What was I supposed to say? That I'd rather stay the way I had always been than hang around you? [The shadow takes a step forward, its body language weirdly threatening for a scrawny fourteen-year-old who might as well be younger.] Better to have some third-rate company than none at all, right?

[It's not just talking about Sideswipe anymore. How desperate could this guy be for friends to talk to Ginko, of all people?]