I'm a mutant." Maybe that was a bit of an overstatement, but at that moment the thugs came into range to actually hurt one of both of them. For a moment Amber considered continuing to flee, but now there was another person involved and, human or not, she couldn't' just leave the woman because that would make her no better than the bigoted human thugs were.

"Looks like we've got a mutie and a mutie lover here now boys." It was the largest of the four who spoke as the small gang moved in to try to surround the two of them. The remaining three laughed cruelly. Knowing that she didn't have time to shift, Amber fingered the small knife her sister Aura had given her, still hidden under her robes. She wondered if she could possibly be lucky enough that the woman she had run into might just be a mutant. After all, she didn't need that much time to shift, only a distraction to buy her a minute. But of course, nothing so fortunate ever occurred in her life. Ever.

"They're trying to kill me because I'm a mutant."

“Oh.” Allison blinked. That’s kind of drastic. And stupid. Either there’s no reason to dislike a mutation or there’s a very good reason to not piss off whoever has said mutation. Unless it’s like... Medusa, but her gaze only works on people she likes.... Allison blinked back to reality as the four reached them. “That’s... quite stupid, really.”

"Looks like we've got a mutie and a mutie lover here now boys."

Allison blinked at the boy who’d spoken for a second before she figured out what he meant and started snickering. “If you didn’t even manage to pass kindergarten, I don’t think you get to judge anyone.” Oh yes, mocking the murderer, wise thing to do there. That sounds like a game show, actually. “Actually... isn’t it preschool that teaches counting to two...?” Allison shifted as the boys moved around them so that she was standing with the woman on her left. Mocking the Murderer. Making the Murderer. Hm, playing an evil god. Or like... legos, that get brought to life. Or designing like... mad science, maybe. Designing hybrid berserker warrior assassins. That are part wolf and part bee and part army ant and part stingray. Hm, she can make stingrays.... No, I didn’t ask yet. “Can you turn cloth into cloth? Or like, felt, or something?” Allison paused for a moment before realizing what she said. “Stingrays! I meant stingrays.”

Amber fingered the knife hidden under her robes, acutely aware of just how inadequate and small it felt. She didn't see any weapons on any of the four guys surrounding the two of them but that didn't mean they didn't have any. What she really wanted at just that moment was a pair of deadly sickle claws and a mouthful of razor sharp teeth. Very few people were willing to stand tow to tow with a Deinonychus, even if it was four on one. Unfortunately in the half a minute it would take her to gain all of her many natural weapons, she would be entirely vulnerable and probably wouldn't survive the transformation.

“That’s... quite stupid, really.”

Amber mentally groaned at the statement. It was not what one should be saying to thugs that were about to try and beat you up or worse. What she should have said was 'no don't hurt me', or something like that, not something to antagonize them further. As those thoughts crossed her mind, it was at that moment that one of the thugs, a tall skinny teenager with sandy brown hair, pulled out a switchblade not much larger than Amber's own. "I'd be careful what you say, girly. You might just get hurt." The boy with the knife snickered as the four began closing in.

“Can you turn cloth into cloth? Or like, felt, or something? Stingrays! I meant stingrays.”

Amber blinked at the girl and mentally groaned to herself a second time. Did she have to find someone so stupid to be stuck in this situation with? "I d-do dinosaurs. If there was time."

At that point Amber decided it was time to take out her own weapon and maybe, just maybe, it might be enough to intimidate the thugs into leaving. Amber turned on the smallest of the four humans and met his eyes with her own pitch black ones, hoping to use their natural intimidation factor to her best advantage. "Leave us alone now and no one gets hurt." She pulled out her knife and was satisfied in the fact that the statement held not a quiver in her voice or the merest hint of a stutter even despite her not insignificant fear.

"I'd be careful what you say, girly. You might just get hurt."

Allison snickered more at the skinny boy’s threat, for no particular reason she could think of. Definitely a bad sign for my survival instinct. Or sense of humor. Probably both. She bounced on her toes, the adrenaline from running making her want to move. “Yes, because what I say has any effect at this point.”

"Leave us alone now and no one gets hurt."

Allison blinked and turned her head enough to see the woman, holding a knife close enough to the size of the one the boy was holding. “...Though what she says might matter,” Allison added. If her face was visible enough to look angry, maybe.

...They can see my face. Allison stopped bouncing and grinned, fierce and almost bloodthirsty. Cheshire cat, Cheshire vampire cat.... Wonderland is evil. She started pushing the ink out of her skin, slowly, so that it seeped out of her skin and dripped down her arms with minimal sensation. She shook her head, pulling her hair forward to start braiding the ponytail and grinning at the boys she could see. If only I had another hair tie....

