Chapter 3: Moving On

Jade couldn't say she was unhappy with the situation she was in. Of course she wished her mother wasn't gone, but she had to make the most of a bad situation. She did feel slightly guilty that she got the somewhat comfortable bed and Tori was stuck on the couch; the very lumpy and horrible couch. Even if it was Tori's idea.

Living with the girl for two weeks and hardly going anywhere has let the two girls get to know each other. They weren't the best of friends, but they were at the least friends. Though Jade did get the feeling the Latina wanted to be a bit more then friends, not that she'd said anything about it.

Speaking of her roommate, Jade wondered when she would return. Tori had gone out to get food, but they had to be cheap about it. Their wallets were starting to run low and with no way to get more money, they were screwed. They had T.V. now though thanks to Jade. She went to the junkyard and found a T.V. that would do well, it wasn't anything fancy...or big. She also managed to tap into the neighbors cable, but Tori insisted they at least not buy anything and not watch it 24/7.

Which is why she was only watching the news. Apparently there was a hero in Los Angeles she never heard of called Metal Lass. She was kind of a rip off of Iron Man, with the same type of armor. However it was much slimmer then Iron Man's and it was pink. There was silver going from her ankles to her knees, which Jade assumed was imbedded with the armor for flair, and there was a similar look on her arm from her wrist to her elbows. Metal Lass had apparently been active for two years now and had defeated a number of villains including Rhino and Sabretooth. Though Jade did not like her because she stole Iron Man's thing, not that she likes him either. At least she did say on the News she was in no way associated with Iron Man and did not want to be called Iron Woman like the media had called her.

The next topic however got her attention. The anchorman smiled at the camera and announced, "Today, the Hollywood Police Department announced that a company, who wishes to remain anonymous, has created a cure for mutants. The HPD will help distribute the cure to any mutant that wishes to take it. This is not a new law, it is completely voluntary."

How many mutants will actually take that cure? Jade wondered to herself. She didn't have long to ponder that thought though as the door opened. "Jade?"

"In here." Jade called. The door slammed and moments later a certain Latina walked in the room with a bag of fast food. "What'd you bring us?"
"Things off the dollar menu." Tori handed her the bag. "I ate mine on the way here."
Jade pulled out the French fries and started munching on them. Tori happened to glance at the T.V. and saw the news. "Oh, God. They released it?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah. Apparently they have a cure for mutants now."

"But we're not a disease!" Tori said.

"Most people think we are." Jade replied with a mouthful of fries.

"Yeah, all the ones that are scared of us. I mean I realize some of us don't want our powers, but why does it need to be a cure?"

"I don't know. What's your problem?"

"You're not upset about this?"

Jade shook her head, "Why would I be? It's not like I'm going to go and take it. If some mutants want to take it that's their thing."

Tori sighed and sat next to her on the couch. "I see your point. Okay… well I have good news and bad news for you."
"What's the good news?" Jade looked at her.

"The good news is I got in contact with my sister, Trina, through the payphone and she's going to wire us money every now and then."
"That is good. You sure she won't rat you out?"
"Yes. Trina helped me with my powers and helped me keep it from my parents. She won't tell them."
The raven haired girl nodded, "And the bad news?"
"She also said my parents put out a missing persons for me and the cops are looking for me."
"Damn."

"I think we should leave Hollywood."

"What?"

"Think about it: if we stay here they can find us. Let's go somewhere else. I always run the risk of running into my family here anyway."
Jade thought about it for a moment before sighing, "Fine. But I want to stop by my house and see if there's anything I can take with me."

Tori nodded. "When?"
"We'll go to my house tonight and leave first thing in the morning."

"I didn't think tonight meant midnight." Tori mumbled as she walked with Jade down the sidewalk.

"This is the time we are least likely to get caught." Jade snapped. She was slight concerned about how Tori would react when she saw her house. She had yet to tell the Latina exactly how she ended up on the streets.

They turned onto Jade's street and Jaded aimed her flashlight towards her house. The police hadn't cleaned up the building, they just put up a fence with a Do Not Enter sign on it. Jade rolled her eyes as she walked up to the gate.

