Picking up one of the pancakes with his fingers, he started to roll the fluffy fake breakfast up into a taco of sorts. Dipping the rolled end into another thing of syrup, he shoved part of it in his mouth enjoying the taste. Not bothering to chew all the way, or swallow, he retorted back. "Just throw it on the dashboard right now. Sticky fingers." With a bit of a smirk, he continued to dip his rolled pancake. This was the best way to eat McDonald pancakes, little rolls with the syrup poured on top of it then dipped in more sweetness. To bad they didn't come with fresh strawberries or blueberries. Then he could have that rolled up in there as well. Breakfast always tasted better rolled up.

"Whatchathinkofdriving?" Eating, not enough time to separate words. Shoving another rolled pancake in his mouth, his fingers were soon being sucked free of syrup. The plastic bib on the top of his head crinkled a bit as his head moved. "Goohuh?" With his fingers still slightly sticky he started to eat a hashbrown looking over at the Chase...Hokee...his fake reflection.

With closer investigation, he could see some differences between himself and the fake Hokee. He was most certain there wasn't a scar over his eye and the coloration of hair was slightly off there as well. In case if he forgot what he looked like, he could tell the difference by that. It wasn't obvious at a quick glance, but looking more and more at it, he was starting to see how it wasn't an exact copy of himself. Bummer, that meant he didn't have a perfect clone he could use later for other things. Though this was close enough.

If fake Hokee didn't start eating soon, he was going to eat what was supposed to be his share. Okay, not exactly the nicest thing, but then again, he paid for it all. He'd give Chase till he finished his own share, then start eating the rest. It wasn't like he could just raid a refrigerator whenever he wanted.

The Doppelganger watched as Hokee ate, grabbing its own breakfast burritos and setting them on the dash with its free hand, whilst the other still held onto the shoe in-question. Just throw the shoe one the dashboard? Certainly. The Doppelganger did as it was instructed, and set the shoe in the center of the dashboard lightly. As soon as it released the shoe, the form quickly unraveled, as if it were a rope that was unraveling after being tightly woven. It unshifted fluidly, without stopping in the natural form at all, but reverting to the human-Chase. Chase blinked, his face looking a little flushed, and he wordlessly grabbed his first breakfast burrito. He peeled the foil back, and began to eat quietly, still looking embarrassed.

>> "Whatchathinkofdriving? Goohuh?"

Chase looked over at Hokee, and shook his blond head adamently in contradiction to the inquiry. He hadn't liked it. He had to turn into Hokee just to reach the pedals, and that necessitated that he return to his form with someone looking at him. Not Chase's idea of fun.

"It was scary," Chase confessed, taking another bite of the burrito, "The only reason I drove is because you were busy and the people behind us were getting mad."

Chase sat sideways in the seat, his legs bunched up to his chest (a feat that was now possible because he was once again petite, as opposed to Hokee-sized) and facing Hokee. Except his gaze, rather than being on the other boy, just skirted the tops of Chases' knees. Chase was blatantly bashful over having shifted in front of someone, particularly someone like Hokee. Hokee was cool, in the eight-year-old's book-- like an older brother that Chase had never had. Shapeshifting was weird, and probably made Chase seem a lot less cool in the eyes of the older boy. This was a notion that disappointed Chase, though it couldn't have been more contrary to the truth of what Hokee thought of him.

Working on the second pancake meal, he zoned in and out of his surroundings. Holding a conversation right now wasn't exactly the best idea, but so was many of the things that he said and did. Eating in a bit of silence, he let the words of Chase echo between his ears. The weight he had put on the other guy didn't really have much impact on himself, now if Chase crashed the car that would be a different story. Then, only then would a very large impact be on him...like trying to get the car fixed and avoiding the red tape.

As Chase started to turn from looking like an mirror image of himself into his normal self, Hokee found himself half repulsed but enthralled with what was happening. It was strange to see such a thing happening, almost like special effects in a movie when something morphed into another thing. To think, teachers scoffed any such creative things from ever happening. They obviously didn't know people like Chase. Not only did Chase have the facial features down, but his body was bigger to match his own height. Slowly pieces started to click into place. He obviously wasn't the slickest first thing after waking up....or after driving in his car for a bit.

