Topic: Moving on.

CopperStiel

Date: 2011-10-16 13:41 EST
It had been years since she was home. Truly home, the caves and cages she had spent all her life avoiding had found her. The 5'6 human feline had been wandering for months, trying to hitch a ride back to Rhydin.

Her clothes had been torn and her face was dirty, from having to sleep in ditches and fight for her safety. Her bare feet carried her; finally, to the edge of her drive way. Staring up at the ramshackle remnants of her dream home. She could feel a pit growing in her stomach, seeing it now.

The pavement was all but dust now, crumbled and weathered, the once lush green grass was now turned over and brown from animals using it for whatever reason. The front steps had sunken into the ground, the windows, doors, and garage was all boarded up.

Blue, it used to be blue with white shutters and roses growing along the fence, which was simply gone now. Pulling off a board from the front door she coughed as the wind carried out the stagnant, musty air from within.

The door, it seemed, had been broken off its hinges, laying squarely with the frame in front of her. She ducked in, standing on the door, the soft, white carpet she had used to love to lay on after a hard days work was now brown and stiff,

The glass table to her right lay in broken pieces on the floor like a jigsaw puzzle. The screen door was torn and the glass shattered, but still standing within the bent frame of the slider. Thin beams of light snuck through the cracks in the boards, hitting the broken pieces of her life.

The pictures on the walls had all been shattered and reduced to clumps of unrecognizable paper. Her furniture had all been taken, the couch, the television, all of it, gone. She stared at what used to be her kitchen, a hole in the ceiling allowed the sun to cast one large spotlight down on the weathered counter, the tile floor faded and broken.

She walked down the hallway past the kitchen, stopping for a moment at the first door on the left. "Max." She whispered, her voice-sounding alien in this once vibrant home. She held back the tears as her hand reached for the doorknob.

A memory flashed in her mind;

"Maxwell! You had better be ready young man!" Her voice came from the kitchen, she could hear a giggle as she crossed to the little boys room. "Max?" She opened the door and was immediately knocked over by a short storm trooper.

She pushed open the door to their bedroom;

He smiled at her, his crystalline blue eyes looking her up and down. The cotton robe around her skinny frame held nothing he hadn't already explored, but everything he had always wanted. "You are going to make us late again." He scolded, his voice full of laughter.

"I don't understand why we have to go in now, it's supposed to be our weekend off." She pouted, grinning as he moved closer. A strong arm around her waist and he picked her up as though she were a feather.

"Let me help you get dressed then."

The two had begun to giggle, like high school children as the door closed behind them.

She stepped towards the bed, which was little more than a dirty weathered mattress and bent iron frame, and heard a crunch. A black frame facing down on the floor lay under her foot.

She slumped to the floor, turning over the picture, their faces smiling at her from the past. She put a finger to the aged paper and traced the jaw line of her mates face, then seeing her boy's smile she let the tears fall, holding the picture to her chest, she began to sob.

CopperStiel

Date: 2011-10-16 21:49 EST
She hadn't moved for hours. Sitting on the dusty floor of her room, arms hugging her knees to her chest, her long tricolored blonde and copper hair creating a makeshift cloak around her.

She knew she had to get up, she had to stop crying and pull herself together, but with each thought, with each movement she felt another wave of sadness rush over her.

She had made it to the bed, or what was left. Falling on it, the frame broke, causing her to gasp, the noise echoing through the empty house, and as the noise faded she began to cry again, harder this time.

She cried until she had no tears left, and the thought of no tears she cried even harder. Her chest felt heavy, her heart being pain into her body.

Still holding her family picture to her chest, she finally decided to put it down, facing it downward on the mattress she pulled herself up, looking to the closet of dirty, forgotten clothes she'd left behind.

She rummaged through, finding a pair of tall high-heeled boots she'd worn when she'd met him;

It was late at night when she walked into the Inn. She was on assignment, a test as to how far she would go to prove her loyalty to the Darksiders Guild. She was dressed in a sleek black strapless dress that stopped mid thigh, her stiletto boots made the look, stopping mid calf.

With her hair done up, a couple wisps hanging down, she had been fully prepared for this mission. Simply meet her handler, and answer a few questions. There was a catch, however, she had to rob him, without him ever knowing.

Having taken a seat at the bar, she scouted the place using a compact she kept in her bra, a clever hiding place for all sorts of things.

She saw him sitting in the corner, smoking a cigarette, his face hidden by the shadows. He was dressed in a suit, no tie, a couple top buttons of his shirt un-done.

No doubt, she was already curious, but by the hair on the back of her neck standing she could tell this was the guy. Call it women's intuition. She slipped from her seat, and walked passed him, pretending to see another friend, it was her tail that did most of the 'attention getting' work, gently touching his knee as she strolled by.

He caught up with her later that night, after the girls she'd befriended, her decoys, had left. They passed the usual small talk;

"Hey, let me by you a drink." His eyes had caught her first, for a second, off guard. The brightest of blue.

"Shaken, not stirred please." She answered, and smiled pleasantly at the look on his face.

"Oh! I..uh?" He faltered just long enough for her to answer.

"..You weren't expecting me?" She smiled at him with those bright green eyes and watched as he composed himself.

"Yes, I was..expecting you?just not"you.." They both had to laugh at this. The silliest of banter.

Two martinis and a dozen smiles later and their small talk shifted from business, to pleasure, to the mission, and around again.

It was while walking out with him that something changed. She'd gone in expecting to get what she wanted. But as she went to reach for his wallet, he kissed her.

