... "-There doesn't seem to be any sign that these rains will end anytime soon. So folks, be careful driving out there."
The newsman was a prim and proper forty-year-old with graying hair and small wire framed glasses. His eyes were deep brown and from a distance seemed black. His face was round, slightly overweight, but still kindly, probably why he was working for the station anyway. Katy eyed the bottom of the screen however, the man was not what she was interested in.
"Damn," she muttered as the name of her school passed across the bottom of the screen. "Not closed... You'd think that they'd get a clue. It's been raining non stop all last week and this weekend and they STILL want us to go to school... I bet the parking lot is flooded!" Turning away from the TV in disgust, she made her way into the kitchen to complete her lunch for the day, it wasn't quite time for her to leave yet, but getting near, she doubted she'd get much breakfast today.
Her mom passed the kitchen a moment later, and stopped to place a kiss on her daughter's forehead before moving on into her bedroom to finish getting ready for work. Then all was silent except for the patter of rain on the tiny skylight high above the kitchen. Why they'd bothered putting it in was a mystery, it didn't let any light in, it was too small, and it ran straight up though the air conditioning stuff, which was directly above the kitchen. The entire house had been built rather stupidly.
The clock rang seven and Katy zipped her lunch box, nabbing the rest of her stuff and dashing out the door to her beat up old Pontiac. The sky was still very black and the rain kept pouring. Within five minutes, Michelle had joined her in the car and they started on their way toward the school. Slayers music played on the cd player, Katy's illegally burnt copy of someone else's set, the windshield wipers were set on high and they swished almost in time to the music, which Michelle commented on.4 In all, Katy could not see and some dumbasses were driving without their headlights on.
"Why is it that dark cars never seem to turn on their headlights when it's pitch black?" Katy grumped, her hands clenching the steering wheel in nervousness. Her neck hurt from the stress she was under and Michelle didn't seem to understand why her friend was so pissed at the weather and other drivers. "And someone is ALWAYS tailgating me!" the young woman shouted. "I've got enough to worry about without having to feel like someone's chasing me. I hate being chased!"
Michelle had fallen into silence, looking down at her knees, her brown and slightly damp hair falling forward from where she usually kept it tucked behind her ears. Katy sighed and simply shut her mouth. She turned on her right blinker as she came up to the light, intent on just continuing on to school.
A thump brought them both out of their thoughts. The rain continued to pour heavily over the car, but the car had stopped completely. The battery hadn't died, the music was still playing, the windshield wipers were still going. Michelle peered nervously out the window and Katy tapped on the gas, feeling the car rev up, but they did not move. "Mud?" she asked, eyeing the rain.
"Maybe we should get out and look?"
"Wish I'd thought to bring my phone," Katy grumped a moment after Michelle's comment. The hesitation in her answer was caused by dislike of getting wet. "Alright, stay here, I'll check it out." Unbuckling, Katy pressed the lock and began to open the door.
Something snarled and slammed against the window. In fright, Katy yanked the door shut again, banging it on her knee. "What was that!" frantically, she held the door shut and locked it again.
Something leapt atop the hood of the car and pressed it's face against the windshield, getting hit repeatedly with the wipers before it got the idea and backed off. In the darkness, it looked vaguely like a dog, but it was certainly the wildest one Katy had ever seen.
Michelle huddled in her seat, then finally pulled the lever to push it back and climbed into the back seat, Katy wasn't far behind. It was just in time. A blast sounded from outside, a hole was punched though the windshield, one the size of a bullet, a matching hole burst though the back window. Loud voices shouted from outside, but Katy and her friend crouched behind the light-gray cloth seats, hiding on the floorboard with their backpacks over them.
After a while, there was nothing from outside, but neither of the girls moved, far too frightened. However, the car began moving, slowly tipping back onto its hind wheels and then moving forward. "We'll live," Katy whispered, "We have to." Tears ran down her face, "This can't be as bad as it seems. It's just scary, not life threatening. Nothing really bad could happen to us because... because we're us." Michelle's eyes were wide and Katy couldn't even see them.
"If anything does happen to us, I promise I'll do all I can to protect you, okay?"
Michelle's hand snaked out from under her bag and found Katy's, she sniffled and they clutched each other for support. Neither let themselves think of what could really happen. They had no experience with things like this, and certainly Katy knew that should it come down to it, she probably wouldn't be able to protect Michelle from anything, but she'd try, she'd try her hardest to at least distract their attackers so Michelle could get away. She hoped she could anyway.