"Hope their coffee burns them." Muttered mumblings were all he was good for. The actions of eating consumed his efforts as bit by bit his share of the food dwindled away. Licking his fingers free from the sticky residue, he was soon tossing the trash into the bag. "Nature calls." Yanking his keys out from the ignition, he pulled the door latch giving a brief push at the door. Stepping out of the car, his legs took a moment to stretch out before strutted across the parking lot. Yes, he was all that and a bag of chips, even when he was half awake.

Taking a leak was needed, yeah he was older but the problem with sleeping in a car was the lack of a facility to take care of certain things. He didn't want to turn into one of the really horrid bums that use coffee cups to relieve themselves. Opening the first set of doors to enter the building, he had to move aside to avoid being run over by some busy nose in the air woman. Like he opened the door for just her, he had to take a major piss and she was preventing him. Sticking his foot out slightly, he at least had the satisfaction of her shriek. Lucky I didn't pee on you.

His pace quickened as his body reminded him that he really needed to take this call. Pushing the door open to the restroom, it took just a few moments to let his body do what it had to do. Tilting his head back, he stretched his neck out while attempting to out do Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own. To bad the movie wasn't playing in the background, he wouldn't know for sure if he beat it or not. A sad and pointless goal, but it would be epic to do. Two shakes and it was off to wash his hands.

Leaving the restroom, his eyes flickered about the fast food chain. Nothing stuck out at him, nothing of real use either was laying around. With a shrug, his body slinked out the door and towards his car. Taking a hold of the handle, he pulled it before slipping into his seat. "I think its down three streets and to the left." He could think so much clearer now. Amazing what food could do for the body. Taking a long sip of the OJ he looked over at Chase. "No shirt, no shoes, no service my arse. Go in with one shoe and got what I needed." Taking the other shoe off the dashboard he started to shove his foot in and lace it back up. Obviously he wasn't to awake when he left the car, oh well.

Chase didn't like how Hokee was looking at him like that. His face was so unreadable, like he was stuck between being grossed-out and amazed at watching Chase shift-- hence the reason Chase nearly never shifted in front of anyone, if the choice was his. He hated it when people stared at him. Chase averted his gaze and munched quietly on the breakfast burrito, tucking his knees to his chest. He was weird. Too weird. Too different. This was why he never shifted in front of anyone.

>> "Hope their coffee burns them. Nature calls."

Chase looked around, didn't see who Hokee was speaking of, but before the eight-year-old could ask, the teenager dismissed himself, and stepped out of the car, taking his keys but leaving his shoe upon the dashboard.

"Forgot his shoe," Chase muttered belatedly, finishing off Burrito #1 with a shake of his blonde head. Chase looked over his shoulder, looked at the burrito, and at the shoe. What was a kid to do when he was left to his own devices in the car? Chase picked up the shoe again, but didn't put it on his foot. He held it on his hands. He could feel the residue pressing at his hands, pleading for Chase to shift, but Chase resisted, but there was one question that begged to be asked, one piece of insight that Chase needed to know.

"What so great about girls? What isn't Hokee telling me?"

Legs. Crees' legs.

That was it? Chase set the shoe back down, blatantly disappointed in his findings. Legs. And what the heck was a "Cree"? No sooner had Chase replaced the shoe, did Hokee make his return. Chase plucked the second burrito up off of the dashboard as the long-haired boy slid back into the car.

>> "I think its down three streets and to the left. No shirt, no shoes, no service my arse. Go in with one shoe and got what I needed."

"They probably couldn't see your feet," Chase said with a smile, unwrapping his burrito and taking a timid bite of it. His gaze skimmed the streets curiously, watching as pedestrians flicked by as if stuck on a treadmill that was going too fast for them to keep up with.

