And really, who would be going around at such a late hour? Certainly that noise is nothing.

Walta glances in the general direction of the noise.

She considers for a long moment, then unhooks a contraption that doesn't look much like a gun except that it has a stubby barrel from her backpack, sets it on the ground, and goes back to stripping the drink machine - faster.

Over there now.

Okay forget the damn condenser she can't actually tell if there's someone over there - she could make a bioelectric field RADAR if she could only get the parts. Not the time. Not the time. Someone might be here and could see her. Tubing and valves get shoved into backpack. She puts it on and picks up the gun(?) and starts picking her way to the edge of the junkyard, soft mechanical noises coming from the leg-things.

Another noise! And oh look it's a cat! It meows at her.

She lets out a tense breath and laughs softly in release. But no sense pushing her luck - she got a few useful bits and bobs already. The valves and tubing in particular will make an upgrade to the Longlegs a lot easier. She keeps going for the edge of the place and checks to see if anyone is obviously watching as she approaches.

Nope! No on—oh, wait, there's that guy leaning against a pole over there, in shadow, barely visible but looking directly at her, lighting and putting out a lighter methodically.

Great.

Back into the junkyard. She'll leave from a different spot.

She can see him starting to move to follow her from the corner of her eye when she turns back into the junkyard.

So she goes behind a pile of cars and waits a couple of minutes - she'll run out the same way and hope to surprise him in a minute.

He's not there, apparently.

Then she can swap modes and leap over the fence with stored energy and then keep running.

And she will trip over the man's foot, which hadn't been there a moment before.

Trip, her? Nah, there's a weird knee-thing that pops out as she unbalances and recovers her almost by itself. It leaves a dent in the alley floor, though. Back to running, put those long legs to good use.

There's a flash behind her like fire, and then the guy is standing directly in front of her.

Shiiiit. Jump. A more anemic one than before, the springs are wound down now. "Ain't here for trouble! Just parts!"

And who the fuck is this guy - has she heard of him?

Doesn't look familiar. Tall, muscular, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, close-cropped hair. "If you aren't here for trouble, why are you running?"

"S-Strange guy tries to corner girl in dark junkyard. Yeah, I'm running." She adjusts her mask with one hand, shaking, then returns it to the probably-a-gun.

He raises both hands in a 'peace' gesture. "Just wanna talk."

She starts walking backwards slowly. "Okay, talk."

"What are you called?"

"...Let's go with Hopper for now. And you?"

"I'm Will."

"And what do you want here, Will? Because I want to get the hell out of here."

"You're a tinker. I want a tinker."