A good place to crash (Open)

[Cassidy]

It looked safe enough, no stairs so no people would be up there. She walked around it at least three times. She could see where the stairs were and plotted her course no natural human would attempt it. She grumbled a bit, “better have water in the damned thing.” Her fist collided with the base but that provided her with nothing and so the sledge hammer was put to it next. The solid sound told her it was full of... something. “Yay a swim pool.” That was her attempt at sounding ecstatic; twisting the belt that was attached to the sledge hammer in her grip it was thrown over her shoulder and worn much like one would wear a quiver of arrows.

Now came the fun part.

She ran up the pikes of metal that still jutted out the side of the tank some of them barely a foot in length she slipped once as one broke but managed to catch the landing by her hands. Pulling herself up was easier said than done and she grumbled as scales had been raised. On the landing now she looked down... “Ooo that would have hurt...” Digging in her bag she made sure that the rope was still inside she would need that to get back down. It was there the nylon was made to feel like silk in one’s hands and was usually used for rope swings or boaters that wanted that classy look. Zipping back up the pack it was strapped to her shoulders now over the sledge hammer. This part would be more difficult but still she managed to pound the tank… empty on the first landing… so it had a fair amount of liquid left inside. Her eyes moved to the ‘stairs’ and she cursed to the high heavens. Some were completely gone.

Coiling back she sprang forward and moved again breaking others off as she pushed against them to be able to reach the other. The landing was met with a gasp as she scrambled up onto it. “Bloody hell and all that.” Pressing her hand against her abdomen she pulled a piece of ragged metal from the jacket and her flesh. “Not deep enough for new additions.” Her eyes were lifted to the place where the final landing would be then to where the roof was. She could make that slipping her fingers into the groves she readied herself before pulling up and kicking off the ground. So this task was not simple but after fifteen minutes she was up the tower and looking down on the world. Her talons were shorter and smoother but hey... can’t have one’s Cake and eat it too.

The door had been opened before and covered with metal sheets, likely because whoever did that was afraid of it rusting shut but these metal sheets were no better. Kicking them away from the opening she fished a glow stick from her boot and grumbled she needed to find more of those... Cracking it and tossing it in towards the middle of the tank provided a show of just how deep the water was and how far down she would have to climb to reach it. It looked like water at least the glow stick remained blue. First she dropped the sledge hammer then looked at where it fell with a torchlight that she collected from the bag... so the first inner landing was safe. Finding a sturdy pillar she tied the rope off to and fed it down into the hole for safety wouldn’t want to get stuck down there.

Attempting the ladder down was useful but tiring. She met the landing with little reason to think it dangerous. The plastic coating was still there, she was sure it was the Nylon coating or maybe that fibreglass stuff. What ever it was, was still useful. Further down she went until she found the final landing rolling out a sleeping bag she glanced down into the water and the glow stick that provided a strange light. The water was a few steps below this landing and just enough to reach so she took one of the test cards and dipped it in waiting for the result.

After fifteen minutes she looked at it and made a sound. “Ok so humans shouldn’t drink too much of it, not too bad for bathing though, and good enough for me.” Canteens were filled all of them before she stripped out of the clothing she wore and dove into the water. Washing blood, dirt and sweat away.

[Franklin]

Frank had left Kenny Wood behind. He didn’t feel safe there, despite a seemingly pleasant encounter, his paranoia had been aroused by the inconsistencies in that one’s behavior. He hoped that the darker voices at the back of his mind, the ones that kept him frosty and alert for trouble, were not right. He didn’t hope it strongly enough to stay there at the old theme park though. Frank had shared his food with the Family, and wound up letting the kids eat more than he did; but that was alright, he didn’t have trouble finding something to eat usually. He’d learned that survival sometimes meant eating anything. He once stumbled into a collection of DVDs about this man from the past called Bear Grylls, a survivalist that was long dead, and he’d watched a bunch before he realized he was crashing out in an old Video store – Something-Buster. Frank had seen him eat things that didn’t exist even in altered North America, but he couldn’t fault the necessity – though Frank liked to cook more than he ate raw. It just seemed more – civilized.