Chase was fairly quiet, nothing new on that front. It was fine, not like the kid was asking him a million questions and then undermining his vast knowledge. Nope, this was just nice he was quiet and leaving him alone. This was how life should be, no one jumping down your throat every time you talked or questioned all actions made. Sure Chase asked stuff, but he didn't have that tone, the tone his mother threw at him all the time. With any luck, the kid would keep his own wits about him and not turn into her. That would and could be the end of the world as it was.

With the car in his control, his body worked around the wheel as if it were just an extension of his body. A beautiful thing it was, a man and his car. The way it rumbled under his finger tips and the vibrations through his feet. Making sweet love had to be just about as good as driving his car, it had to be....

The car drove down the street until he finally spotted the place he was looking for. Turning around the corner, he spotted the perfect place to park his car in an alley. Unbuckling, he looked over at Chase. "Ready to get armed and dangerous?" With a quick look, he made sure he had all his shoes on instead of just one. Checking himself out in the mirror he waited to see if Chase was ready to roll. "We'll find some good stuff."

Chase kept his focus on the world outside, leaning so that the base of the window was at the level of his eye, making it look like the pedestrians were walking on the sill of the car's window frame. As another pedestrian would roll up, Chase would squint his eyes and *tap* smush the people with his almightly index finger. Hokee was quiet, Chase wasn't a scintillating conversationalist, and so the care remained silent.

The car veered into an alley, at which Chase sat up slightly. Why were they in an alley, of all places? Chase knew alleys well enough, but that didn't mean that he liked them. Chase glanced back at Hokee for the go-ahead.

>> "Ready to get armed and dangerous? We'll find some good stuff."

"Yeah," Chase agreed with a grin, "Let's go."

Chase unfastened his seatbelt as well, and did not pause to look at his reflection. He figured that he looked just fine, and wasn't too concerned with how he looked, besides. As long as he looked human, they were good to go. Chase popped the door open and stepped out slowly, looking skyward. He waited for Hokee to step out before loudly making an inquiry.

"Did you know that there's a Lizard Man who lives in the alleyways?" Chase said, looking around as he continued to speak, "I met him once. He's really cool-- he's got talons and big, pointy teeth. And yellow eyes that glow. He doesn't talk very well, though."

Chase sauntered over to Hokee's side, waiting for him to lead the way. This was so cool. It was like having a big brother, and getting to spend the day with them. Chase was hanging out with a kid that was almost twice his age, which was an exciting concept, for the eight-year-old.

"Do you have any brothers or sister?"

Checking the locks on the door, Hokee was quickly satisfied. With his hand running across the body of his car, he found himself pausing at the curve of the back. "Lizard guy?" The monkey girl in the mansion was freaky enough for him, but if Chase was right about a lizard guy...he didn't even want to think about it. The freaky mutants he could live without...like monkey's and lizard people. The mutant world was starting to look more and more like a video game or some hippie hallucination. This was an aspect of mutants he honestly could live without. Sure Chase would go all weird looking when Taylor was right there, but he at least looked normal 90% of the time.

The thoughts of a lizard man continued to plague his mind as his feet padded across the cold pavement. Did the lizard guy have a normal tongue or was it forked? Sure it wasn't exactly the most important thing to know, but a bit of knowledge knowing how human the thing looked would be a slight improvement. What if the lizard guy jumped up out of some hobo box and tried to jump them? A good kick to the face might happen....

"Eh." Shoving his hands into his pockets, Hokee surveyed the street. "Nope. Not unless the drunken S.O.B knocked up someone else. Don't doubt it, but I don't give a damn." Did his father have relations with someone else? Sure he wasted so much of his own childhood waiting for someone to return that never seemed to care, was it possible there was something his own flesh and blood could be hiding from him? "Probably too drunk to get some action."

>> "Lizard guy?"

Chase grinned, far more enthusiastic about the Lizard Man than his older cohort. He nodded his head in affirmation, and said, "Yeah, a lizard guy. He was all big and green and he could climb on the walls."

The two boys wandered out onto open sidewalk, with Hokee in the lead and Chase following close behind him.

>> "Eh Nope. Not unless the drunken S.O.B knocked up someone else. Don't doubt it, but I don't give a damn. Probably too drunk to get some action."

