Snippet #2380126

After passing the bajillionth trashcan, Storm decided to take a quick peek inside. Empty and flawlessly clean.

"A clean trashcan? Definitely something wrong with this place," He muttered to himself, trying to see the humor in the situation. It worked a little bit.

Of course being giddy from an adrenaline high might have also helped. It was just weird to feel giddy when he was running for his life, and starving on top of that. If that trashcan had had food in it he probably would've ate it. Scratch that, he definitely would've ate it, even though the thought of it made him grimace.

What a glamorous life a mutant escapee had. Maybe he'd write a book and that would be the title. A Mutant Escapee's Glamorous Life. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts; hunger or exhaustion was making them wander erratically and he needed to focus. He trotted steadily down the street and concentrated hard on listening and looking and generally being attentive.

He failed spectacularly at it.

He didn't see the girl until she was in his face, and even then it was just a white and tan blur coming at him at a dangerous speed. In that endless millisecond his instincts screamed at him to attack, to knock that thing back before it got too close and then beat the crap out of it, but his eyes and brain slowed everything down and he saw a girl with panic on her face, wings out behind her, flailing helpless against her own speed as she headed straight for him. No danger, no attack. He froze -a comically surprised look on his face- and she slammed into him.

They both crashed to the ground hard and though he managed to yank his hands out of his pockets in a last minute panic, he landed on his back anyway, and hard at that. He grunted in pain with the impact as the air was knocked out of him. It was silent and still for a moment while he gasped quietly for breath, waiting for the pain from his fairly minor injuries to recede to a dull throb.

"Ow," he said, voice strained. He'd live. He grimaced as the girl's wings drooped on either side of him, blocking his vision.

Oh right...the girl.

The reason he was down here on the ground having a heart attack and seeing stars. He felt a flash of irritation and then anger, completely unreasonable but it was there. He was silent for a moment while he told himself it was stupid, then it melted away and he started to lever himself up onto his elbows, careful not to shove the girl off of him. That wouldn't be nice.

"You okay?" He finally asked, tone hesitant and guarded.. but strangely relieved. From what he could see, she was young, at least five years younger than him. Something about her was familiar... he'd probably seen her at some point in the labs, but he had no memories and no name to attach to the vague sense of familiarity. Point of the matter was, that she was another person... in fact, another bird kid. The hard knot of unease in his chest loosened up and he started to feel giddy again, but this time it was probably just from pure relief.