Now, he was once again on the lookout for shelter and the basic necessities that would let him get a good night’s sleep. A roof would be super, walls would be awesome, and fresh water would be miraculous. He’d take the first two, and maybe a fire. A fire would be very nice. Frank had been forced to trade his bike for more food, and a motorcycle that was something north of a bicycle in his opinion. It was an old motocross bike, but considering how reclaimed by nature some of the place was, it had seemed like a good trade. He could always get something else on his way out, by trade or force. Frank sighed; Survival had turned him into an occasional thug, though he tried to keep the rough stuff to the dregs. Frank tooled along a leaf-littered street, and looked up to see an old water tower above a line of trees in the distance. He took in the area for a moment, and tried to assess how dangerous it was, against how potentially sweet crashing at the top of that tower might be. “F*ck it.”

It’d be worth a few scrapes. Frank circled the area as best as he could, and performed a little triangulation. He hid the dirt bike along what he determined was his best escape route, taking the front wheel with him. A lucky idiot couldn’t steal it if it had only one wheel, and if they were ambitious enough to carry it out of the woods without TK assistance, more power to them. He tied the wheel to his pack, and adjusted the straps of his pack, clipping together the additional support straps across his chest. Frank hiked into the woods, sometimes forced to part the way before him with the Power of his Mind. It saved on machetes, and he left a less of a trail, as he also tried to obscure that behind him. Frank was surprised when the woods came to an end against some flagstones, though only barely. Another year or two and the stones on the ground that led to a walkway would also be absorbed by the woods. He smiled, and looked up and up at the tower. A clearing was good; it meant he’d see people from the top. “There’s going to be a hideous monster up there, of course. That would balance out how good this is.”

Frank circled the tower five times, and couldn’t see any way up but the dangerous way. The dangerous way, with a heavy pack on his back and a motorcycle wheel; it just screamed ‘bad idea’, but he wasn’t going to be denied his roost for the night. He looked up at the sky, and the brightness of the not quite full moon. It would have to do. Frank closed his eyes, and touched the water tower, letting his specialized senses move over it. It ‘sang’ to him, in a way, a song that only he and others like him could ‘hear’. There was water inside, or something fluidic, though by the ‘sound’ he believed it was water. “That doesn’t mean it’s clean, Frank.” He was right, of course. He sensed the supports still attached to the side of the water tower, they had a different tone from the rest of it. He eyed the thing like a puzzle, navigating his route in his mind, before he dared to attempt it. “If I fall, I hope I die on impact.” Broken bones and then starving to death would, well, suck. Frank took a few breaths, got a firm Telekinetic Grip on the tower itself, and began the climb. One support, two, three, four, so far so good. “Shit. One’s missing.” He had to push into an enhanced jump for the next one, and the next, but his momentum was almost too much as he was forced to keep moving. Frank felt like he could take a tumble at any moment, and with a cry, he managed to jump into space, pulling himself towards the landing with his powers where he slammed into it with his chest. It knocked the wind out of him, and he remembered he had to grab hold of the grated floor of the landing or fall to what was surely pain, if not his doom. He gasped, and when he had a breath of air, he pulled himself up and lay there for a moment, his cheek against the metal. “Oh, I love you rust-proofed steel.”

Frank recovered enough to push himself up to his knees, and then looked over the edge. “Eesh.” He shook his head, and carefully got to his feet. He looked up, following the line of the building, and he could barely see the next landing. He was high enough now that the moonlight was helping, but below him was lost in shadow, and only his powers, and a lot of luck got him this far. Frank scowled and pulled on a set of climbing gloves, punching a fist into either palm to make sure they were on nice and snug. He flexed his knees, gathered his Power, gripping all that steel and pushed off into a Telekinetic leap that carried him in a high arc – and threatened to carry him past the landing. He grabbed at it with one hand caught it, which felt like he might pull his arm from its socket, and let the momentum swing him back towards the landing. His other hand caught hold, and he pulled himself onto it, and smiled when he was steady again. “Not bad, Franklin.”

