>> "You'll learn."

Chase furrowed his brow. That was such a grown-up answer-- completely noncommittal, told him a whole lot of nothing, and told him that he wasn't going to get much more than that answer no matter how hard he tried or how long he persisted. Chase hated those kinds of answers. Hokee shifted gears as he turned his attention to the matter of purchasing guns.

>> "Something high end...fast and light. Not sure really, you just got to feel it to know if its right. You need compact and small. You run fast....when your not falling in pools..."

"That's what I was thinking," Chase said with a nod. He hadn't really been thinking that, but he had to pretend he knew what he was... or wasn't... talking about. Compact and small, that sounded reasonable. Chase was compact and small, so his gun should be, too. The eight-year-old watched as Hokee fussed with the radio, as the car went quiet once more. Hokee didn't seem to be much of conversationalist, and Chase wasn't either, and so the shapeshifter's young mind turned to the most obvious option-- asking questions that had yet to be answered.

"So," Chase trailed, sitting back in a fashion akin to Hokee's posture, "Why don't you park your car with the other cars at the Mansion?" They already knew Hokee slept inside of the car because he didn't want people stealing it, but that was a stupid reason. Chase needed to know more than just that.

Accelerate and well, drive. Turning down a street, he started to weave in and out of the city's web of shops. He must have seen a shop at some point in time with his night actions. Though the city streets looked very different during daylight then the plight of night. Preferably he'd enjoy the light flickering through the darkness compared to the blaring sun and glare from endless windows. "To sunny here."

Flipping down the visor, he adjusted it till the brunt of the sunbeams from his already squinted eyes. With just his right hand on the wheel, he was soon holding his head up with the other hand while it rested against the crook of the door. His tongue wandered in his mouth searching for any loose articles of food. Later in the day he'd have to stop and catch a shower some place, be it at the Y or climbing into a random home.

The question caught him off guard. Chase really wasn't going to let him slide through on this would he. If he kept this up, he'd soon hit the ranks of annoyance as Ms Taylor. Silence filled the car, other then the radio drifting out of his own point of focus. He needed to say something that would get Chase to leave him alone enough but not tell him anything in particular. Kid didn't need to know his mother was more then a thorn in his side.

"To crowded for me." There, that was something. He couldn't know for sure how much or little he knew already. With a mother as a guidance counselor, there was no amount of certainty what information he could gather freely or on his own. It was one thing if he was using the kid for his own benefit, but if he was used against him.....there was going to be major changes. He wasn't paranoid, he just didn't need noses all in his business. "Suffocating."

Man of little words, to bad the words he did say had very little wisdom or advice in them. What was he doing, encouraging the kid to defy his mother and praising how much better life is living in a car? He was messed up, but no one would understand why he did what he did and in the way that he did. Just, things were the way they were. "Over stuffed toy box...." A school full of crazy freak mutants.

>> "To crowded for me. Suffocating. Over stuffed toy box...."

For anyone who was any older than Chase, the answer might have been interpretted as almost poetic. For Chase, it was just another cryptic adult-answer. Hokee wasn't going to give him an outright answer, he was just trying to get him to shut up. Even Chase could see that. He huffed faintly, and for a moment, entertained a thought that was rather devious, considering his age and general good behavior-- maybe he could get his answer by taking hold of Hokee's and wandering about in his form. Could he get the answer for those sorts of questions, and in that fashion?

Chase dropped that thought, though, and instead opted to analyze what Hokee meant on his own. Too crowded, that made sense. Suffocating? Played into the "too crowded" sentiment. And to say that Xavier's was an overstuffed toy box, well that implied the same thing. Chase quietly turned his attention out the window, unsure of what to say next, besides a slightly disheartened, "Oh."

He liked having all of the people around, though he was incapable of conversing with any of them. coherently. It was like having one enormous family. The good kind, not the dysfunctional kind-- he even thought of Hokee as something of a cool, rebellious older brother, not that Chase would admit to that. And the fact that a cool, rebellious older brother-figure wouldn't confide in Chase something that seemed so trivial... well, that just meant that he didn't think that Chase could handle it. Thus, the little guy fell silent once more, looking out the window as unfamiliar storefront flicked past. Everything looked so different from the car, then it did when you were on the streets.

Chase made this observation aloud, "You ever notice how places look different when you look at them from the car, than when you do when you're walking by them?"

