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The dog spun, spotting her, and it was almost comical watching its reaction.  It wasn't often that most people saw a living, breathing dinosaur running around and she was used to reactions ranging from surprise to wonder to terror and something all of the above.  All of the above seemed to apply, in this case.  At least the reaction confirmed her impression that the dog was, in fact a mutant.  Now, how exactly did one appear non-threatening when one had a mouth full of very sharp teeth and a pair of very sizable sickle claws upon each of one's back?  It wasn't easy.

The question became less of an issue when the dog changed shape into a very naked and very cold looking human who held his arms up in surrender.  The whole situation struck her as rather humorous and, had she had the vocal ability to do so at that moment, she would have burst out laughing.  Sometimes it was fun to be a little bit terrifying.

Instead of laughing, Amber took this as her que to return to her own human body.  Unlike the stranger's transformation which had been virtually instant her own took around a half a minute and was far from a pretty picture to watch as bones and muscles stretched and contorted as her body forced itself from one shape into another.  At the end of it, she stood as well equally naked but feeling only slight discomfort at the cool night air.  She made no comment nor showed any discomfort at the lack of clothing.  Clothing was, after all, human convention and one that puzzled her at how obsessive they were about it.

"Hello.  I'm not going to eat you."  She cracked a small smile.  As a general policy, she didn't eat mutants. The instincts of a predator might be a part of her, but she was no cannibal.

Some might say there was something immoral about hunting animals that could very well be someone's pet but she disagreed.  She wasn't hunting for sport, she was hunting for food.  Once her prey was caught and killed, she would eat her fill and the rest would go to the many scavengers that lived virtually everywhere.  While in the city, perhaps she didn't need to kill her own prey, but she did need to keep her skills up for those times when killing her own prey was a matter of survival.  Besides, what was the difference between killing one's own food and having someone else do the killing for you?  If anything, it was more ethical to do the deed yourself and have the full understanding of what that deed meant.

As she crept slowly towards her target, something struck her as unusual about it.  Not just the fact that it looked rather healthy for a stray, but something in the way it was acting.  She'd spent enough time in the wild and had killed and eaten enough dogs that she had a good sense of how they were supposed to act and how they were not.  As domesticated animals, they didn't act the same as truly wild beasts, but there was still a pattern and a certain degree of predictability.  This dog did not follow that pattern.  

Halting her progress and watching for a moment, she decided there was something almost human about the way it was walking around and sniffing the air.  Was it possible she had found a fellow mutant who had changed into a dog?  It wouldn't be the first shapeshifter she'd encountered.  With just a little bit of disappointment that she wouldn't be catching any fresh meat for the night, Amber let out a trilling chirp to alert it to her presence.  Food or no food, meeting another mutant shifter could prove interesting.

Whenever life took a turn for the overwhelming, Amber retreated into the things she knew.  Those things, often, involved solitude, night and transforming into a deinonychus and hunting.  Lately, certain events had started to feel a little overwhelming.  Okay, so maybe it was only one specific event that had started to feel overwhelming and that specific event happened to be another change in her powers.  Only a short while prior, she and another mutant had been mugged by a gang of mutant haters.  Death was a very possible conclusion of that unfortunate encounter but death was not the result.  Fortunately for them both.  Instead, she had somehow shifted into the crest and horns of the styracosuarus while still remaining humans.  Her powers didn't work like that.  Or at least, they hadn't.

Maybe others would tell her to simply be happy that her powers had taken on a new and useful change.  After all, hadn't she always felt her human body to be weak and inferior and didn't this newest change now mean she had the means to enhance it?  That might have been true, but she couldn't help but think about the last time her powers had mutated and how that mutation had changed her, forever, into a walking corpse.  What would be the price of newest power?  What curse would accompany it?

To those questions, she had no answers.  Despite that, her brain kept spinning in circles imagining the worst case scenario and almost convinced that some sort of doom was just around the corner.  The only solution was to do something to help get her mind off her problems.

Making her way to a nearby park, one she often spent time in she stripped and hid her clothing in a bush. The cold night air barely bothered her; there were advantages to being half dead.  She then proceeded to change forms into the deinonychus, which she considered to be her second true form, above all others.  It was well past midnight so the chance of being spotted in this form was minimized.  With luck she'd find something to hunt, her usual fare including wild (or escaped domestic) dogs, coyotes, raccoons and deer.  Sometimes she'd go after smaller fair like cats but they didn't provide much sustenance.  Remaining still, she tried to pick up the scent of appropriate prey.

For the second time that night, Amber was handed something appropriate to covering herself with, this time in the form of a blanket, and she loosely wrapped it around her body, making sure to cover the bits people tended to find problematic.  "Thank you.  I'm not cold."  She didn't feel the need to add 'I'm doing this for your benefit only' but that thought definitely did make it's into her thoughts.  Never one to speak without thinking, if anything she sometimes didn't speak enough.