Tori's eyes widened when she saw the ruined building. "You lived here? What happened?"
"I don't know if I want to talk about it yet."

"I realize it must be hard for you if something bad happened but if you talk about it it might help you fell better."

Jade sighed and turned to look at her companion, "Look, Tori, I know you're trying to help, but this is something my healing factor can't fix. When I'm ready to talk about it you'll be the first to know but right now…"
Tori nodded and rubbed the Goth's shoulder, "Okay."

Jade kicked the gate in and walked up to the house. The majority of the roof was collapsed in, part of the wall in the front gave way, however the door remained intact. "Do you mind waiting here?"
"Take your time, Jade." Tori told her.

Jade gave her a slight smile then walked to the door and opened it. She knew her mother's body was gone and they held the funeral last week. She had gone, despite the risk, and hid in the back row. She saw Rachel and her father's in the front and it took everything not to go to them, just to tell them she was fine.

She walked through the halls and sighed at the sight. Many of the picture frames and decorations had been destroyed in the explosions. Jade had been hoping that at least one of the pictures of her and her mother survived, wanting a little reminder of her mother. Of course she had the dog tags but it wasn't the same as a picture. Nor were the memories the house brought back.

The door to her room had fallen off the hinges and a chunk of the room was blocked by the fallen roof. Her dresser was not under the debris and she took the backpack from the floor, dumping the contents on the floor. Jade then started to put as many of her clothes from the dresser in the backpack as she could. It was a pretty decent amount as the backpack was one of the larger ones. Her mother had insisted on making sure she had enough room for everything she would need for school.

Once she had enough clothes she looked around the room for anything else she would want to take. Once she realized the roof was covering a few items she might want she lifted the debris up and tossed it outside. Luckily for Tori she threw the debris out towards the backyard.

With the debris out of the way Jade could now see what was under it. Her table with her T.V. had broken, the T.V. shattered. Her horror movie collection was scattered along the floor, a few DVDs had come from their cases and lay on the floor broken or cracked. The girl was disappointed in that, most of those movies took her forever to find. Disappointment was quickly replaced with relief as blue eyes found a pair of scissors on the floor. For her sixteenth birthday Prue had gotten her daughter the pair of scissors that were used in her favorite movie, The Scissoring. The case for them had been shattered by the roof, but the scissors themselves remained intact. Jade quickly snatched them up and put them in her bag.

In the corner of the room was her chest. Inside of it was roughly two thousand dollars she had been saving. She was quite relieved when she saw it was still inside and quickly put the money in her pocket. The thought of money reminded her of Prue's account. Jade zipped up the backpack and hurried to her mother's room.

Prue's room was more then likely the room least damaged in the attack. The roof was where it was supposed to be, and the walls were still intact, but a few of the pictures on the wall had fallen and some furniture had tipped over. Prue's purse lay on the floor in front of her bedside table, where she would place it when she got home for good for the day. Jade picked it up and pulled the wallet out. She took the card from inside and carefully placed it back in the purse, setting it on the table. Deciding she had enough from the house she turned to leave, when she saw it. Laying on the floor in front of the dresser was a picture frame. Inside was a picture of Jade and her mother from a few months back. It was taken by a professional that Prue had insisted on going too. It turned out nice, even though Jade hated having to dress up for it. She carefully placed the picture in her backpack and left the house.

Jade walked out the door to see Tori sitting against the fence. The Latina looked up at her friend and stood up, "You get everything?"

"Yep. I found some money in my chest. Can't believe I forgot about it. I got my mom's card too. We can dip into her account when we start to run low."

Tori frowned, "Wait...we're stealing from your mom?"
Jade shook her head, "No. Its technically mine. She was putting it in a college fund for me...but I don't believe that'll ever happen. Besides...mom won't have much use for it now."

Tori wanted to press on, ask her what she meant, but by the look in Jade's eyes, she knew she needed to keep quiet.

"Come on, let's go." Tori took her friend's hand in her own and lead her down the street.

"Where are we going to go? And how do we get there?" Jade asked.

"I'm not sure. We'll figure something out though."