She stretched her senses outside, trying to detect anyone outside her home. It was dark, and the moon was high in the sky. The stars twinkled like thousands of tiny diamonds. Within a five mile radius, there was no one. Well, not no one. There were two people out, one man with blonde hair and another with silver hair, but they were a ways away and just talking under a lamppost. She didn't try to listen in on their conversation because she didn't think it was worth it. She retracted her senses and jumped up onto the railing before leaping off of it and down onto the concrete flooring. She walked on all fours across her home and to the back door. She stood up and slowly pushed it open. She was still cautious, because what if she had missed something? She shut the door behind her and shoved the giant trash bin in front of the door. She didn't want anyone to sneak in.
There was a reason she was going out tonight. And she was reminded of it as she walked in front of a puddle. She saw her reflection, curly hair and cat ears. She saw her tail swishing behind her and her teeth, the way they gleamed in the moonlight. A wave of frustration and anger washed over her as she once again remembered the Eraser's words.
'People on the outside don't like freaks.'
Out of fury, she splashed her hands into the puddle and clawed at it, splashing more and more the angrier and angrier she got. She started to make grunting noises as she tried to destroy her image, which evolved into roars.
Why couldn't she be normal? Why couldn't she be human? Why did she have to be...this?! She wants to be human, to live like the humans. She's not a freak, and she doesn't want to be treated like one! Why isn't she human? Why did they have to change her DNA? Why does she exist? Her splashing and roars slowly died down as her anger turned to sadness. She collapsed right in front of the puddle, her head resting on her arms as she cried. She cried as she tried to think of a reason for her existence. She couldn't. She had no clue why the whitecoats at the IST had to change her DNA to 49% feline. They do tests to try and make humanity more advanced and to make their lives easier, but how can your life be easier if you're half cat? Half dog? A brain on a stick with a robot body? A being with your organs on the outside of your body? How does this help humanity in any way?!
Slowly, her sobbing creased to a halt as she calmed herself down with a series of deep breaths. She was used to this, to crying uncontrollably and then calming herself down. She would always cry at the School, and, of course, no one was there to comfort her. She only had herself. That's how it's been, but she hopes that that's not how it's going to be. She began walking down the sidewalk as she kept thinking about how she wants to fit in, to become human. But, of course, that could never happen. Her DNA will forever contain 49% of feline. She can /appear/ human, though. She can hide her tail and ears and claws and such. Then she'd be able to walk around amongst humans, and they wouldn't be afraid. They wouldn't be scared of her. Her, the freak. The no-named freak.
She shook off her sadness as she arrived at her destination. At the School, they had taught her to read and speak Italian and English. She believes thar it would come in handy when trying to escape the many Schools all around the world and try to find her own IST-free home. There was no way she could stay here. Yes, she had thought she could, but then she thought some more and realized that there was no way she could stay. It was way to close to the School. But anyways, knowing Italian and English also helped her to read the store signs. And this particular one...well she couldn't quite tell what it was called. Perhaps there are some things she just can't read. The font was all messed up...it looked like there was an 'h' here and a 'z' there...she didn't quite know what it was. But it was a clothing store, and that's all she needed to know. She could see the clothes from the window, and wanted to have them all. But she could only take one outfit for now. As she smiled brightly and looked excitedly through the window, she tried to think of a way in that wouldn't set off any alarms. Her tail twitched excitedly behind her and her ears were perked up and aimed forward. She propped herself up on her back legs as she pressed her hands to the window, claws making tiny clinking noises as they collided with the glass. She was too excited to think of a way in.
She was also to excited to remain cautious, and she had forgotten to keep her senses on to check her surroundings. That was a mistake.
"Dude! There she is!"
Her ears swiveled around to catch the loud, excited whisper.
"Shut up!" A second voice immediately scolded.
She gasped and turned around. Her heart stopped as she saw the two men from before, the ones that were chatting under the lamppost. How stupid she was for not listening! Her eyes widened and her mouth hung open as she started at them in disbelief for a second, shocked that they had snuck up on her. They seemed to be carrying a net and some sort of gun that shoots colorful, fluffy darts. Her tail stiffened and her ears fell back as she recognized the gun. It was a tranquilizer gun. They would use them at the School quite often, sometimes on her, sometimes on a mad Eraser, or sometimes on an experiment gone wrong. Whatever the reason, she didn't like the tranquilizer gun. She also saw him holding a wired looking gun that she didn't recognize. As soon as the blonde man slowly advanced a step, she ran. But she didn't run away, no, she was tired of running and she didn't want these men to mess with her ever again. She knew she had to teach them a lesson.
