Chapter 1: Desperate Measures

The girl shifted her feet. She was getting tired of waiting. Nobody had shown up in about an hour. And it was getting dark. She sighed as she thought of gathering her few belongings and retreating to give up

for the day when she heard footsteps approaching. She turned and saw just what she had been waiting for. This was her chance! She took a quick look at him. Well, he certainly had some sense of fashion, and the somewhat flashy clothes really weren't her taste, but it didn't matter. Someone had come, and she could finally see if tonight she'd be luckier.

"Excuse me sir, could you spare some change for a hungry girl?" She asked with the most adorable set of cat-eyes she could make.

"Gah! Get away from me, you filthy land-dweller! Don't touch me, or you will be scraping for crumbs in a prison cell!" And with a huff and smug frown, he tugged at his clothes even though she wasn't even close to him as if her mere presence was poisonous. The purple-clothed troll walked away with undeserved pride and left the cat-like troll all alone in her dark alley.

She looked down with disappointment as she realised that she would not be having dinner tonight. She walked back to her allay, the only light coming from the distant and malfunctioning streetlights. She consoled herself by reminding herself that she wouldn't be all alone, as she looked at the cardboard box that held a small, white kitten she had named Pounce de Leon. Pounce was her only friend in this hostile and unforgiving jungle of a planet.

"Come on, Pounce, let's go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a new day, we can try again!" She cheerfully said to her loving pet. She had learned to take a positive yet realistic outlook on life on the streets. She knew sulking and giving up weren't going to fill up her belly, and she just had to struggle to survive. Her pet, however, seemed more concerned about the more immediate need to eat, expressed with an angry meow.

"Shhhhhh, be quiet, Pounce! We can't let them find us! Sorry, I couldn't get us any food...just go to sleep, please?" She asked her only friend, and after an annoyed stare, the cat settled in the cardboard box, trying to sleep. Nepeta settled on another, slightly larger box beside it, trying to push away the protesting growls in her stomach. For some reason, she'd been having less and less luck these days...no doubt the increased gang activity made people afraid to leave and streets and have some pity and kindness for unlucky people like her.

Ignoring the distant wailing of sirens, she closed her eyes and tugged at her blue fur coat, another one of her lucky finds during her street years to shield herself from the piercing cold which served as her only blanket, and tried going to sleep. Maybe tomorrow she should try another place, and she'd get some food at last...

====X=======

"Any spare change, sir?"

"No, sorry."

"A few coins, sir?"

"Fuck off."

"A coin for a hungry girl, please?"

This time he didn't even gaze at her.

Nepeta sighed, followed by an angry meow and a grumbling stomach. She hadn't eaten anything in two days, and even then it had been a measly meal. Dirty trash. She'd been lucky to find a half-empty quick-meal box buried in a trash can, which she quickly indulged in, sparing a little for Pounce, plus some scraps and unwanted, day-old meals from more wealthy streets shared between the two cat-eyed creatures. Nepeta knew she was sacrificing herself for her pet, but she'd rather be a little bit hungrier than completely alone.

====X=======

Nepeta was getting desperate. It had been four days since she had eaten anything, and a day without any clean water. Pounce was spending far too much time lying around looking like he was about to give up. Nepeta knew that sometimes life was unfair and that some people had no choice, but she hated stealing and taking things from other people. They worked hard to get them, and she didn't want to take them away from them…but her stomach didn't care. Pounce didn't care. The people she begged didn't care. Her legs, sneakily approaching the store didn't care. If she didn't eat very soon, she'd die. She figured that would be worse than some random store losing some merchandise.

Despite her reluctance, she was very skilled in breaking and entering buildings. Her cat-like behaviour made her silent, agile, helped her see in the dark, and gave her quick reflexes. Every so often she wondered if she was a mutant, and if that was why she was in the streets. But now was not the time for this, she had to focus.

