~CC

~ Peace, Love, AND DUCT TAPE!!!

Sorry I was gone sooooo long! FACEBOOK IS ADDICTIVE!!! I wrote a little story for u guys! Its not finished, so bear with me!

Prologue

“NOOOOOOO!! PLEASE!!” the woman screamed as the dark mass slowly moved towards her. Moving its wet, rough face closer to her’s, its blood-stained claws slowly digging into the dirt.
“HEL-“ was all she could say before the creatures razor-sharp teeth penetrated her skin and ripped out her throat, blood dripping onto the dull, battered sidewalk. The woman laid there, her mouth frozen in an eternal scream, her arms wrapped around the small crying bundle, pale with fright and cold.

Chapter One

Rose woke to the chirping of birds and the soft humming of bees. Rising from her bed of clover, she quickly checked her surroundings for any dog-like tracks. She had been on the run ever since she could walk, hiding from what she had heard from several drunken sailors as ‘Shadows.’ But of course they weren’t shadows. They were large, vicious dogs that wouldn’t stop until they got the kill and the food. Tools of the military, they were efficient, silent, but brutal. Rose could faintly remember the sound of her mother’s scream, reverberating painfully inside her head. After the Shadow had left, she remembered stumbling around for hours until she was swiftly picked up by a person whose face was fuzzy now, how they had bathed and fed her, and trained her in the art of karate and how to survive. At age 8, she had packed her bags, ran out of town, and started moving from place to place; a drifter, as she was affectionately called by those she met. Although she was only 12, she was extremely smart, fast, and sneaky. Though she thought she was perfect, her ego got in the way in many un-ideal situations. Those who tried to follow her would be tortured or killed immediately. Her bright-red hair was starting to show again; her one weakness. She had to get it constantly dyed to keep it hidden.
“Better get moving…” she mumbled.
“EVERYBODY UP!!!” she yelled, rousing a few shapes hidden under woven blankets of clover.
“Okay! Geez…” said Falcon, a lab mutant with a machine gun for an arm.
“5 more minutes, mother!” joked Calico, sneaky as a cat, but a chatter box all the same. With one eye green and one blue, she looked like one.
“I was up an hour ago!” complained Leo. He was brave, but he was short. ‘Munchkin’ was his nickname, but he could imitate any voice presented to him; crucial when trying to get into a secret base.
“           Get your guns and go!” she growled. How could I have picked up this bunch of losers while still being sane?! She thought to herself. She had rescued them from a lab that makes soldiers with mutant powers. Falcon had lost an arm while in combat, and the “Cutters” found this as a perfect chance to experiment. They would have put a mini-gun on his arm, which is anything from miny, but it would have ripped his arm out of his socket. Calico was orphaned as a baby, and had no other family, so the Cutters decided to see if they could make her shape-shift into a Shadow for more stealth, but something went wrong and she turned into a calico cat. The locked her up, seeing that she was a failure. Leo was tricked into being experimented on; they told him that they could get rid of his ever-oppressing leukemia. They were able to, but he also could also jump to extreme heights and imitate any sound. Rose had been there too, but it was all a con. They said that they could attach wings to her, which would make it all the easier to escape. The result was a pair of golden-blond wings on her back that were strong enough to carry her and one other person. Together, they were the perfect team; strong, fast, and cunning. But could Rose accept that they could help as well?

Chapter Two

Flying just below the canopy, with Leo hopping from branch to branch alongside, Rose surveyed the surroundings. Lots of bugs, large animal tracks; Shadows have been here… Some food here and there… Might be some of those trees that monkeys use to make beds… What are those called? Oh wait… Those are in Africa… Mentally slapping herself for her stupidity, she knew that one mistake and she would be the Shadows next meal. What would this band of losers do without me? She thought smugly. I’m the only one who can protect them! I know my way around! I should have just let them there to die and let the Cutters experiment on them some more… Giving herself an even harder mental slap, she checked in on the status of the rest of the group.
“This pace good for you all?” she asked.
“Nooooo! My legs hurt!” groaned Calico, shape-shifting constantly out of pure boredom.
“Well, deal with it, you bozo!” she barked, sending Calico scurrying back to Falcon.  “If you weren’t constantly shape-shifting, you would have more energy!”
“Don’t have to be so harsh, Thorny!” Leo teased, and from all the other’s expressions, they were stifling almost uncontrollable laughs. Giving in, Rose said,
“Go ahead and laugh, you bunch of hooligans.” This was met by a volley of outrageous laughter; Calico’s hysterical cackle, Leo’s roaring laughter, and Falcon’s smirk and quiet chuckle. Rose couldn’t help but laugh along; the bunch of rouges really could make a gal feel pretty good. She supposed that she was being a little harsh. Swooping down and picking up the cat-form Calico, she whispered, “Sorry, fur ball…” which Rose covered up by yelling, “GO DO 1,000 PUSHUPS!!! MARCH!!!” But she would soon regret her outburst. A Shadow, on patrol nearby, heard the shouting and started sprinting towards the group.