She jumped onto a giant trash bin on the side of the clothing store and then to the roof of the building. The men stared at her in awe as she stood proudly atop the building. The silver haired man shoved the other's shoulder with his own, and the blonde haired man got the message and aimed the tranquilizer gun at her. He tried to get a good shot, and right as he had lined up with her and was about to hit the trigger, she leapt from the rooftop. All the way from the rooftop, across the street, and to the two men. The blonde man, looking through his scope, didn't see where she was until he lowered his weapon and saw her, claws at the ready and fangs bared as she aimed right for him. Just like with the Eraser. She landed directly on his chest, knocking the wind out of him. But she wasn't going to kill him. Not yet. She merely dug her claws into his chest until she felt blood. Which was soon, actually. She smirked. Humans have such thin skin.
She leapt off of him and to the sidewalk across the street, right in front of the clothing store. She landed on all fours, of course, and started at the stunned man as he scrambled to stand back up quickly. He re-aimed the tranquilizer gun and his the trigger right as she leapt up again. The dart didn't hit anywhere but the ground, and she didn't like that. She didn't like the gun. So as soon as she landed on him, she knocked the gun right out of his hands. It flew aside about five feet, and he stared at it, and then back at her. She scratched his face twice as soon as he turned his head to her, and then she leapt from him to the silver haired one, whom was just standing there like an idiot. She knocked him over and pierced his face. He screamed, but she didn't stop. She was just about to leap off, but her wrists were squeezed by an unseen force. She turned her head and saw the angry face of the blonde man. She squirmed and squirmed, and she managed to loosen his grip some, but he immediately grunted and tightened it.
He spoke in a heavy German accent to the silver haired man. "H-hurry! I can't hold her much longer!"
He blinked and stood to his feet, grabbing the chain net and throwing it over her. The blonde man jumped away just in time, and she used that split second to also jump away, but the metal chains held firm. She growled and tried to lift them. But the men held it to the ground with their feet.
"We actually caught it!" The silver haired man exclaimed, a big smile on his face.
This statement filled her with a new kind of anger. How dare this man call her an /it/?! This anger came from the tip of her toes to her mouth in a roar so loud that it stunned the two men. With her newfound strength, she shoved both of them off and the net as well. From there she ran, but a few seconds after she had started running, she heard a shooting sound and felt a sharp pain in her left thigh. She let out a half yelp, half roar and fell onto her stomach. She looked back for only a second and saw the blonde man holding the strange gun. She didn't waste time thinking about it and scrambled back to her hands and feet and started running again. She didn't care where she went, she just had to get away and figure out what the good looking man had shot into her. Wait...good looking?! What was going through her head? Maybe it was the thing he shot into her. She kept running until she found herself home again. Her legs had apparently carried her in a huge circle around the neighborhood because she ran the exact opposite way she had come. She sat down outside her back door and tried to catch her breath. She reached out and found them in front of the shop. This time, she listened to their conversation. She needed to know what that man had hit her with, because there was no blood or anything. It was as though she has never been hit; this was an insane healing rate even for her. She shut her eyes and angled her ears towards them to hear better.
"Dude! What the hell?" The silver haired one asked. He had fiery red eyes that captured her attention. Maybe he was from the School too...? "Why didn't you shoot her with the tranquilizer dart?!"
"Because," the blonde one answered in a calm tone. But she could tell that he was holding back his frustration. "Now we can track her."
"But brüder, what good'll that do?" He whined.
The blonde one, whom she guessed was named 'Brüder', looked out into the distance, in the direction that she had ran. He had a slight longing in his eyes that was hard to detect. It was as though he was trying to wish her back. He spoke slowly and half to himself. "She's interesting, that's for sure. And I don't want to give up the chase just yet. I want to have some fun."
The silver haired one ignored how out-there the other sounded and kept complaining. "But we were supposed to /catch/ it!"