Maybe he wasn't really awake, but this car ride seemed to be a bit....thin iced. Obviously his skills with others had deteriorated more and more with the passing of time. Sleeping in his car and moving himself away from people couldn't be helping matters much either. This was how it was, make it work...or something like that. Nothing was making much sense in his head right now, thinking just was to much effort, and effort was to much to do before having a nice warm meal.

Rounding another corner, he spotted a temporary solution to many of his problems. Flicking the blinkers on with with middle finger, he waited for the right moment before turning left into the parking lot of the golden arches. At least this time he wasn't holding someone hostage with a snow brush to get a meal. "Should see what its like at night in a car. Different world....thats when life really starts." Pulling behind another car, his foot stayed steady on the brake.

"Came here once with your mom." Lifting his butt from the seat a bit, he stretched his body while keeping his balance on the brake. Rolling down the window, he hacked up a loogy. Thankfully she wasn't there, if she was he'd have kicked her out of his car ages ago. Then he'd need to install new seats or just burn the car....was that to much?

"Some night, you should come out for a ride, see it." The car in front of him rolled forward a bit. "Best place is the roof tops. Just sucks you can't see the stars well, but eh its quiet and open. No one nagging you, telling what you can and can't do. Just free up there." Hunching over the wheel, his fingers drummed. "They better still be serving breakfast."

>> "Should see what its like at night in a car. Different world....thats when life really starts."

Oh, Chase knew what the streets were like at night, but he'd never had the privlege of seeing them from the safety of a car. Not when he'd been living on them. He failed to see the mystique-- for him, the streets had been scary... in all that time, he'd been so scared and so tired, scarcely sleeping. Or when he had, the sleep had been so light that it was hardly sufficient. Chase huffed quietly and combed his hair back with his slender fingers-- he'd rather not think about that time in his life. Things were different now. The car rolled into the parking lot of a familiar fast food joint, beelining for the drive-through.

>> "Came here once with your mom."

"You did?" Chase echoed. That must've been before Miss Gemma was his mother. That struck Chase as odd. In the lone interaction he'd seen between Gemma and Hokee, the eight-year-old had gleaned that Hokee didn't like her. So Chase gave the vague inquiry of, "How was it? Eating out with Mama?"

Hokee spit out the window, and peered in the direction of the sign, and Chase followed his line of vision towards the menu. He was a kid, so Chase tended to remain on the kids' menu.

>> "Some night, you should come out for a ride, see it. Best place is the roof tops. Just sucks you can't see the stars well, but eh its quiet and open. No one nagging you, telling what you can and can't do. Just free up there.... They better still be serving breakfast."

"That sounds like fun," Chase agreed, though he was also wary of such freedom. He was still young, he liked having someone to look after him and take care of him, and telling him what to do... having someone care about what he was doing, and who he was with.

"Don't you..." Chase trailed. He could feel a question on the tip of his tongue, but he didn't know how to word it. It had the potential to be a personal question, and reveal something about him in-turn. Neither idea of which Chase was fond of. But he had to say something. Chase shifted his weight as Hokee directed his attention towards the menu, "Do you like being able to... be free more than having someone nag you all the time?" It was a stupid question, but by now it must have been apparent that Chase was compelled to ask question no matter how stupid they seemed, "I like having someone who wants to know where I am and what I'm doing."

Eating out with her. Now that was a joke. Sure he was in the same car with her at different points and such, but that didn't mean they actually ate together. Did she even eat at all. He remembered her handing him the bag of food, or did he just snatch it from her? Didn't matter either way, the ending result being him stuck in a mansion full of the weirdest and biggest freaks he had ever seen. Not that he paid much attention years ago when life was really bad with the mutant population, but he hadn't thought they were as freakish up close as they were. No wonder people hated them, he couldn't help but find himself feeling a bit of growing hatred to them as well, people like him....but the really funky looking ones.

A grunt. He could offer that as an answer. It didn't take a rocket scientist to notice that he didn't get along with the woman at all, so why bother hiding it. How often did he hide from things as it was, his movements mainly at night, busting out of the mansion and living in his car now...not even staying in the garage where he got a job. Yeah, real way to man up in life. It was survival tactics, he just had to keep reminding himself of that. "Eh, you know." There, he said something. It wasn't Chase's fault his mother was a drag, poor kid had it bad enough living with her but then getting stuck in the mutant school couldn't be much better.

Hokee rolled the car further up and the static cryptic voice broke through the speaker asking to help him. Without skipping a beat he leaned out of his car window a bit. "Two orders of that pancake stuff. Lots of syrup...um...four hash browns, large orange juice and um.." Looking over at Chase he looked for any request. The questions would have to wait, food was more important.