Amber tried to wrack her brain in order to figure out how she might get her much needed minute of distraction. If only the woman with her might actually be useful then she might be able to get the two of them out of the mess. Even four on one and even with one of them holding a knife, they couldn't hope to stand toe to toe with a man eating dinosaur. A quick dart of her eyes confirmed for Amber that the woman still didn't appear to be doing much of anything useful except for stand there.

The man with the knife darted in on Amber, almost playfully. It missed but, in her opinion, only because he hadn't really been trying to begin with, a thought reinforced when he began laughing at her. She felt the first pricklings of change sweep over her skin as her fear at the situation mounted. Although she didn't have a mirror, she knew by the burning in her flesh that scales had begun to appear on her skin, although only a very small amount of skin was actually visible for others to see. She tried her best to remain calm in the face of conflict.

Amber almost missed the unspoken communication between the four thugs and she certainly never noticed when the other woman's tattoos began bleeding off of her flesh. She barely had a chance to react before the four thugs, almost in tandem, rushed them. The man with the knife and a one other went after Amber, the leader and the remaining thug went after the other woman, fists up in preparation of beating the two of them to a bloody pulp.

Allison dropped the braid half finished as the boys attacked, and pushed the rest of the ink out of her skin in a flash of burn-freeze-cut-pain-ecstasy that made her eyes glaze for an instant before she blinked, grinned and ducked away from one of the boy’s attempt to hit her. That of course put her in the other boy’s path and she coughed as she was hit, then started laughing again. My sense of humor is officially insane today. And self destructive. Probably useful. She blinked away the ink that had started to run toward her eyes, and collected as much as she could--most, since a lot had gotten absorbed into her clothes or shoes instead of dripping onto the sidewalk--lifting it into the air around her and letting it mix into a dark teal. Now is probably not the time to bother with keeping them separate. This is pretty enough anyway.

The boys paused and Allison grinned, separating a thin line of ink to throw at both boys who’d attacked her. It splashed the arm of one and shoulder of the other, drawing one angry and one confused look. She pulled the rest of the ink back to soak into her clothes and concentrated on the two splashes, shoving them into the boys’ skin and then pulling it through quickly to provoke the nerves and create the freezing-burning-pain-sharp raw sensation that she was used to. Doubt they are.

Amber was aware that two of the thugs had gone after the other woman, but was otherwise not paying a great deal of attention to what was happening on the other side of her. She was concerned enough with the threats she was currently facing, one of which had a knife and clearly had no compunctions against using it. She knew the best odds she would get were the odds she had currently and with only two men going after her maybe, just maybe, she might have a chance to shift. Doing so wasn't without its risks and she would probably get herself injured in the process, but not doing so was clearly the worst alternative. If it came to a decision between potentially getting killed (since the guy with the knife at least was clearly capable of it) or getting hurt but surviving, she knew she had to choose the latter option.

Amber growled at the two men before her, the sound coming out more bestial than her human face and throat might indicate it should, her vocal chords having all ready mostly changed to those of a Deinonychus. She slashed at the one wielding the knife and felt it bite into flesh and he yelled, although she didn't think she had given him more than a scratch. In that moment of distraction, she let go of all resistance and gave into the change that was trying to take over her body.

The next minute was among the most terrifying in Amber's life. She couldn't tell the difference between the natural pain of a shift and the pain of the thugs coming after her. She thought she felt fists against her side but those faded as scales more fully took over her flesh and teeth and claws began growing. She thought perhaps they backed off in confusion, but couldn't be entirely certain. As the final changes overtook her she felt the knife bite home, penetrating her now scaled and feathered leg. As her robes fell to the ground around her she whipped around her now long neck and screeched at the man holding the knife and watch in satisfaction as his eyes widened in terror at seeing a dinosaur standing before him. Later, once the adrenaline of the fight wore off, Amber knew she'd have bruises and quite possibly worse from the long seconds it had taken to to shift while she was vulnerable and her two attackers were wailing on her, but for the time being she was the one in control.

Allison didn’t pay enough attention to the growl to notice any more than that it existed, and decide that the woman must be able to create larger cloth dinosaurs than she’d thought. Also more vocal. Doesn’t cloth absorb sound? Cloth shouldn’t be able to make any sound. Except like... snapping. Snappy growling. She had to jump back as she lost control of the ink and the boys came after her again, a bit more aggressively than before.