She scowled at his remark. How dare he call her an /it/! She knew what she was, and he didn't have to rub it in!
"Trust me, we will, Gilbert." Brüder reassured in his deep and heavily accented sexy German voice.
She blinked. Sexy?! "What the hell is wrong with you, brain?" She put a hand on either side of her head and shook her head. This caused her to lose focus on the two Germans. She tried to reach out to them again, but they were gone. She pulled back and just shrugged. She looked back at her leg. Yes, it was completely dark, but she was 49% feline. So she had night vision, of course. She saw no mark at all on her thigh. She thought back to what Brüder had said, 'Now we can track her.' So it was a tracking device...shit. She rubbed her thigh and then stood up and shoved the giant trash bin out of the way. There's no need to worry now, she'll freak out in the morning, when she tried to think of a way in the clothing store. Maybe Brüder will come in handy after all... She pushed the door open and took a step inside before shutting the door behind her and falling onto all fours. As she walked up the stairs and to her basket - that's what she decided to call it, because 'crate' brings back to many painful memories - she thought about what Brüder had meant by saying that he wanted to have fun by trying to catch her. She wondered what he was trying to say...she gasped. Was her doom something he enjoyed? She shook her head. No, that's not it. Or is it? At this point, she didn't know. She curled up into her basket and yawned as a lion would, showing off her fangs before resting her head and closing her eyes. Whatever Brüder had in store for her, she was ready. Perhaps she could stay here for just a little longer and have some fun, too. It's been so long since she's had fun, anyways. And besides, she'll never get caught.
She smiled at her confidence. "I accept your challenge, Brüder."
And with that, she closed her eyes and received a deserved sleep, forgetting all about the tracker. That was a mistake.
She opened up her eyes and found that she was strapped down to a cold, hard, metal table. She blinked a few times, her eyes adjusting to the sudden light that had shown bright in her face. She tried to pull her arms up to shield her eyes, but the restraints held tight. She lifted her head and looked around the room. Her eyes widened and a tsunami of fear and terror washed over her, drowning her within her memories of the School and all its horrible, terrible things that they had claimed were for science. Her breathing quickened as she saw the familiar walls, ugly and bare, and the instruments and tools that they had used on her. A gloved hand forcefully shoved her forehead downward and she only panicked more. She looked over and saw the back of a whitecoat; he was fiddling with the tools. He turned around and revealed a long needle full of a green substance that she didn't know.
The man laughed manically and she gasped when she saw his face. It was unmistakably Brüder's. The slick blonde hair, the piercing blue eyes that were as cold as ice...there was no mistaking it. And when Brüder spoke, all of her nonexistent doubts were out to rest. He used his finger and pulled down the mask that was covering his mouth, revealing a wicked smile. In his thick German accent, he said, "Just relax, this will only hurt...a lot!" He laughed evilly and slowly moved the needle towards her throat.
She tried to break free, but the cuffs of her wrists and ankles wouldn't budge. She began to scream 'no', and that was when she woke up from her horrible nightmare, her eyes snapping open and her sitting up as she continued to yell. She looked around and saw that she was safe, so she stopped yelling and tried to settle her breathing. But as soon as her heart had slowed, it sped up again; a bunch of different thoughts were running frantically through her head. But they all narrowed down to one thought: she had to get away. She had to leave as soon as possible. Brüder was one of them; her dreams had never been wrong when they were warning her of danger.
She jumped out of her basket and hopped onto the railing. She sniffed the air. Something wasn't right. She leapt from the railing and onto one of the hanging ropes. She grabbed it with one of her hands and rested her two feet on the large knot at the end. Looking through a large window, there seemed to be no trouble. She reached her senses all around the front door; no one knew about the back entrance but her. She didn't see anything wrong, so she dropped down from the rope and landed on her hands and feet in a crouching position. She walked over to the back entrance and opened up the door.
Greeting her were two loaded guns, one a tranquilizer and one not, aimed right at her forehead. It was the two men from before, Brüder and Gilbert. They each had the look of a cold, hard killer in their eyes.
"Thank you for giving away your location," Brüder spoke slowly, "now, if you'll just come quietly...?"
She gasped when she saw them and when she didn't respond, they each took a step inside of her home, the blonde one a step ahead of the other.
