I can't believe this is my only option; going to some stuck-up hunter/huntress school. I look at the over-exited fools surrounding me in this flying bucket, all of them talking and laughing, makes me sick. I do see someone who looks like she might have a brain though; she wears all black save for white shirt, shorts and her 'pants' fade to purple past her knees, she looks about seventeen like everyone else, her sizes are... whoa, settle down Rene; there's such a thing as over-analyzation. She's also reading a book, so maybe she has two brain cells to rub together. I suppose you want to know who I am and why I'm here, well frankly; it's none of your f #king business, but I have nothing else to do, so I'll talk.

I slam on the snooze-button, seven o'clock isn't even relatively humane hour to have to wake up... but I have a job to do. I pull myself out of bed and go to my wardrobe and get my clothes, I grab a black tee shirt and green vest, and then I get my pants, some green jeans with ripped knees and a black miniskirt with sea-foam trimmings. I then brush out my long deep green hair and tie it in twin pony-tails, like usual. I grab my belt and tonfas and begin to leave, when I realised I forgot to put a bra (...why the f #K did I just write that!?)

And then I leave my room, I head down the hall as I hear the other awake and moving around in the kitchen, as I go to get some milk I hear Kyle talking to Greg, I'd tell you what they look like but it would be pointless; their dead now, so we won't need to see them again. "Dude, did you hear about Bluto?" I could care less what happens to that shit, he isn't the one who hands out the Lien. "What, you mean that weird kid who beat the crap outta him and robbed the casino?" Now that caught my attention; a kid roughing up Bluto, THE Bluto? The man was a monster (figuratively speaking of course) and to be beaten by a kid? This is when Anna chimes in, she has short brown hair kept in an odd crew cut, thought I don't know why, her aviator glasses hiding her hazelnut eyes, and she wears her red and white jacket and matching pants, it makes her look like a walking candy-cane, but I would never say it to her face. Her waist fairly thin and... uhh, too much information even for me... "The person who beat up Bluto wasn't a kid, he was about Rene's age, and we still haven't identified him, so he is still a hazard to all of us."

I already know where she's going with this; 'so we need to track him down.'

"And that's why we need to break Bluto out of jail." Whoa, sudden left turn. Now Greg pipes in again "What about the punk, shouldn't we track him down and make sure he's done messing in our affairs." Gob I hate it when he says that... he got it from a bad mafia movie and uses it every chance he gets, even when it's ENTIERLY OUT OF CONTEXT.

"Alright everyone, grab your gear, check your ammo because we're going to start a prison break." I glance at Anna as she loads her rifle, it's an older model but it has a ludicrously long retractable bayonet. "Anna I was wondering; maybe we shouldn't break Bluto out, I mean think about it, he's not our boss, he doesn't pay us, and now the chain of command is shifting, maybe we can take the casino district as opposed to these slums." Ever since we got sent here to 'guard' I've wanted to leave, the area is too crowded, run down, and it smells like dead mice.

"Well I hate to tell you Rene; but these are orders from Torch, so we don't have much choice, and trust me; if we could leave him to rot, we would." Anna steps out of the room to go wait outside, I curse to myself that we have to save the jerk, but if the orders are from Torch then maybe there will be compensation for a job well done. I load each tonfa with three shells (old models have low capacity) and combine them into a bō-staff a few times to make sure they won't jam. I head outside and see Greg and Kyle were busy arguing over a pistol... I swear their inbred.

"Alright, here's the plan; Rene you distract the guards at the rear entrance so Greg and Kyle can plant the dust charge, when the guards return I'll shoot the charge from my post, detonating it. Kyle, you will take lead and get Bluto out, Greg, you hold back other cops, Rene; I hate to give you the hardest task, but considering the alternatives..." We look over to the twins, who are now fighting over a sandwich... wow, I am at a loss. "Rene I need you to handle the droids." Ohh shit... "Heh, n... no problem Anna, I mean, there just bolts and screws." I hate to admit it; but droids scare me, not just because of their combat capabilities, but the way their faceplates start as giant red lights, looks like your staring into the depths of Hades... but I digress; their just machines, metal and screws, a few shell will take the down, and if that isn't enough... tell ya later.

Within the hour we made it to a cliff near the prison, the prison wasn't as large as you may think; it's smaller than a 'state prison' but larger than a precinct. It's meant to only house the worst of the worst, which is a category Bluto falls under; there are only about ten guards from what Anna can see, but there are supposed to be almost a hundred robots, I started to wonder If Anna was trying to kill me, assigning me to handle the droids as opposed to the tweddle-Dee and Tweddle- Dumb, but as soon as I look over to them Kyle is staring down the barrel of his pistol trying to un-jam it, and Greg is bust trying to open the wrapper on the sandwich, if anything she was protecting me.