>> "Eh, you know."

A grunt, and that short answer. Chase supposed that he did know, but... just because he knew didn't mean that he understood. He just let that suject settle. The car inched forward, before coming to a halt before the speaker. An employee from the McDonald's asked what Hokee wanted, and the boy with the dreadlocks clearly replied,

>> "Two orders of that pancake stuff. Lots of syrup...um...four hash browns, large orange juice and um.."

"The... breakfast burrito?" Chase inquired, shrugging his shoulders. He only wanted one, no meal or anything. And he had to make sure that Hokee was fine with paying for it of course. Chase shifted in the seat again. He hated it when people had to buy him things.

A smirk and huff of air like a laugh came from the older kid. "Two breakfast burritos....and I need um...two of those bib things." Double checking the order he waited until it was all good. Now all he had to do was pull up to the next window pay, next window after that get the food and then he might be able to think of where in the world he saw the paintball store. Digging through his pockets the teen searched out for his wallet. Did he sleep with it in his pants last night or did he toss it someplace in his car.

Unbuckling, Hokee was able to dig at his back pockets easier. Though nothing was coming up. "Shhh.....eep." Not his typical response, but he didn't feel like finding out what Chase thought about swearing this early in the day. Tossing his car into park, the teen was crawling over the seat to the back to find his wallet.

"Can you drive at all?"

>> "Two breakfast burritos....and I need um...two of those bib things."

Chase watched as Hokee rummaged into his pockets. Yet, when he didn't find what he was looking for, he breathed the word "sheep", and went into the back of the car, rummaging about.

"What are you looking for?" Chase inquired. Maybe he could help?

>> "Can you drive at all?"

Chase gave Hokee a connfused look, complete with a quirked eyebrow.

"Um," Chase trailed uncertianly, "N-no? Why?"

Dog comb, empty chip bag, one black sock....okay, his car wasn't perfectly clean but it wasn't exactly a mess either. He just hadn't a chance to tidy up his sleeping quarters yet after waking up. So sue him. "My wallet..." Bedhead, sure with dreadlocks his hair couldn't get to messed up, but that didn't mean that what laid between his ears wasn't all mixed up. Shuffling more in the backseat he could hear the sound of a car horn behind him. Without thinking at all, his hand flicked up into the air giving the other car a piece of his mind with a single finger.

Chase didn't drive. That sucked. So what if he was like five or whatever, didn't kid have the itch to drive? A longer beep of the horn responded to his finger salute. "Jump over to the driver side and put your foot on the big peddle, then shift into drive and let your foot up...just roll to the window and stop. Its like a big bike with no peddling." He had to be stupid right now, but unless he found his wallet, they weren't getting food, and he was hungry. No food, no happy Hokee. Plus without food in him, how was he to find the paintball gun store so he could get them guns?

Who cared if it was legal or not, he needed food and the car behind him was pushing his buttons. With his head on the backseat, his arm started to wiggle about under the seat where Chase was sitting. The wallet couldn't be to far away from him. Not like he'd loose it or anything. For certain, he knew he had it before locking the doors of his car at night, he just knew it was back here someplace.

Hokee was missing his wallet. That begged the obvious question of, how were they going to pay for the food? Chase watched as Hokee rummaged around the back seat, turning up anything but the wallet-- a sock, a dog comb, and what would otherwise be considered as nothing more than trash. The car behind them was growing impatient, the driver leaning on the horn, and Hokee gave them the finger, which Chase didn't understand the significance of... at that point in time, instructions were hastily dealt to him.

>> "Jump over to the driver side and put your foot on the big peddle, then shift into drive and let your foot up...just roll to the window and stop. Its like a big bike with no peddling."

This was met by a blank stare, as Chase's mind stumbled into motion, before he realized what Hokee was asking of him.

"I've never ridden a bike before!" Chase countered. It wasn't something that his parents had been compelled to teach him. Riding bicycles meant freedom to go places, meant equality with his siblings... to have driving likened to riding a bicycle was outrageous. And yet, Chase was climbing into the driver's seat, contrary to his protest, "How do you expect me to drive?"