"B-Brüder..." She whispered. She was right. He was a whitecoat. Oh, but only if her dream had warned her sooner! She could've been gone by now, outta here!
"What?" Gilbert asked. "Speak up, Frau. And no funny business! You make one move I don't like" - he shook his gun slightly - "and I won't hesitate to put you out."
"And I won't hesitate to kill you," Brüder growled, his words stinging like ice. Piercing ice, just like the cold glare of his blue eyes.
When she didn't do anything, didn't speak up, didn't put her hands up, didn't fight back, only stood there in utter shock, Ludwig yelled her commands at the top of his lungs. "Get on the ground!" If you want something done, what better way than to do it yourself?
She blinked and then made a noise that sounded something like a confused growl.
"I said get on the ground!" Ludwig shoved his gun forward and shot the ground right next to her left foot, causing her to jump up and roar. Her tail stood stuff and her ears fell back.
Something clicked in Gilbert's mind and he nudged his younger brother. "Maybe it can't understand English."
This sent anger shooting through her. She was about to yell at him about how she wasn't an it and how she knew English and Italian, but Brüder started walking towards her. He gave his heavy gun to Gilbert and pulled out a handgun as she approached her without hesitation and with an open palm. She made a fist with her hands and raised her left arm, unsure do what he was going to do next. She made a tiny mewling sound as well.
Brüder grabbed her arm and squeezed it tightly. He turned towards Gilbert. "Keep the tranquilizer aimed at her." Gilbert nodded and Brüder put his hand gun away. He started to pat her down to check for weapons, but she didn't know what a pat down was. Brüder started to pat up her inner thigh and she scratched his face and jumped back.
"Get away from me, you pervert!" She yelled, her arms covering her chest and her legs crossed.
Gilbert and Brüder both blinked and stared at her blankly. She blinked too, but only because of Brüder's face. The scratches from last night had healed, they were all light, but this one didn't look like it would. It was a scar right across his left eye that was bleeding really bad. Oh well, he deserved it.
"Holy crap you can talk!" Gilbert exclaimed.
They had been so baffled by the fact that she had just spoken English that Brüder didn't even notice all the blood until Gilbert said something.
"Brüder, you're bleeding!" He handed Brüder a ripped piece of his clothing. He rubbed his eye with it, and luckily her claws didn't scratch his eyeball, just his eyelid. As he was tending to his wound, he questioned her. "You...you can speak English?"
"And Italian! And I'm not an 'it', I'm a she!"
Gilbert raised an eyebrow. "Can you speak German?"
She laughed mockingly. "'Course not. You know that."
Gilbert turned to Brüder. "Diese Hündin ist heiß~! Sie sollten ficken ihr."
Brüder stared at him, horrified. "WAS ZUM TEUFEL?!"
Gilbert laughed. "I'm just kidding! I'm just trying to make the most of the moment. You and I both know it's not true." Brüder sighed.
Gilbert laughed again and turned back to her. "What's your name?"
She blinked. "Uh...y-you should know that. Or are whitecoats just that stupid?"
Brüder looked at her and cocked his head. "White-"
She put her hand in the air an interrupted him. "Wait, no. Whitecoats /are/ that stupid. You all are. Torturing me and countless other 'science experiments' since birth! You're all just a bunch of retards."
Brüder grabbed his heavy gun, immediately steamed that she was insulting him. "Alright, enough. We came here on a mission, so if you'll just come with us, that'd be great."
She shook her head. "No way! How'd you find me, anyway?"
"A tracking device I shot in your-no, no! That doesn't matter. Just, come on."
"Hell no!" She jumped up and grabbed a rope. "I'm not going to just 'come'." She giggled. That sounds dirty. "You have to catch me first."
Brüder ripped the tranquilizer gun from Gilbert's grip and lifted it up to her. He looked through the scope and snarled, "Or I could just shoot you."
She leaped to the next rope. "How about no?"
"Alright." Brüder pulled the trigger and a second later, she felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder.
"Ow..." She cringed, her muscles feeling suddenly weak and her vision blurring. She gripped the rope loosely. "Y-you...can't catch...me..." She slurred out, her grip loosening by the second before she finally let go completely and felt herself falling towards the ground on her back, wind whisking past her ears and through her tail. Then everything went black.