It seemed hours that they'd been crouched in the floor of the backseat, they were beginning to get hot, Katy's legs had fallen asleep. Neither complained, neither moved. It was simply a waiting game. They had stopped moving some time ago, the front end of the car set down once more. The music was still playing, the headlights were still on, the windshield wipers still going, though the rain seemed to have let up some. "Maybe they didn't mean it?" Michelle whispered, offering, or trying to at any rate, some ray of hope to the situation.
"Their finger slipped on the trigger?" Katy whispered sarcastically in return, "It makes me nervous that they have guns in the first place... and what WAS that monster? I don't think they're friendly at all."
Light stabbed though the front driver's window, shining across the empty seats. The light moved to the backseat window, they huddled down further, tucking their heads into the coats that covered them.
The light moved away. The music seemed unnaturally loud, when the volume was only at five, not very loud, but when silence has persisted for so long, things seem louder than necessary. Nothing more happened for a moment, then the glass above Katy shattered, covering her with shards. The rain poured in, but that was the least of her worries. A few more showers of glass landed on her, then she felt her backpack was lifted and probably pulled out through the broken window.
Far too frightened to move, Katy stayed where she was, tears pouring down her face just as heavily as the rain. Everything was still again, except for the sound of people conversing in a strange language just outside the window. The bag was probably being looked through at that moment. "Michow," Katy whispered, afraid to raise her voice, even if they wouldn't have heard her, she couldn't get above that whisper. "Thank you for being my friend." With that, Katy forced herself in motion, pushing her coat off her head and tossing it over Michelle, one hand lifting the lock on the door, the other clutching the handle and pushing it forward.
A snarl greeted her, but the creature was held back. Shadowy figures pointed what were obviously guns at her as she tumbled out into the rain and mud. "Please- please don't hurt me!" she whimpered, raising her hands to show she was defenseless. Nothing moved for a moment, but then one of the figures came forward, grabbing Katy roughly by the arms and dragging her away from the car. He snarled something into her face, his breath was horrid, his voice obviously that of a smoker. Katy didn't understand a word. She shook her head, beginning to shiver from fright and simple cold.
One of the other figures leveled a gun inside the opened door of the car. "No! Please! Don't hurt her!" Katy immediately shouted, struggling against the man who still gripped her. She was hit hard across the face, her glasses knocked off and into the mud. She was sent sprawling after them, a gun leveled at her as well. Curling up, Katy crossed her arms over her head, hoping that a bullet would stop in one of them before it hit a vital area.
Michelle slowly crawled out of the car as well, climbing onto the seat before stepping out. She came out with all the dignity that Katy had lacked in her entrance. Another of the shadowy figures grabbed her and spun her around, throwing her into the mud beside Katy, both were put under gun and the snarling dog-monster strained on its tether nearby.
"Katy- are you okay?" Michelle asked faintly, huddling next to her friend.
Sniffling, she nodded slightly, "I'm alright," she whispered in return. One of the shadowy figures crawled into the car after making sure there was no one else hidden within. The keys were pulled out. The music turned off, but the headlights remained on. A soft binging could be heard.
Katy was thankful that the headlights had to be turned off manually, not just by taking out the key. Those lights were the only source of illumination. Even then, it was impossible to see much.
There seemed to be about five tall and darkly dressed people, all had guns, one held the tether of the dog-monster in addition. Also illuminated by the headlights was the back of a tank, with a chain hanging off the back, apparently that was how they'd moved the car.
Regretfully, this was the last Katy remembered seeing for a while. The obviously male figure that had hit her moved forward once more, raising the stock of his machine gun and swiftly brought it across her head...
Sephiroth glowered at everyone in general. He had finally finished the pointless war, securing Shinra's domination and finally he was able to get out of the blasted rain, only to find that Hojo had PLANS for him. His mind seethed with curses, rage held in check only by the tiniest of threads as he stalked down the halls, taking the stairs simply to keep from employing his endurance elsewhere. This was also the exact reason why he'd left Masamune in his room. It wouldn't do well to have corpses littering the halls. Bad stuff always leaks to the paparazzi. The damn rats were everywhere.