Chase wedged himself into the seat, and put on the seatbelt... his feet couldn't even reach the gas pedal, because his legs were so short. Chase looked back at Hokee, blatantly flustered as the boy behind him was sprawled out on the floor, rummaging beneath the seat. His feet were conveniently within reach. Chase turned around in the seat, and quickly yanked the shoe free of Hokee's foot. It was Chase's shoe now. Chase kicked off the shoe on his corresponding foot, letting it fall to the floor, and he slid off his sock, before tucking his foot into the older boy's shoe. It was warm with wear, and far too big, but the tendrils in Chase's leg quickly began to shift as a new residue was introduced. Legs lengthened, as did Chase's height overall, facial structure shifted into a more matured, squinty-eyed face and hair lengthened into clumps of dreadlocks. Chase's attire emulated Hokee's as more vines of flesh wove over them, and within the span of seconds, Hokee's Doppelganger had taken Chase's place.

"I can't even reach the gas pedals, Hokee," the Doppelganger grumbled in Hokee's voice, squinty teal eyes flicking towards the original Hokee, "Honestly." As Chase grew accustomed to the form, information began to hit him-- Hokee's name, his age and birthday, where he was from... how he thought, how he spoke, all of it flooding into Chases' mind. Chase willed himself towards more relevant information. Like how to drive. Mechanically, his feet moved beneath him, towards the brake pedal. He pressed down on it, popped the emergency brake off and shifted into drive, creeping forward to the window. Of all the nerve... as he approached the window, he pressed on the brake again, and put the car back into park. The Doppelganger rolled down the window as the drive-thru attendant opened the window and asked for a moment please, reciting the cost of the meal.

"Give us a sec," the Doppelganger requested, leaning an arm on the window and casting the girl at the window a smirk, "My brother lost his wallet somewhere in the car."

The attendant said that this was just fine, and went back to preparing the food, and the Doppelganger went back to watching Hokee, turning around in its seat. What would they do if he couldn't find the wallet?

Steal it, Hokee's influence replied, licking at the corners of Chase's mind. The part of the Doppelganger's mind that was still Chase shuddered at the notion. Stealing was bad.

That's what Chase was afraid of.

That wasn't going to happen.

"I am not stealing the food if you can't find your wallet," the Doppelganger announced. They would establish that before the Doppelganger's mind was more Hokee than Chase.

So that was where the last moonpie went to. It was good to know he didn't eat the whole box in one sitting, unlike the Hohos he had the other night. Those were impossible to ration out. Great thing about those little snacks, was how remarkably easy they were to stuff in his clothes in the stores. Leaving empty boxes on shelves was so much easier then trying to get a box out at times. Cookies on the other hand, those got a little messy if he didn't take the whole package. Lost in his whole world of snacks and such, he couldn't help but open the package and shove the lone pie into his mouth. It was very difficult to keep it in his mouth as Chase confessed to not knowing how to ride a bike. How could the kid be that old and not know how to work a bike. Choking slightly, he was forced to swallow prematurely. "Just don't crash."

Licking his fingers, the teen was searching yet again for his wallet. With the rate the two were going, there was going to be no fast food. He couldn't locate his wallet and Chase couldn't reach the gas. Brilliant, just brilliant.

A breeze hit his foot. The kid just yanked off his shoe! "What the he--" Forcing himself to see what Chase was doing, he felt like he was now looking in the strangest mirror in the world. To make it more bizarre, the voice sounded like himself. Stalled in any more conversation he couldn't help but gawk at what used to be Chase. The voice in the window broke through his clouded mind as Chase, or himself....fake himself talked back to them. Brothers? He wasn't his brother, what in the world was he saying or the not him saying.

He had to find his wallet. Yes, wallet. Shaking his head slightly, the real Hokee dove back down into his seats to find where he put the darn thing. Spotting the other sock, he picked it up. It felt heavier then what a sock should feel like, as if something was inside of it. Shoving his hand in it, he could feel the worn out material as his wallet emerged from the depths of the lone sock. "Didn't say we were stealing the food."

Opening the wallet, he pulled out a twenty dollar bill and handed it up. This was weird, very strange, very....useful. He knew the kid could mock his dreadlocks from before, but turning into him was just....oh to good to be true. How long could Chase keep up the look? Hopefully for a long period of time. If he looked like him, that would make it so much easier to steal paintball material. Having a twin could be useful, very useful....now if only he could convince Chase that stealing wasn't a bad thing, something of necessity....

The Doppelganger smirked at Hokee's reaction, eyes glimmering with emerald-green amusement behind sleepy eyelids. So, even with kids as cool as Hokee, people still did double-takes when faced with their twin they never knew that they had. Priceless. Absolutely priceless.

