Sorry for the delay, folks. I've been totally swamped. And it's my birthday tomorrow! YAY!
This is just a bit more background on Cat. You'll get some on Theo soon, I promise.
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The last time Cat could remember being this happy was her last birthday she'd spent with her family, her whole family. Back when Carol and her dad were newlyweds, back when she and Alex still acted like brother and sister, back when her birth mother was still alive. They'd all come together on her birthday, just like she'd asked. For once, they forgot all their differences and remembered their one similarity: Cat.
That had been her fourteenth birthday. The rest of that year was absolute hell on toast, but fourteen year-old Cat hadn't known that. She was going to be a freshman in high school in less than a month, finally going to school with the big kids she'd admired for so long, where you got treated like an adult. She had no way of knowing that, in three months, Mom and Alex would get into a hiking accident in which Mom would die of hypothermia and Alex would come back forever altered, never again her older brother. She didn't realize how difficult it would be for her to fit into high school, how her grades would plummet as her body altered in ways not even an anatomy teacher would understand, as her thought patterns altered into something so unpredictable not even modern medicine could fix it. She got in so many fights that she got suspended, and so her father sent her to a military school for a year.
That had been the best thing that anyone could have possibly done for her. Here was an obstacle course that enabled her to let off energy, here were other people with tempers who taught her how to control hers, here were surviors who could teach her to survive.
And so she'd learned, soaking up knowledge like a sponge. Not the knowledge they taught in the classroom, she ignored that and relished the physical punishments she had to do. What Cat learned was how to pick pockets, how to lie convincingly, how to hide so effectively in the shadows that someone could be standing a foot away and not see you. How to take a punch and give it back. All skills that had kept her alive for the past three years. Skills that would continue to serve even after she forgot everything else.
The sounds from the room next door filtered into her consiousness, and she stifled a groan. They were at it again! She'd hoped they'd stay asleep after the second time. Then again, it didn't sound like particularly tiring sex; she was pretty sure the woman was faking it this time, but even that took energy. She thought about banging on the wall above her head, but decided not to. Instead she flicked on the television: the six o'clock news was on. It had been a while since she's watched the news.
The newscaster looked gravely concerned, no mean feat, considering the fact that his makeup would crack if he frowned to hard. Red lettering at the bottom of the screen read: Mutant Assasination Attempt.
"Theo! Theo, wake up!" She flung the remote at his head.
Theo snorted from his position on the floor and cracked an eyelid. "What?"
She didn't have to say anything. The newcaster said it for her. "President McKenna appears to be unharmed, but the mutant responsible for the attack has not been apprehended."
"What?!" Theo shot to his feet and stared, slack-jawed, at the screen. "Oh, God. Oh holy fucking God. This is bad." It was the first time she'd ever heard him cuss.
"Really bad," she agreed. Now the Feds would be on, not only her, but every other mutant in the country, Camo and Mirror-Man and Drac and everybody she knew. Suddenly her mind snapped back into place, and she realized that they had to get moving. "Get dressed. Get your stuff together." She pulled one of the pillowcases off and began stuffing towels into it. No way she was leaving without those fluffy towels.
Why?" Theo asked, but he dumped all the shampoo and soap into his backpack like she gestured for him to do.
"We have to get to New York."
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Let's play NAME THAT MUTANT! Theo needs a nickname, and I'm calling on YOU (the reviewer) to name him.
Also, if someone would tell me how to do italics, it would be very much appreciated.
This is just a bit more background on Cat. You'll get some on Theo soon, I promise.
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The last time Cat could remember being this happy was her last birthday she'd spent with her family, her whole family. Back when Carol and her dad were newlyweds, back when she and Alex still acted like brother and sister, back when her birth mother was still alive. They'd all come together on her birthday, just like she'd asked. For once, they forgot all their differences and remembered their one similarity: Cat.
That had been her fourteenth birthday. The rest of that year was absolute hell on toast, but fourteen year-old Cat hadn't known that. She was going to be a freshman in high school in less than a month, finally going to school with the big kids she'd admired for so long, where you got treated like an adult. She had no way of knowing that, in three months, Mom and Alex would get into a hiking accident in which Mom would die of hypothermia and Alex would come back forever altered, never again her older brother. She didn't realize how difficult it would be for her to fit into high school, how her grades would plummet as her body altered in ways not even an anatomy teacher would understand, as her thought patterns altered into something so unpredictable not even modern medicine could fix it. She got in so many fights that she got suspended, and so her father sent her to a military school for a year.
That had been the best thing that anyone could have possibly done for her. Here was an obstacle course that enabled her to let off energy, here were other people with tempers who taught her how to control hers, here were surviors who could teach her to survive.
And so she'd learned, soaking up knowledge like a sponge. Not the knowledge they taught in the classroom, she ignored that and relished the physical punishments she had to do. What Cat learned was how to pick pockets, how to lie convincingly, how to hide so effectively in the shadows that someone could be standing a foot away and not see you. How to take a punch and give it back. All skills that had kept her alive for the past three years. Skills that would continue to serve even after she forgot everything else.
The sounds from the room next door filtered into her consiousness, and she stifled a groan. They were at it again! She'd hoped they'd stay asleep after the second time. Then again, it didn't sound like particularly tiring sex; she was pretty sure the woman was faking it this time, but even that took energy. She thought about banging on the wall above her head, but decided not to. Instead she flicked on the television: the six o'clock news was on. It had been a while since she's watched the news.
The newscaster looked gravely concerned, no mean feat, considering the fact that his makeup would crack if he frowned to hard. Red lettering at the bottom of the screen read: Mutant Assasination Attempt.
"Theo! Theo, wake up!" She flung the remote at his head.
Theo snorted from his position on the floor and cracked an eyelid. "What?"
She didn't have to say anything. The newcaster said it for her. "President McKenna appears to be unharmed, but the mutant responsible for the attack has not been apprehended."
"What?!" Theo shot to his feet and stared, slack-jawed, at the screen. "Oh, God. Oh holy fucking God. This is bad." It was the first time she'd ever heard him cuss.
"Really bad," she agreed. Now the Feds would be on, not only her, but every other mutant in the country, Camo and Mirror-Man and Drac and everybody she knew. Suddenly her mind snapped back into place, and she realized that they had to get moving. "Get dressed. Get your stuff together." She pulled one of the pillowcases off and began stuffing towels into it. No way she was leaving without those fluffy towels.
Why?" Theo asked, but he dumped all the shampoo and soap into his backpack like she gestured for him to do.
"We have to get to New York."
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Let's play NAME THAT MUTANT! Theo needs a nickname, and I'm calling on YOU (the reviewer) to name him.
Also, if someone would tell me how to do italics, it would be very much appreciated.