And the fireworks exploded in her mind.

CopperStiel

Date: 2012-03-11 15:49 EST
Copper stared at the picture of her family. A flash of lighting outside the window startled her, She chuckled nervously as she stood.

A small black form lept to the window sill, it's large yellow eyes staring at her as it moved to the floor, shaking the water from it's fur. Copper stared at the cat, something suddenly clicked as she knelt down, offering the beast her hand.

The cat paused a moment before creeping forward to sniff her fingertips. It stared into her eyes and suddenly howled a long meow before using her hand as a platform to get closer to her face.

Copper stumbled back, falling onto her rump, now face to face with this feline she suddenly felt warm. Her ears perked as the cat licked her nose and her tail frizzed as another crack of thunder sounded.

She nuzzled the cat and pushed herself to her feet. Moving to the closet she began to pull out the clothes and shoes and clear the back to revel a small board, partially rotted from water damage. A quick kick and it practically shattered, behind hung a Walther P-22 that she'd hidden their ages ago.

A smile slid across her lips as she grabbed it, checking the clip and walked out to the garage, lifting the heavy door she grinned as she saw her motorbike half covered with a tarp draped carelessly over it.

The cat, who'd followed her gave a soft meow as Copper slid into the black leather seat with a sigh of releif, as if she were afraid it wouldn't be real. She checked for gas and turned the bike around.

The storm had moved along thundering softly in the distance. The bike roared to life, bring with it a scream of laughter from Copper, the fur on her tail bristled as she revved the engine and took off. The road blurred underneath her as she headed for town.

CopperStiel

Date: 2012-03-13 00:35 EST
She rode until she reached the other side of Rhydin. A large pile of rubble stretched before her, weeds and vines curled arund and over what was left of a large medical facility. Remnants of a chain link fence lay twisted and broke amongst the bush. She steps over the rubble untl she reaches what would have been the center of the room, a large circular platform with the remains of broken glass and decayed hoses decorates the surrounding area. She picks up what looks to be an oxygen mask.

"Sir, Subject Nine is ready for release." A bald man in a lab coat looked up as the short skinny intern pushes thick coke bottle glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Release her then, get her into prep for the first feild test."

The young man nodded and rushed off as the bald man returned to his writting. The whirring and splash of water drew his attention as the large cylinder began to lower into the platform below. Hoses began to release and alarms began to sound as men in scrubs began to lift the unconscious woman onto a gurney.

"How are her vitals?" The bald man asked as he set his pen down and approached the gurney, shining a light into the womans eyes and mouth, touching her arms and tail. He ony startled a moment when she suddely seized and gasped for air.

Nervous laughter filled the room as she began to move and lift herself up to a seated position. The man hushed them and placed a hand on the woman's back. "How are you? Copper?" He asked, his voice was gruff and the question seemed to be asked more out of habit than caring.

"F...F..Fine..." She stammered a moment before looking at him squarely in the eyes. Her pale blue eyes seemed to almost glow as she stood, her legs feeling sturdy and powerful, she felt strong, and stood up straight as the men began to dress her in white scrubs that fit her surprisingly well.

The bald man smiled at her and allowed two men to walk her towards a large door that read "Testing Area" She suddenly got a flash of something and felt a white hot pain between her eyes.

Her sudden jolt backwards, startled the men, the next moves terrified them. As each grabbed at her to subdue her, she struck one in the face, breaking his nose, the other got a foot to the throat.

The other's began to follow procedure, sounding alarms and grabbing tazers and guns. "Don't shoot her! Keep her alive!" The man that had been prodding her yelled as gaurds came bursting in through the doors.

A tazer and a hit to the head would catch her off gaurd and knock her out, but only for a few minutes, They had just placed her in the cylinder before she began to wake. Kicking the glass and pulling on the oxygen hoses inside the tank she screamed and growled in protest.

"Set her for termination." The bald man said with dissapointment, looking up to Copper in time to see her break the glass, a smile crept across her lips as she began throwing shards of glass as the panicking scientists like darts, hitting hearts, necks and sometimes just catching them at the knees, leaving them to cry out in pain.

She breathed in the smell of blood and felt her skin prickle with adrenalin. Approaching the cowering man who'd sentenced her to death, he backed up against the wall, turning his head away from her.

She reached a hand to the side of his face and with a simple motion she grabbed the sides of it head and flung it to the left hard enough to hear the delicious snap of his neck.



Her smile remained as the echoes of screams faded into the passed. Dropping the oxygen mask she stepped over to a pile of rotted papers, Sifting through them she found her file. A little beaten up , but salvagable, she scooped it up and removed the papers damaged beyond repair and returned to her bike.

The sky changing from the inky blackness to a dim purple then to the brilliant pinks and yellows of the morning. As she moved closer to town, she passed a river, the water reflected the colors of the morning and the sound was the only invitation she needed.

Parking the bike along the road, she couldn't move quick enough, diving in with all her clothes on, she swam to the bottom before pushing off with her feet, shooting to the surface startling whatever birds had been bathing on the bank.

After a few moments she climbed up onto a rock, letting her feet dangle in the water she removed her clothes and began to wash what dirt she could out of them. She needed to be clean if she was going to find work, tearing her pants mid thigh, she tossed away the mangled parts.

Her shirt wasn't as white as she wanted, but that would be no matter once work found its way to her. Her new life was making her excited, the more she thought about all the things she would accomplish, the more she forgot the saddness of her past.

It would be a new life for her. And with that thought she layed back on the rock, and fell asleep soaking up the much appreciated sun.