Coming into the lab was like revisiting a nightmare made reality. Everything was just as he'd always remembered it. The horrible table where he was always tied down and injected... A shiver ran up his spine as he glanced toward it. Hojo, however, was standing at another portion of his lab.
The scientist was the same as always, graying hair, thick glasses, beady eyes, cold expression. Before him stood a tank filled with a Mako-enhanced liquid, suspended within it was a young woman, her short straight brown hair floating free, her eyes closed in peaceful unconsciousness. She was rather cute, but Sephiroth wasn't turned on by the sight of her nudity. In fact, he was disgusted that Hojo would conduct such work on innocents- as she appeared to be.
Hojo half turned and smirked at his ultimate success. "What do you think?" he asked, "Imagine her as the perfect specimen. A perfect mate for you."
"In your twisted dreams, Hojo," Sephiroth growled in response.
He did not seem perturbed by Sephiroth's answer, he only shrugged and turned back to his newest lab rat. "I figured you'd say that," he stated, "No, she's going to become something greater than that." A cruel smirk twisted his lips, "She is project N. I call her Naomi. They said she and her companion simply popped out of nowhere, wouldn't answer questions, and spoke in some demon language. Perhaps she has some sort of power I can harness into a weapon-"
"Was this all you called me here for?" Sephiroth interrupted, quite irritated.
Once more, Hojo turned and eyed the much taller young man, "No. You've gone months without injections. I wanted to see how you were doing."
"Your concern touches me deeply," the general replied with heavy sarcasm. "I have other things that need to be done."
"You'll do them later," Hojo snapped as Sephiroth turned his back to the scientist and started out the way he'd come. "Come back here!" he shouted ineffectively. The door swished shut behind the fluttering black coat of Sephiroth.
Hojo turned back toward Project N., a scowl on his features. There was nothing he could do with her, she hadn't absorbed enough Mako to even start with. Ah, but he could go though his collection of DNA samples to find something to add into her.
Katy's head hurt, but that wasn't anything abnormal, she usually woke up with a headache... however, that was from her sinuses rather than the side of her head, which now throbbed with nauseating pain.
Opening her eyes slowly, she saw a metal floor, the legs of a bunk directly in front of her, and beneath it, grazing in the shadow, was an entire herd of dust buffalos. Of course, these weren't all that far from her nose, only this fact allowed her to even know they were there. The light was rather intense. She closed her eyes again.
Only to open them again once she fully realized that she was stripped to her skivvies and laying on an entirely TOO cold floor. This forced her onto her knees and to look around carefully- not only for an exit, but for a good place to deposit cookies. Thankfully there was a toilet. It was rather dirty, but it would work. She crawled towards it and let go her hold on whatever she'd eaten a week ago. It wasn't much, thankfully, and it made her head feel a little better. How that worked, she had no idea, but it did and she was thankful for it.
She seated herself on the floor next to the toilet, and didn't bother flushing, she might have to use it again. Her next thoughts traveled to her state of undress. Quickly she took mental note of where pain was coming from, what areas were sore, and what wasn't. She was happy to find that only the places she remembered getting beaten hurt, and especially not areas of her rear.
A sigh of relief escaped her, slightly muddled thoughts of what she'd have done if she had been taken advantage of drifted through her head, but she was in a bit too much pain to think completely coherently. Her initial burst of adrenaline had given her clarity to look for the important things, but once it wore off, and that was fairly quickly, she was left feeling wretched. Another thought occurred to her though.
"Michelle!" Her eyes opened wide and she gazed around the empty room again, finding only the toilet, what looked like a sink by the general shape of it, and the bunk. The door was nigh invisible to her, only the red light high on the wall to her left indicated that anything was there at all. The light probably meant it was locked. The room was made entirely of bare metal which shone a dull blurry silver in her unaided vision and she was alone with the rabid dust buffalos lurking beneath the bed.
Katy felt helpless. Sitting in her underoos in a strange room without even the comfort of her glasses, her best friend off somewhere else and her parents probably didn't even know where she was. "I should watch what I wish for... My stupid fairy godmother might not get it right," she muttered to herself, pulling her knees against her chest and wrapping her arms around them. The tears came without much warning.
4 I've got a set of 2 burnt CD's of Slayers anime music, this is what I generally play in my car, simply because I like it a lot. And no other CD's seem to be able to hold my interest for long. Not like those ones can. I don't just listen to a CD once... it stays in my player for months at a time!
