Issue 1 Downtime

At night, Murphy had taken to going out onto the quad in full out fuzzy mode. She ran around and chased small animals and sniffed things and did all the things that I guess you would expect a relatively tame werewolf to do.

But lately, she'd just been laying underneath the trees. She looked sedate. Almost depressed.

Every now and then she would let out a mournful howl at the moon, a howl filled with worry and loneliness.

She missed Janice.

"Do you want to wake the neighborhood?" Nate asked, stepping into view. He was in full-out fuzzy mode as well and he was eyeing Hannah as if he wasn't sure how she'd react.

Murphy lets out a half-hearted growl, her hackles raising at the sight of Nate.

"Oh please," Nate said with a laughing snort. "Are you irritated because I didn't notify you that I was going to be treading on your territory?"

Hannah snorts, relaxing a little bit. She eyed Nate a bit suspiciously for a moment, but then shifted, the large wolf being replaced by an equally large girl in an X-Team's training uniform.

"Maybe," Murphy grumbles.

"So would it make you feel better if we hashed it out in feral combat?" He was still smirking, not easy for someone with a wolf muzzle to do.

"No," Murphy says, "Would you?"

"Would I hash it out or would it make me feel better?" He settled onto the ground. "The answer to the former is 'potentially', the answer to the latter is 'not particularly' since it's not my territory."

"Not mine," Murphy says, "Not really."

Murphy relaxes a bit, "Too many enemies. Pretending to be friends."

"I watch new people. Carefully."

"I can understand that. But what does your nose tell you?"

"You're new," Murphy says, "Shifter. Strong. Confident. Old. Tala's dad."

"Excellent, well except the old bit." He laughed.

"Older than me," Murphy points out.

"Point taken," Nate said. "So how is fuzzy life treating you?"

"Good," Murphy says, "You?"

"Pretty good." He tilted his head to look at her, "But I didn't get 'good' out of that howl earlier. Is something wrong?"

Murphy let out a heavy sigh, "It's...complicated."

"Worried about someone."

"I know how that is. If you need to talk, I'm all ears." He grinned and flicked one of his canine ears. "I mean seriously, look at these things."

Murphy gives Nate a small smile.

"My...girlfriend," Murphy says, "She disappears sometimes. Gets in trouble."

"I know she can defend herself, but it worries me."

"I'm one of the poster children for disappearing and getting into trouble," Nate said. "And my wife gave me the third degree every time it happened."

Murphy nods, "Not angry. Just worried. Scared."

"Don't like being scared."

"Nope. It hits you right where the wolf wants to react. Makes you want to tuck your tail between your legs and that's not a comfortable feeling."

"Flight," Murphy grumbles, "Hate flight."

"Which only leaves one response in that equation."

"Not supposed to fight people," Murphy says, "I promised Janice."

"Quite right, quite right," Nate said, getting a thoughtful look on his face.

"What do you teach?"

"Nothing these days. I used to teach History and I occasionally did one-on-one tutoring for feral shifters. Now, I work for X-Corp."

Murphy nods.

"What are you studying here?"

"Library sciences."

Nate blinked a minute as he processed the concepts and put them all together in the form of this young woman. "Nice. So what would you say if I could get you some stuff to fight that wasn't people?"

"What?" Murphy asks, perking up with interest.

"Robots or some sort of fantasy critter. Granted, it's all Danger Room fakery, but it takes the edge off," Nate said.

Murphy tilts her head back and forth for a moment.

"...Sure."

Nate got up and walked in the direction of the Danger Room. "This way then."