"Alright Rene; get down there and distract them." I don't need to be asked twice, I started making my way down while trying to figure out the right way to get them to leave the door; I considered trying to temp them, but being cops the odds that they would follow a sixteen year old isn't likely, also on the off chance there that kind of cop, I doubt I could keep them distracted long enough without taking off my shirt, and I was NOT GOING TO STRIP! I start considering the little-lost-girl routine, but that stops being effective after 13, low on options... I ended up settling for the-girl-who-cried-wolf routine, I would tell the cops a few beowolves were attacking my friend, it worked before, the police tend to believe gator tears, dumb asses.

"Help! Help! Someone please; my boy-friends under attack by Beowolves!" I run up to them, tears streaking down my face, out of breath, and fall to my knees panting. "Shit, which way is your boyfriend?" The cops both fall for it, I point to the deepest part of the woods, this point in the year there are loads of ursas hanging around, but that doesn't stop the cops from charging into the woods, damn; I could be an actress, if not for the fact the profession requires you to be a dumb bimbo.

Whoa whoa whoa; Rene, I think your pushing the limit of our pg-13 language, I mean seriously. Oh come on; I censor the word f #k, what more do you want? Well please tone down the insults at least. Oh what, you don't want me to develop my character? Just say it's not your personal opinion. Alright; I bear no prejudice or hate to any particular group Rene might insult, their just her bitchy character traits. Now who's pushing pg-13? Don't make me write you in a hentai fic. Ahh! I'm sorry I'm sorry; please don't! Look, let's just pretend this didn't happen and finish your chapter. Alright, I'll get back to it. Good, oh yeah; Rene and I* (*GOD the author) can speak to each other, but only she can hear me. Running gag established.

After the cops left I got out of the way while Beavis and butthead (Please tell me I can insult them? Yeah, go ahead. Yes!) Set the charges, after fumbling with the dust for about two minutes trying to figure out which part was the adhesive side, dear god, I'm not even trying to insult them, their just that stupid. They take cover as we wait for Anna to take the shot, twenty seconds pass, thirty, forty... after almost two minutes I'm starting to wonder if she was alright, before I could stand up to check a muffled pfft was heard, followed by a large scale explosion, and I mean LARGE; I felt my teeth rattle and I thought my face would melt from the heat, that was only about 50 milligrams of dust, I'm actually afraid of what might have happened if the twins did the measurements... I shutter just imagining it.

Now we all get moving; I see Anne slowly turn green all over, her use of aura is amazing. Kyle moves in first, I follow him as the droids are probably already activating, Greg stays at the entrance to hold back any more cops, he won't last five seconds.

"Alright Rena," he always forgets my name, and frankly; it pisses me of. "The bots are right here, I need you to go ahead while I sneak around, go!" He shoves me into the room before I can even reply, and the next thing I know I'm face to face with a droid, its faceplate wide open staring into red glowing nothingness... I felt like I was about to see black eyes appear in the faceplate and them be swallowed into a dark void... "Intruder; identify yourself." The metallic void the droid uses snaps me back into reality as it repeats itself; "This unit will repeat; Intruder, iden SMASH! I break the drone's faceplate with a swift hit from my tonfa, as it falls to the ground I see the other robots look to each-other and switch their hands to machinegun form, time to fight.

"Intruder, stand down or be eliminated." Three units line me up in their sights, I go to place down my tonfas, but just before the reach the ground I fire two shells and use my aura to launch myself above the droids, I eject the shell in mid air and as the droid try to aim upwards and fire, but apparently the designers never assumed someone would get above them, as they can't seem to tilt their head back to look up. I drop down on two of them and slam the tonfas through their faceplates; I then kick the two dead units towards the door, causing them to land on two more droids coming through the door.

With only one droid left in the room I turn to face it, it changes weapons from machine guns to short swords, easy enough to counter; I spin my tonfas so the long end is pointed way from me and un-sheath the blades. The droid reacts to this in a way I honestly never expected; it holds one blade forward, waiting for me to bring my blade to meet his as an honourable swordsman would, of course, I'm not an honourable swordsman. I slash the blade across the neck of the droid severing its A.I processer causing the body to convulse a few times before collapsing.

I reloaded Toni and Fae (my tonfas) while wait for more bots to show up, oddly enough non come by, according to our Intel there were a lot more... I dissuade the lack of drones that there within other parts of the facility.

Before I can delve too deep into that thought; Greg dashes past me and yells "BLUTORIGHTBEHINDMELOTSOFDRONER RUN!" or something along those lines... a moment later Bluto rears his ugly head, I only see him for a moment as he limps past but he looks horrible, that guy really ripped him up; he had scars all along his body, his left leg looked broken and his left eye was covered by an eye-patch. Jeez, I hope I never meet the guy who beat up Bluto this bad (FORESHADOWING! Oh shut up...) I don't wait another moment to leave as the metallic clang of the androids running draws closer and closer. I sprint full tilt (whatever that means) to the door as I see Kyle laying another charge, setting a trap for the bots no doubt, I rush past him as the bots draw near and take cover behind a large rock, Kyle shortly after hides himself as the droids close in on the door. I start counting down in my head; five... four... three... two; BOOM! the explosion is larger this time as all the droids blow up with the dust, my pants actually caught fire for a moment before I could pat it out.