With her sharp claws, her weapon of choice (and her only weapon of choice), she slowly removed the screws from the vent grates. She left Pounce just outside, in a back alley. She knew he wouldn't run away…he didn't have the energy to do so. She crawled inside and started roaming around until she found her target: a nice looking meat shop, closed down and abandoned. Even though it was dark, the cold coming from the place told her the refrigerators were left on to keep the meat fresh. Even though the meat would be a bit too cold to enjoy, she'd take it anyway.

She slowly crawled out of the vent, making sure to step lightly. She looked around quickly to see if there were any security systems here. Nothing so far…cameras? Wait…they were pointed in the wrong direction. If she moved quickly, she could move to the opposite corner before they turned. Before the camera caught up, Nepeta was already underneath it, invisible to the system. She saw another pointing right at the door that held the meat, locked up of course. Didn't matter, that wasn't her objective. It was the meat left on the counter and on the other side of the glass displays that she wanted. Shops were getting sloppy, she thought to herself.

In two quick and well-timed jumps, she found herself in front of the largest meat display she had seen in a whole year. She couldn't help but drool a bit in front of all that delicious meat. She didn't care about making it obvious. She stashed as much meat as her pockets could fit, holding one piece in her mouth, already half chewing it, and packing as much as she could. Always carefully doing it between camera switches, she quickly took enough meat to ration for a month. She hated doing this, but it was so worth it.

Nepeta quickly jumped back to the vent grate, not even bothering to close it behind her as it meant releasing the meat. She could almost hear Pounce meowing in painful hunger from here. Now, it was just a matter of fitting in there with all the loot, and then-

"That's a snazzy looking coat you got there. Where you'd get it, motherfucker?"

In a flash, Nepeta turned, released the meat, extended her glove claws and pounced on whatever was standing behind her and pinning it to the ground as she showed her fangs and growled at the source of the voice. But she wasn't expecting this.

A troll with messy hair, long curved horns, and…clown makeup on his face. Somehow the clown makeup, which might've looked silly in any other situation, only made her more unnerved right now. That wasn't helped by this distant look and smile on his face. He seemed to be a little too relaxed about the whole situation. Nepeta had no idea what to make of him, but she certainly didn't trust her.

"Whoa, calm down there, I ain't gonna scare you. Just chill, dudette." He said with a slightly raspy voice, and with a swaying tone that Nepeta found suspicious. One thing was for certain, his breath was ghastly.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, straight to the point. She didn't want to use her claws, but she would if she needed to defend herself. Just then, she heard a very low meow from the end of the vent. She realised Pounce was still waiting for her. She needed to get out of here quick.

"Whoa, hold up, sister, don't worry. I wasn't doing anything suspicious. I was just looking for some motherfucking pie, but I can't find it anywhere." Nepeta looked at him oddly. He seemed harmless, but he couldn't let her guard down.

Just then, she realised that she had tackled someone in the middle of the store and the cameras were pointed straight at them. Not just pointed at them, frozen in place. That's when she heard the mall doors opening loudly.

"Come on, Captor, they're going to get away! I can smell then, they're still here." A female cop was heard in the distance.

"It'd help if you didn't insist on making me ride on the roof on the way here, Pyrope!" The male partner said, with a slight lisp in his lips.

By now Nepeta had jumped off and ran back in the vents. She was crawling quickly, as fast as her limbs could carry her. Soon enough she found her exit, with Pounce waiting for her with weak eyes.

"It's okay, Pounce, it's okay, I've got food." She reassured the cat as she patted its head, and took out a small piece of meat and gently fed it to the cat as quickly as she could. When she saw the cat taking a bite, she smiled, glad that he understood that they'd be okay. She quickly grabbed the box and turned around to escape the alley and hopefully sneak around the cops, but standing just a metre away was that same troll that she saw in the store. Just…standing there.

"What do you want?" Nepeta asked, already checking behind her for an exit, a window, a fence to jump over, anything.

"…I'm really hungry." He replied, eyeing the meat hanging from Nepeta's coat. "And I haven't had some good pie in weeks…"

"Okay, just take some meat and leave!" She said as she hurdled a large chuck straight to the clown's face, and took the chance to run straight past him, but she was stopped straight in her tracks as from the shadows another troll jumped in front of her.