Shiv had questions, she had questions and she could only assume Benji had more questions too.  Whether or not anyone one of them had actually answers might be another matter entirely.  She nodded as the other woman spoke, acknowledging her words.  "If I can answer your questions I will.  As for my own, I don't even know where to start.  How the rift opened, maybe.  Or can I go back through it and return home, but I'm guessing you don't have an answer to those."  

She shrugged when asked how mutants were treated.  "It varies.  Some people don't mind, others mind a lot and violently."  She'd had her share of violent encounters with bigoted humans in her time.  "A lot of humans don't trust mutants but a lot of mutants don't trust humans much either.  I try to stay out of all that."  More successfully back when she lived in the woods; it was hard to avoid living among civilization.  "Is it better here?  Are mutants accepted?"  Or was that a wish too good to be true?

"Ya, the registration act happened.  I was too young to really experience much for myself, but I've heard stories and they weren't good ones."  Her voice was somber.

The scream coming from the man who's shoulder her knife struck was a gratifying sound but not nearly as reassuring as it otherwise might have been if there weren't 6 (5 if you didn't count the man on the ground) otherwise unwounded assailants.  While not the bloodthirsty type, years spent living in the wild and hunting and killing her own prey had desensitized her to blood. Besides, they started this fight and thus deserved anything that came their way.  If they were destined to win this fight, she'd be damned if she didn't take a few of them down with her.

Not for the first time and, likely, not for the last time before the night was over, she wished there was time to change.  As a dinosaur, almost any dinosaur within her repertoire, she could take on any mere human with a knife. Hell, she could take on more than one without any great fear for her life.  With a fellow mutant at her side, especially one clearly equipped with the range she lacked, the little gang of thugs wouldn't stand a chance.  The thought, however, was both fleeting and entirely without point.  No matter how much she might wish otherwise, she was trapped in her weak human body and would have to make the best of it.

"No tolerance to radiation that I know of," she answered, voice even despite the adrenaline and fear racing through her system.  Her eyes didn't waver from the men in front of her.  It wasn't something she'd ever had the opportunity to test but now was definitely not the best time for such a test.  Did the dead have resistance to radiation?  How the hell was she supposed to have the answer to that question?  Maybe, if they managed to survive the night, there might be time to test the answer to that question.

Not about to wait to see if the woman was going to let loose another ray of energy, movement erupted and suddenly 2 of the men were upon Amber, knives out.  For the moment, the man she first struck continued to grasp at his wound, but she knew he wasn't yet out of the fight.She felt the bite of one of the across her ribs and only the agony she'd learned to live with that came every time she changed shape saved her from crying out.  Later, there would be time to concern herself with her injuries.  Ducking, she managed to avoid the bite of the second blade.  First blood might have been theirs, but that wasn't nearly enough to scare their assailants away; if anything it only made them more angry and more determined.  

"Chase?  Oh.  Are you a shifter too?"  If her voice suggested surprise, it did not suggest judgement.  How could she possibly judge given not only her own powers but also her own less than savory appearance.  If anything, it was exciting to meet another shapeshifter.

"Do you just shift into, um, Chase?  Or do you change into other things too?"  Yup, definitely exciting.  She had a barrage of other questions just waiting to come out but it was awfully late at night and that meant he was probably half asleep.  It was probably considered bad manners to interrogate at this time of night, right?  Or something.  Still, it wasn't every day she had the opportunity to meet another shapeshift.  Well, maybe 'meet' was the wrong word.  Discover maybe?

"It's hard for me to shift when I'm tired too.  I usually just stay in whatever form I'm in at the time when going to sleep."  It didn't take any energy to maintain a form, just to change from one to another and that wasn't something she'd ever spent much time actually thinking about.  It was just how things were.  Slipping her bookmark into place, she closed the book she was reading as the younger boy took the nearby chair.

Comfortably sitting as she was and immersed in all manner of literary adventure, she wasn't certain how long she'd been reading.  Hungry but not starving, that gave some indication that at least an hour or two had passed since she'd settled down for the night.  At that late hour, it wasn't unexpected that she'd mostly be left alone.  Of course, there were so many living at the Mansion that there was always someone doing something, but those someones were few and far between in the early hours of the morning.

The pitter patter of feet walking along the floor brought her back to awareness of the world around her.  Looking up from her book, she spotted an unusual looking mutant she'd never seen around before.  Perhaps he was new?  It seemed unlikely that she'd forget such a bizarre looking person.  Of course, given he own less than human appearance, she wasn't one to judge the looks of others but such looks were impossible to overlook.

She was about to introduce herself when the mutant spoke her name?  Did she know him after all?  It didn't seem likely she'd forget someone like that so perhaps it had something to do with his powers?  "Hello.  I'm sorry but I don't recognize you.  You appear to know me, though?"  Tone was calm, imparting no judgement.