The snap of a pine twig stopped Rose in mid-nuggie, the adrenaline practically ripping at the seams of her heart, threatening to burst it open. The Shadows midnight-black muzzle pushed through the ferns, revealing two rows of rotten, blood-stained teeth. Bursting out, the group got the full profile of the hound. Exquisite, brightly colored feathers topped the crown of its head; a sign of the scientist’s insanity. Its long, sinewy legs pulsed with the muscle underneath the skin. Its claws were extremely sharp; they could cut a piece of steel like it was butter. Its crimson eyes overflowed with one thing; KILL. Jumping on top of Leo, it dug its claws into his arms and legs.
“LEO!!!!!!” screamed Calico, jumping on to the Shadow’s back; her rapid morphing confused it, but only for a second. She was thrown off, and in cat form, was slammed against a nearby redwood. Plummeting down to the ground, she landed on piles of rotting leaves; dead-still. Aiming his gun, Falcon screamed,
“GET OUT OF THE WAY, ROSE!!!!!!” At this all-too-familiar call, Rose dove down to Calico, checking for any broken bones or a pulse. Calico couldn’t die. She just couldn’t. Not 10 feet from her, Falcon was letting off a continuing stream of bullets into the Shadow’s side, each one finding its mark. Shredding the body with the bullets, Falcon didn’t stop until the grotesque carcass slid off Leo, now drenched in icy-blue liquid; the Shadow’s blood. Stumbling down the tree, Leo fainted at the bottom. Rose, on the other hand, was frozen.
“Rose…” Calico murmured.
“Yes, baby? I’m right here.” Rose whispered, pushing Calico’s mangled hair from her face.
“It hurts. It hurts real bad…”

Chapter three

Huddled around her limp body, the group watched Calico.
“Well, what hurts?” Rose asked, trying to placate the sobbing Leo, still covered in ice-blue blood.
“My leg…”Calico whimpered, which, on inspection, was oozing blood at an alarming rate.
“Okay, babe. I’m going to pick you up and fly to the nearest hospital, okay?” said Rose, picking her up gently and slowly lifting off. Calico gave a small gasp, and then passed out from the pain. If I hadn’t picked up those guys, I wouldn’t be jeopardizing my life trying to save this little imp. WHAT WAS I THINKING?! Rose thought, resorting to yet another mental slap. She found the idea of a mental slap very amusing; sort of a humorous method to mentally punish herself.

After about 12 minutes, Rose arrived at St. Jude Children’s Hospital; she knew that they couldn’t reject her. Racing in, with wings hidden under her jacket, she hastily said to the lady at the front desk, “I need to get this little girl to the emergency room, NOW!”
“Oh my goodness! Come with me!” she replied, pity in her eyes. Sprinting down the corridor, Rose became more and more painfully aware of the increasing amount of blood dripping behind her. Finally getting to a room, she put Calico on the surgery table, only to be pushed out of the room by six or seven doctors, all wearing winter-green colored masks. “You must be tired. Come with me.” The lady said, smiling and gesturing for Rose to follow her. Walking down the same corridor they came in, but now at a slower pace, she was dropped off at an office. Two people were sitting across from her; probably stunt men from Men in Black.
“We would like to ask you some questions, Ms…?” asked the man on the right, a bulky figure with black shades; not too hard to defeat.
“Catherine. Ms. Catherine,” lied Rose; no need for them to know her real name.
“Well, Ms. Catherine… How did that girl get hurt?” asked the man on the left, skinny, but with an oddly placed black belt on his head; an obvious threat.
“Well, my little sister and I; that’s the one in the… operating room,” cringed Rose, trying to sound emotional, “were playing by the creek. Lily; that’s my little sister; was it in a game of tag. She had just tagged me, and was looking behind herself to avoid getting caught. She tripped over a root and sliced her leg on a piece of sharp metal sticking out of the ground.” Fake-crying at the end, she thought she put up a pretty good act. The man on the left, or shall we call him… man #1, asked,
“How did you get here so fast?”
“I hired a taxi. Luckily, some people saw and helped.”
“Oh, I see. And you said that you hired a taxi? Several reports specified that you flew from the forest while carrying Lily. How do you explain that?”
“You don’t have video footage. You can’t legally accuse me.”
“Well, maybe you’ll admit NOW!” Men #’s 1and 2 (the one on the right is Man #2) bolted up, pointing guns at her head and heart.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, sirs, but there is a video camera recording all this,” smirked Rose. Moving his gun for a second towards the camera, Man #2 shot it and it exploded in a ball of sparks.
“Now, missy, come quietly, and you still might have your head at the end of this,” sneered Man #1.
“Okay! #1: That was extremely rude, and #2, I can’t allow that scenario to play out. I’m afraid that you won’t have your head after this,” she explained, after which she quickly pulled a gun out of her jeans and shot them both right above the nose; the one spot that kills them for good. Running back to the operation room, and seeing that they were done with Calico, picked her up and raced outside. Falcon and Leo were waiting outside, ready to flee. “Let’s go!” she hollered, sprinting back towards the forest.

To Be continued???

Sooooo… ya! Tnx for reading, and comment please!

~Peace, Love, And DUCT TAPE!!

May the Force Volleyball Club be with you… ;D