"You're not going anywhere!" The troll in front of her said in a rough and used voice, and even though he looked about as short as her, she could tell he was prepared to take her on. He was holding a sharp sickle in his hand, and from the looks of it, he was quite skilled with it.

"Pyrope, they're outside, hurry up!" They all heard and turned their eyes on the crudely parked police car just a block away, reminded that they were still being chased by the cops.

"Shit!" The short troll said, he quickly turned back to the cat-girl in front of him and his partner behind her, just now having stood up from the slab of meat. "Come on, Gamzee, let's go! And if you want to survive, run with us!" He shouted at Nepeta as the two male trolls ran as fast as their legs could carry them away from the cops. Nepeta, a little too worried about getting away and shocked, felt no choice but to follow them as they went down through the hallways they knew far better than any law enforcement officer.

They heard the siren of a cop car approaching them as soon as they cleared the first street. They ran for ten minutes, panting and keeping themselves warm on a chilly night with a tiring getaway. Nepeta struggled to not lose anything, and ended up beneath a dark bridge when the three of them decided to take a break. The short troll, who had nubby horns, took a brief look outside, wondering if they had lost them. After a few seconds, he seemed satisfied and turned back to his partner and the stray girl, who was still holding her box with a cat in one hand and slabs of meat on the other, looking relieved but exhausted.

At this point, her stomach was just too weak to keep her standing, and she collapsed on her knees, dropping the cat and the meat. She was just too tired. She was hungry and her legs hurt. And even though she had no idea who these two trolls were and what they'd do to her, she still feel flat on the ground, hearing only a loud thud and Pounce protesting as well. She only remained vaguely conscious for a few minutes.

"Shit. Gamzee, help me carry her."

"Sure. What we are gonna do with her?"

"I don't know. But we might need her. I think she's a good one."

"Honk!"

"Don't do that! Just help me move her. Jegus, she's heavier than she looks."

Once again, Nepeta didn't know when, where or how she would wake up. She just hoped that it was somewhere safe.

==X===X=====

"Dammit, Captor, they got away!" Terezi shouted as she looked around the streets but saw no signs of the burglars.

"Why are you blaming me?" Sollux shouted, clinging to the roof as his partner insisted. He cursed his stupid red and blue glowing eyes. This was worst that the hazing he got in training, except this time he'd be in big trouble if he blasted her. "Maybe if you could actually SEE where they were going and not taking those twisty streets, we might've got them!" He reprimanded her, really wishing he had stayed at the station tonight.

"Hmmm! Still, at least we got video of them." Terezi reassured herself as she sat back on her seat and left the car parked right on top of the bridge for a minute. She called back the station on the radio, and asked for confirmation.

"Positive. Two suspects. Image is fuzzy but we'll see if we can identify them by morning and see if they got profiles." A robotic voice answered from the other end.

"Gotcha. Too bad they got away, we might've served sweet justice so swiftly!" Terezi said with a huff, disappointed in an unsuccessful pursuit. She was getting tired of not catching any criminals, and the bipolar weirdo clinging to the ceiling wasn't helped. She didn't like new guys much.

But at the least she had to suspects on camera, two thieves that could be brought to justice and pay for their crimes! So far they only had two on camera, but she smelled three trolls running away from them. She hoped they had a good find this time, even if it was just carelessness from their part. "Okay then. Unit 6-1-2 abandoning pursuit. Heading back to HQ." Terezi said and turned the radio off. It looked like this was it for today. "Hold on tight, Captor!"

"Holy shit, Pyrope, you better kill me with your driving because I'll get to you first if you don't!" Sollux shouted from above, getting really tired of this new partner. He heard stuff about her, but he never thought she'd be this bad.

"Hehehe, you're funny when you're angry!" She said as slammed the gas to keep Sollux busy clinging to life, his shouting making them deaf to the sounds of two young trolls dragging a cat-girl thought the streets, and into the shadows.