Chase understood perhaps half of what Hokee had said. Chase wan't acquainted with terms like "knocked up" or "action" in that context, but he understood that the reply was a negative. No siblings. He understood that drunk people acted silly, that people liked to drink alcohol, but if they drank too much then they got headaches.

"Oh," Chase replied. And that's where the inquiry fell. He was going to say that he had siblings, but he didn't know if you regarded old siblings as your siblings after you got a new parent. Was he an only chlid, or did he still have a brother and sister? Hmm... "Do you want a brother or sister?"

Pushing the door open to the store, he could hear the little bell ring over his head. Somehow this just seemed very out of place. With the walls full of paintball guns and other recreational 'war' toys, the little dingle of metal was wildly out of place. Thankfully it was just bells, not mistletoe or anything to holiday theme. Nothing against decorations and all, but in a shop like this they just didn't seem to fit, unless it was zombies. Now zombies or monsters in a paintball shop, those were highly acceptable.

"Alright slugger, ready to arm yourself?" Paintball guns were wicked cool, maybe one day he would move up in life and go for the real stuff, but for now paint guns were perfect for him. Spray paint was a blast, so why not shoot balls of paint at people? Slinging an arm around Chase, he sunk himself more down to the kid's level. "The sky is the limit."

He could be stretching the truth slightly, but whatever, it didn't matter to much. Where there was a will there was a way. Where there was a way, there was success...even if there were negative outcomes later down the road. There was some money in his wallet, and there had to be a credit card in someone's pocket or something if he needed it. Worse case, he would find a way to get the goods out of the store.

Giving a pat on the back, Hokee rose to full height as his own eyes lurked about the store in a fit of lust. So many wonderful things littered the walls, so many things that would be awesome draped over his body. Even shoelaces looked good, and he didn't even need any. Finding Chase something good was the key, he just had to restrain himself until after they found something for him. Something that would totally tick off Taylor....ah life was great.

Chase trailed after Hokee into the store, wide eyes roving around the unfamiliar place awe-filled and a small smile touching his face as he surveyed the various guns and supplies, ranging from small plastic containers to armor. Chase drew closer to the older, uncertain of where to go or what to do. Hokee wheeled around and crouched down to Chase’s level, looping an arm around his shoulder.

>> "Alright slugger, ready to arm yourself? The sky is the limit."

Chase grinned and nodded, and gave an enthusiastic, “Yeah.”

Of course, Chase would have agreed to just about anything that an older boy would have asked of him, especially if they called him “slugger”. Hokee gave Chase a pat on the back before rising, looking around for weapons unknown. Chase also looked around, but didn’t really know what he was looking for.

"Wh-where to first?" Chase inquired.

The look in Chase's face was much like the very look he had upon the first stashed 'naughty' magazine under his bed. Of course things were wildly different, indecent flesh showing opposed to paintball supplies. Taylor would have to thank him later for paintball gun instead of the Lindsey Lohan issue of men's favorite bunny ear magazine. That would have to wait till the kid was thirteen, that might be a good age to introduce him to that sort of stuff. Still, the look on his face was priceless right now.

"A gun." It seemed like the best thing to get first. From that he could figure out the rest. Plus if he was really going to get Chase decked out, he had to figure out what style the guy needed. He obviously couldn't afford all of the stuff in one shot, but if he figured out the gun part the rest would slide into place....hopefully.

"Small, quick, swift...stealth." Rubbing his hands together, he started to slither his way around other customers. Finding the right size gun was going to be one challenge, but he didn't want to get one of those really baby ones. This was a man's sport, even if Chase wasn't really a man man yet.....half a man maybe. "Its got to feel right, like its really your hand and not something else."

Pulling a few dreadlocks back from his face, his fingers started run across some of the guns on display. A whistle here and there and squatting a plenty. Picking up one, he started to shift it about, giving it a feel in his arms before putting it back down. "Ever hold this stuff?"

>> "A gun… Small, quick, swift...stealth. Its got to feel right, like its really your hand and not something else."