The boys froze after a moment, staring at something, and Allison took the second to dart over to them, get control of the ink back and pull it out of their skin, then dart around behind them.

...I don’t think that’s fabric. Allison froze, just like the boys had, blinking as some form of raptor screeched at one of the boys who’d been attacking the other woman. Allison stared at the dinosaur for another moment as she forgot the ink, letting it splash down onto the sidewalk.

There were advantages to being able to transform one's body into ancient predatory animals. Advantages such as possessing deadly claws and teeth. Advantages such as being damned intimidating. Sure, the Deinonychus was far from the largest of dinosaurs but there was a reason why it had become Amber's primary favourite form of choice. It was fast and agile with excellent senses and absolutely lethal natural weapons. It was a hunter by nature and hunting had quickly become one of her favourite activities once she had discovered exactly what she was capable of as a mutant.

Amber let out a second trilling screech, eminently pleased at the reaction she was producing in the humans who had originally thought her so defenseless as to attack her. She felt their fear and it was good, more than good in fact. To see the look of terror on their cruel faces was almost too good to be true. Was this feeling, perhaps, what Aura experienced also when she showed the humans who tried to attack her sister exactly what she was capable of?

When the first of the four boys fled from the site of the very angry dinosaur, Amber had to restrain the urge to go running after him, jump on his back and sink her teeth into his neck. He was human, after all, and despite having no shortage of ill will towards her, she didn't hunt or kill humans. The guy with the knife took another swipe at her, but it was half hearted and easily dodged. A snap of her teeth at the man, missing his hand by mere inches, convinced him that it was time for him to leave as well and once the first two had fled the others followed suite. Apparently even bigoted and ignorant humans knew the value of not trying to fight with something that had bigger claws than they had.

Once her attackers had fled, Amber turned around and chirped happily at the woman who had helped her, noticing for the first time the ink dripping around her. She cocked her head to the side inquisitively. Was it possible that the moronic woman was a mutant after all and had even, possibly, tried to help her? And probably succeeded in helping her? The immediate threat ended, she became aware of the pain in her leg from where the knife had slashed her and the dozen bruises on her torso from where the thugs had kicked her.

Allison blinked, backing up a few steps as the dinosaur screeched again and one of the boys ran. One of the two who’d attacked the other woman tried attacking the dinosaur with a knife as the remaining two followed the first to run. Okay, even I think that’s stupid. If you’re going to attack something that can kill you in two seconds, maybe you should actually attack it seriously, genius. The dinosaur snapped at him and missed, and he followed the other three.

The raptor turned toward Allison, chirping and then tilting its head. ...Well, I think I am going to assume that is friendly, going on the basis that I’m not dead yet. Allison blinked at the raptor, and specifically the raptor’s claws, for another moment before taking a few steps forward again and holding her hand out. I am treating a raptor as a cat. A raptor as a cat. I believe I have proven that my self preservation instinct is, not only terribly misled, but probably either screamed and ran while I was laughing, or was kidnapped and murdered at the same time. I do not think either is a good sign for me. ...But on the basis I’m not dead yet, it might be friendly, so.... She held her hand at the level of the raptor’s head, staying still and not quite meeting its eyes.

Amber was imminently pleased with herself. Not only had she managed to defend herself and the strange possibly mutant woman she had by chance run into, but she had done so without any actual bloodshed. Or at least, without any actual bloodshed to anyone other than herself and her own wounds, she was fairly certain, weren't all that serious. Sure they hurt, especially the gash in her leg, but everything still appeared to be working and a glance downwards confirmed that there was only a relatively small amount of blood pooling on the ground. She could see that the wound was all ready starting to clot, based upon her matted feathers.

Although to an outsider it might have seemed like a relatively small thing, to Amber, the fact that she had actually stood up for herself against opposition felt like a huge accomplishment. For the first time she felt as if she were truly starting to live up to her vow of no longer being the victim. Maybe it hadn't been a perfect way to deal with the situation, but it had to be considered a very good start. She wasn't ready to start going up against anti-mutant terrorists anytime soon, but at least she knew she could deal with a few teenage thugs.

Amber turned her attention back to the woman who had almost become a victim right alongside her, she was confused for a moment at the fact that the woman had her hand out near her own head. Then she realized that the woman...wanted to pet her? Well, that was certainly a new experience. She puffed up her feathers as best she could and lowered her head, chirping contently. If the woman wanted to pet her feathery head, who was she to complain? That mean spiteful animal shifter Calley wasn't the only one who could get pets, no indeed.