>> "What the he--"

"I couldn't reach the gas pedal," the Doppelganger said with a shrug and an air of nonchalance, "You should see your face, Hokee. It's priceless."

With that, the Doppelganger looked back towards the window, as the attendant returned bearing breakfast. Hokee had drifted into a most-uncommon silence, but seemed to have enough wits about him to pull a twenty out of his wallet and pass it up to him.

>> "Didn't say we were stealing the food."

"You didn't have to," the Doppelganger hummed absently, taking the twenty-dollar bill from Hokee with a brief murmur of thanks. The window slid open, and Chase passed the twenty to the attendant, who passed them the food. She looked into the back, towards Hokee, and then back at Hokee's doppelganger, and said nothing as the girl retrieved change for them. She returned with change for the twenty, and napkins, and wished the two a nice day.

"You too," the Doppelganger said with a smile. He pressed on the brake again, and shifted back into drive and rolled away from the window. As soon as they were gone from the window, his expression shifted into that of discontent, and faint annoyance, and he rolled out of the drive-thru, towards the first available parking place, and managed to park the car without any difficulties. He put the car into park once again, put on the emergency brake, and undid the seatbelt. It was awkward, moving around with such long, unwieldy legs, but with minor fidgeting faux-Hokee managed to clamber back into the passengers' seat. He passed Hokee the change, first, turning to his twin with a wry look upon its face.

Chase hated shifting in front of people, and wanted to drop the form as soon as possible. The Doppelganger relished Hokee's dumbfounded expression. The Doppelganger won, and it was decided that for just a moment longer, the shoe would belong to the Doppelganger, unless the real-Hokee wanted it back.

"I told you my power was human-shifting," the Doppelganger chastised, mild condescension in its tone and a smirk upon its lips. Its eyes still boasted an emerald-green amusement, "Did ya think I only changed how my hair looked?"

Riding in the backseat of his own car had to be one of the strangest experiences he had ever gone through, though with the driver being a doppelganger of himself just add to the strangeness around it all. It was a kid hidden under that false image, a kid who couldn't even hit the gas peddle on his own. For a kid that didn't know how to work a bike, he seemed to be doing just fine with driving his car. Kid under estimated himself, a lot.

With a grumbled grunt, he climbed back over the seats to take over the driver seat once the car was parked. The kid was getting a little smart mouth on him to. Go figure. "Didn't tell me you sounded like people to." Okay, maybe he might have said that, but he couldn't remember. It wasn't like he memorized every single word that Chase said since he met him. He was lucky enough that he didn't mind the kid around. Compared to the other mutants that roaed about the mansion, Chase was one of the few noral looking ones. Though he couldn't complain much at all about his form now, except it was weird hearing his own voice.

Reaching over, Hokee didn't even ask, but pulled out one of the bibs. Using it as a do rag, he pulled all his hair out of the way. He knew he had a hair thing somewhere around his car but didn't feel like digging around to find it. "Least you picked someone good looking to turn into." Rolling down to the window slightly, he turned in his seat sideways. Reaching into the bag again he pulled out one of the containers of pancakes and started to drown them in syrup. "How long can you stay like that?"

Hokee clambered back into the front seat with a grumble at his doppelganger, and gave the brief retort of,

>> "Didn't tell me you sounded like people to."

The Doppelganger gave a short laugh, and countered, "Did so."

And he highly doubted that the voice was really what had caused Hokee to pause. Hokee grabbed something with which to tie his hair back, and a similar thought crossed the duplicate's mind. He didn't want to accidentally dip his dreadlocks into the food, and the Doppelganger didn't know where Hokee kept his hairties either, so he leaned over and began to untie the shoe that was holding the form in place.

>> "Least you picked someone good looking to turn into."

Another, short laugh and a grin. What choice did he have, really? Either Chase's little legs would be left dangling two-feet-too-short to hit the pedals to maneuver the car, or he had to be Hokee. The still-mildly-Chase-portion of the Doppelganger's mind bit back the retort of, if there'd been another choice, he would have taken it. It just unfastened the shoe, and took it into its hand, holding it out for Hokee to take back.

>> "How long can you stay like that?"

"As long as I have your shoe," the Doppelganger replied, nodding to the shoe to encourage its actual owner to take it out. Shifting in front of people wasn't its favorite task, but... Hokee needed his shoe back, and Chase wanted to eat with his own hands. Eating as someone else took far too much coordination and paying attention.