After the heat finally died down we all moved out of cover and waited for the henchmen to bring the truck around, I looked around for Anna but she hadn't come down from the cliff for some reason... the Hench-fellows then bring around an old style military troop transport truck and all five henchlings exit the vehicle and help Bluto into a fresh tuxedo, kiss-asses, every one of the bastards.

Just as I was starting to climb the hill towards Anna's LNP (last-known-position for those with less than five intelligence points. Really? Are you really going to insult the readers? Sorry.) I heard an ever familiar pfft from her suppressed rifle; I turned as one the henchmen collapsed to the ground, dead... before anyone could react three more shots were fired, taking out two more henchers and Greg... I stare in awe as the scene unfolds, the two remaining henchmen hustle Bluto to the truck only to be shot down as Bluto slams on the gas and speeds away, I look over to Kyle as he clutches his dead brother's body... I never thought I would be able to feel anything towards them, let alone sorrow.

Kyle tilts his head back to scream but is silenced by a shot that came from the opposite side off the cliff... we were surrounded... I turned and tried to run n to where Anna was but I smacked into something as soon as I turned. I trip backwards and roll about three feet down the hill before I can stop myself, after my eyes re-focus I look up into the eyes of Anna, I try to speak but all I can manage is a feeble "why?"

Anna just stares back into my eyes unblinking, she them turns and starts walking back up the cliff, just at the edge she stops, without looking back she then starts speaking; "Rene, this isn't the life for a young girl like you, but you had no choice, you were forced into doing these things. That is why you're still alive, you're too young, and you still have a chance to change. I'm giving you that chance. Now go home and get some rest; they'll come looking for me in about twenty hours. Goodbye Rene, one day you'll understand, you'll understand why it has to be this way."

With that she walked out of sight and away from me forever... I pulled myself back up the mountain and made my way home. I went into my room, change into my pajamas, brushed out my hair, lied down in bed, and cried. I cried for what felt like days, why would she do this? Why would she kill all of them then abandon me? All these questions, all the empty spaces in my life now...

I had no idea when I feel asleep, but I didn't care anymore, I got up, repeated my routine from yesterday and then went to the kitchen for a quick meal. After which I took Anna's advice and prepared to leave this house forever. I packed some things into a backpack and left my room, I decided to peek into Anna's room, to see if I could find anything that might explain her betrayal. As I enter her room I see it's in its normal spick and span order, all her equipment carefully places on the walls, all her items in the same place, too think it had been six years since I first entered here... uhh, tell you later.

(Mmm... delay the origin story to add relationship development in the future, I'm a genius! You realise you just told the reader why you're not going to explain my origin? Aww crap... well deal with it, I'm the author. Sigh...)

I didn't find anything unusual, but before I left I noticed a picture on her bedside table, it was Anna and I on the first day we met, all those years ago... I grab the picture frame and shove it in my bag, causing a piece of paper previously tapped to the back. I pick it up and read it; 'Rene, you're reading this because you entered my room to get this picture now that I have left. I wish I could tell you why I left, but I promise you; when the time comes, you will understand, maybe you'll even join in the right cause. I loved you like a sister, so you better stay alive. Anna.'

I feel tears welling in my eyes, I stifle the tears, I have no time to cry... I stuff the note in my bag too and leave the house. As of now I don't know where I'll go; I have no family left, no friends I was sunk. "Hey; your Rene right?" I nearly jump out of my skin upon hearing the voice behind me. "Who wants to know?" I coldly reply; I am in no mood to deal with some idiot right now.

"Sorry, it's me Grant, from the 'Dust till Dawn'; we met when you and your friend came to buy some dust while I was making a delivery. Remember?" I turn now to face Grant; I do remember meeting him about four days ago, me and Anna went to 'Dust till Dawn' to get some supplies for the week. While Anna talked with the owner Grant and I started talking, I can't remember about what, but he seemed like a nice guy. "Hi Grant, sorry about the snap, I've just been having a bad day." He looks at my bags while I shuffle my feet, hoping to end this conversation. "What's with the bag? Going somewhere?" Great, now I need to try and lie to him, I try to think of an explanation for why I have the bags but all I can think of is how Anna betrayed me...

"Rene, if it's too hard to talk about, I won't pry; no pun intended." I look up to see he has his crowbar in hand for whatever reason; I also notice the sincere look of empathy, as I realised I had tears running down my face... "Look, do you need someplace to stay, Grampa has an extra bedroom." I turn away and think it over; I don't really have other options yet... "Thanks Grant, I probably won't stay long though."

And I didn't, I lived with Grant and his adoptive grandfather for little more than a week, then I left, I took a few dust crystals from him so I could pay the rent of a small apartment somewhere. I left Grant a note saying I would repay him someday, and for once, I intend to do so.