“A gun,” Chase echoed, nodding his head. The rest, he reiterated in his head. With how Hokee was slinking around other customers, it would’ve been easy for a person of slight stature to lose track of him if they got distracted, particularly with all of these taller people around him Chase looked at his hand as Hokee described how the gun should feel like an extension of his hand, not as if it were just the instrument that it was.

There were paintball guns displayed in neat little rows, much like how certain electronics stores would have displayed cameras or laptops. Hokee plucked up a gun and surveyed it briefly, before setting it down. Chase followed suit, though less commitally. He poked at the gun, scrunched his face up slightly as if suspicious of the thing, and poked it in the other direction. It looked really cool, but he wasn’t too sure about touching it quiet yet.

>> "Ever hold this stuff?"

“Nuh-uh,” Chase confessed. The Townsends hadn’t been big on unrefined sports such as hunting or paintballing. They preferred much more refined endeavors, such as lacrosse, church social groups, and the likes. Never paintballing. Chase stared at the gun a moment longer, before hesitantly picking it up. He looked around, as if expecting sirens to go off, yet none came. So he looked at the gun, looking thoroughly at a loss, before setting it back down. He just didn’t get it.

Hokee continued to walked down the aisle trying to find the perfect gun, though his eyes would glance back towards Chase to see how he was doing. Taking him out like this was not exactly something he would normally do, but it was something. Chase didn't seem to be getting into this as much as he anticipated. This was a bummer. Maybe once he actually found the right one and felt it fire, things would have to change then.

While trying to find another gun, he saw Chase giving a try on a gun. If the sight of that didn't scream out awkward, well he wouldn't know anything else that might top that. If he gave Taylor a hug that would be very awkward, plus it would make one of the two melt into a pile of acid. Picking up a smaller gun, he held it out for Chase. "Give this a try." If he could figure out the right length, then that would help him to find the perfect model. Maybe the place did custom orders as well. Of course he'd have to figure out where they would hold them, break into the store and steal it.....

"How'd the other one feel?" He needed to know some information, if he had that then he could at least figure out what Chase liked. Figure out what he liked, get an idea of size....this was starting to feel like shopping for shoes or something. To bad his arms didn't come with an imprint of what size he wore. Shirt tags though would help figuring out the armor and such though, so at least it wasn't a complete loss. "Don't forget to feel the trigger action."

Chase wasn't nearly as enthused about shopping for a paintball gun, largely because he had no idea what he was looking for or what he was doing. He was just pretending he knew what was going on. Hokee picked-up on this and passed a smaller gun to Chase, which the younger boy excepted readily.

>> "Give this a try."

Chase held the other gun. It was easier to wield because it was smaller than the first. Chase tilted the gun, surveying it.

>> "How'd the other one feel? Don't forget to feel the trigger action."

Chase squeezed the trigger. There was a little resistance, but he could pull the trigger well enough.

"It was too big," Chase mumbled, uncertain of what observations would be apt for the situation, "My arms are too short."

He looked over to Hokee inquiringly, "How do I know if it's the right one?"

How would Chase know if the gun was right? Easy! "Its like underwear, you put it on and feel it." That didn't really make sense, but oh well. He didn't have all the answers to the world, even if he tried to portray that he did. It was very difficult being his age. Expecting to know stuff, knowing stuff he shouldn't know and not knowing the things that he should know. Life of the typical teenager, just add in there a bit more angst and mutations.

"Just have to try until it feels right." He couldn't explain it, this was just how things were. To explain how it should feel would be like giving details on how to exactly make out or what it felt like having the perfect car under your body. You just had to do it, no questions but just feel it. Or was it like finding your niche in the sociological cliques and such? This was way more complicated then he had anticipated. He should just pick out a gun that made the kid look cool. He certainly needed that. With the shaggy hair and how his face could go all blank and stuff.

Reaching up high, he plucked a smaller paintball gun. Rocking it in the cradle of his arms, he tested out the weight and balance. "You need to be able to hold it and run, so you got to, you just have to find how it molds with your body. Offering this new gun, there wasn't much more he could do other then play the wait game.