The Zoo: The Altered Animal Kingdom

He chuckled taking a few laying them on his head and made hissing noises. "Guess it fits huh." He laughed holding his sides as he pulled out two packs and handed them to her. "Your probably hungrier than I am. Don't you have anywhere to eat and live?" He tilted his head curiously.

She ate some of the worms, laughing. Danielle shook her head. "No, I ran away..." She said. She trailed off, looking to the floor and eating the candy. Her eyes swelled a bit with a pool of tears. Her throat felt like it was only a slit to breath as she held in the sobs.

Jason nodded and smiled. "Well then you can come home with me, My mom won't mind helping you. A roof over your head, food in your belly, etc etc. My mom is use to mutants and this new job she got we don't need to worry about money anymore. He smiled at her and laid a hand on her shoulder. "The past can be a hard thing to forget."

Ace walked around the zoo. He had spent the last hour at the aquarium in the zoo, and figured he might as well check out the rest of the place. Ace wandered over to the giraffes, stopping to lean on the bars. He watched the giraffes as they just stood there, eating. Ace sighed, man... giraffes are boring... all they're doing is standing and eating... he said to himself, looking as the giraffe took another leaf from the tree.

Lynx walked around, bored out of her mind. There wasn't much for electronics here, so the only computer she had come in contact with was the one in the guard's shed. Luckily, it had at least been able to give her enough information to not have to actually read the plates. Looking around, she noticed the boy she had met in GameStop. "Hey," she said as she walked up to the giraffe pit.

Ace kept watching the giraffes, despite the fact that they weren't doing anything. He sighed, slouching down on the bars slightly. Ace turned when he heard someone call. He saw it was the girl from the mall. He grinned, Hey . Ace stood up, turning to fully face her. I see the video game didn't keep you entertained very long. he chuckled.

Danielle smiled lightly. "You sure?" She asked, her voice a bit quivering. She thought for a moment, rubbing her hand over the gauze on her hand lightly. "Do you really want to know why I ran away?" She asked. She knew sooner or later she would have to let the story put- crying or screaming in the process. It was buried in her for months- and the secret kept for years. Slowly, it was already eating her away.

Jason smiled as he nodded, he turned his head slightly as two more people walked up and began talking to each other. The first was a male the second Female and older. Jason looked at Danielle. "I think we have a few visitors visiting the giraffes as well." He had guessed Danielle didn't want others overhearing her confession and the two were close enough to hear even while talking.

Danielle felt her cheeks flush, but she kept her face from blushing. She looked over at the two people, standing with five feet and seven inches and hiding behind Jason to quickly change her features. She took his hand and dragged him towards another exhibit- lions- and behind a tree. She looked like herself- but sixteen or seventeen.

Lynx shook her and and smiled. "Nah. Not enough action I guess. I see the same must have happened for you." She leaned back against the rail and looked at the crowd of people. Really, there wan't much to look at. An elderly couple stood with their grandkids by the hippos. A woman in a jogging suit went by, the music of her iPod a bit too loud. The only thing that stuck out were two kids sitting together on a bench that didn't look a whole lot younger than herself.

Danielle pushed a strand of hair into her eyes, trying to stay as hidden as possible and away from anyone who might recognize her. She walked around the tree, her arms crossed over her chest. She looked around, meeting the gaze of the girl Jason and her tried to stay away from. She quickly looked down, her eye color changing quickly to gray. Danielle sighed, her stomach churning with the cry for food.

Ace chuckled, stretching his arms above his head. "I ended up never getting a game." he grinned "Just couldn't find a good one, ya know?" Ace told her, looking up to the sky. It was a pretty nice day, a little chilly compared to what he was used to though. He watched as the wind carried the clouds on by, then glancing downwards from the sky to Lynx.

Nodding, Lynx looked over at Ace. "Yeah. I guess I'm really not use to this kind of stuff. Where I come from, you really got into the game." Lynx sighed as she remember her home. Since there wasn't much to do for fun in a cave hiding from kidnappers, some of the older ones would sneak out and steal some video game from an unexpecting home or a rich kid's dumpster. The holographics were so real that it felt like you were actually in the game.

Ace raised an eyebrow "Really got into it, huh?" Ace leaned back against the bars of the exhibit. "Oh.... You mean like those virtual reality games, right?" He asked, thinking back to when Nick dragged him to some geek convention. At the convention they had all sorts of new inventions, including virtual reality simulations.

"Uh, sure." Lynx simply said. Of course she couldn't go spouting off about being from the future from this complete stranger. What if he was a Mutant hater? And so what if he is? That's his problem, she told herself. Probably shouldn't be telling that to people anyways. Lynx sighed and looked back over at the two kids. The girl had disappeared, but the boy was still there. "What do you think they're up too?" She asked, jerking her head to indicate the two.

Ace looked at her, that was a short answer.... he thought to himself. Ace shrugged it off, then looking over to where Lynx gestured. He saw the two kids behind a tree, it looked almost like they were hiding. Ace shrugged, "No clue... Maybe they're fugitives hiding from the law!" Ace joked, while chuckling.

Lynx fixed her gaze on the kids. "Maybe." Although she was almost sure that these two weren't fugitives, her mind was giving her other ideas. Especially sense the girl wasn't really the girl anymore. Determining to keep an eye on them she turned back to Ace. "So, did you find your friends?"

Ace looked back to Lynx, while still watching the kids behind the tree out of the corner of his eye. "My friends...?" He said slowly, before realizing what she had meant. He chuckled, "Yea, I found them eventually..." Ace rubbed the back of his neck, while smiling goofily. "I think they have fun ditching me... Then making me run around trying to find them." Ace told her.

"That's good to hear," she said. More and more she would turn to the tree, making sure that the two were still there. The last thing she wanted was to be the one to miss out on the chance to invite some fellow Mutants to the school, or exterminate some rats. Lynx stretched out her fingers before curling them into hollow fists.

Ace chuckled "Yea I guess so" he looked over in the direction of the tree. Seeing that the two kids were still there, he looked back at Lynx. Ace saw her clench her fist slightly. Wondering if it was him that made her clench her fist, Ace changed the subject. "So... Um... What do you think about that new mutant school they've been talking about on the news?"

Smiling, Lynx looked at Ace. "It's actually pretty nice. The food's great, the living space is comfortable. Sharing a room isn't ideal, but I'm use to it so it's not a big problem." She hoped that she wasn't about to scare off the only person she had really been able to talk to while here, but hey, she was just answering his question honestly. Just hope that you don't get Susan, Ghost, or Roan on you for going around spouting off that your Mutant, she told herself. She shrugged inwardly. Lynx was really enjoying not having to hide and be afraid, so so what if some guy couldn't handle her saying she was a Mutant? What was he going to do? Go Cali surfer on her?

Ace looked at her. Out of all the replies she could've given, Ace didn't expect that one. so this chick is a mutant too... awesome! i wonder what she can do... maybe that's why she keeps looking over at those kids... they could be mutants too...
"So then your a mutant?" Ace asked, he already knew the answer but he figured it was better to ask anyways.

Rolling her eyes, but keeping the smile on her face, she answered. "Yeah, I'm a Mutant. Is there something wrong with that?" Lynx asked. She wasn't really getting a vibe that he was disgusted. Maybe if she could 'slip' she could 'accidentally' touch his hand and see what was up. No, no, he'll say it. Mentally she shook herself. It was getting harder to control the urges to go around and check who was a Mutant, who wasn't, what they felt about them, and if they would have a part in the future capturing.

Ace quickly shook his head, "No! Dude, there ain't anything wrong with that! Actually it's awesome!" he told her. Ace leaned in, lowering his voice slightly. "That means your just like me!" Ace grinned, excited to have finally met another mutant. Back home, he hadn't met any; and the ones he saw were chased away before he could get a chance to talk to them.

"Really?" Lynx asked, pulling back to look at him and narrowing her eyes. She was going to be sure to be cautious, but something told her that he wasn't lying. After a few seconds she turned to check on the two kids before turning back to Ace. If he was telling the truth she would ask him to join them back at the academy, but if anything made her doubt she was going to use her powers whether she should or not.