He waited until his muscles weren’t screaming, and repeated the leap for the next landing, and the next. It was taking him longer than expected, but he had to wait, it just hurt too freakin’ much otherwise. He reached the final landing, which actually should have been the second to last landing, but wasn’t. Frank cursed a blue streak. He’d hit something of a dead end; how was he going to get around that? He leaned against the building for a few minutes, watching the moon, and telling it to give him more time before it let the tower get absorbed by the night. Frank sighed. “Nothing to it.” He removed his Pack, pulling a coil of nylon rope from it, before sending it floating up the side of the building and setting it somewhere on the floor above. He could just barely see a dangling strap to one side. “Youd’ better not fall down.” Frank hummed to himself, as he tied a loop of rope about his waist, and then tied the other end securely to the landing. “This way, if I miss, it’s just embarrassing, and not deadly.” He rubbed his hands together, and took his time in sensing the metal under his feet. Frank got a grip on it, and reached out to grip the lip that he could see. He pictured those linkages in his mind, and his knees flexed, and he jumped with all his might. There was flare of rippling air, the charge of his Telekinetics flashing golden, as he launched himself vertically towards the top of the tower.

Frank smiled wildly as the force of his TK-charged leap carried him up and up, the level of the top floor at the same height his waist was. Then he reached the zenith of his leap’s tight arc, and realized he was too far away. In that moment of weightlessness at the top of the jump, he said, “Uh oh.” He flailed his arms; desperately pulling himself closer to the tower, and as he fell, barely caught the edge with his fingertips. He hung there for a moment, and pulled himself up with a groan. Once again, he lay on the steel, one hand grabbing a hold of the wheel attached to his pack, before he groaned again and got to his feet. His Gift might be why he was being hunted, but it sure was handy. Frank gathered up his rope, undoing the knots with his mind, and kept it in hand. He shouldered his Pack again, and moved to the door. There were metal sheets here, but they’d fallen aside, he leaned in the doorway and looked down – there was light. “Great. Someone beat me to it.” He straightened up out of the doorway, cursed, and decided that after all that effort, he wasn’t going to be blown off by another squatter. They could share, or they could fight about it.

He kept to the wall, and found the first landing. He looked around and noticed the rope. He considered adding his own, but shook his head, no need to be redundant. Though it was going to be awfully hard to work anything in the dark. He looked back up, considering how much moonlight leaked in, and thought the sunlight might give him enough to work with. Frank shook his head, and tied the coil of rope off, but tucked it behind the pillar; better safe than sorry and he could always pull it down with his powers. Frank found the ladder and using TK to slow his decent, he essentially slid down the thing, and the anti-rust covering made it a little slick on the sides. Frank could see the final landing silhouetted by the blue glow-stick; he loved those, they were so terribly handy. The green ones were awful; he still had those, maybe he could trade for some blue ones. Frank could also see what amounted to a little camp on the last landing, and he hesitated to go down – he didn’t see the person it belonged to. Which meant he or she or it was in the water…did that mean it was clean?

Frank set his pack down on the second to last landing, and dropped to his knees, leaning out over the edge to look down. “Hello down there? I don’t mean any trouble. Probably looking for the same thing you are.” There was someone under the last landing, he just barely caught the line of moving legs; he blinked – moving legs that were distinctly not manly in silhouette. “Aw Christ, I’m sorry.” Frank moved away from the edge, “Uhh, The name’s Frank.”

[Cassidy]

The sounds of the world outside the large tank were dulled, silence it was something that she both hated and loved, it was some what unnerving after a time; that time had not come yet. Then it came the small vibrations in the water. Could have been someone banging on the tower like she did. Thinking nothing of it until there was a loud ‘bong’ sound that echoed through it; she ducked under the water to dull the sound and the vibrations in her ears. She used that space to scream so bubbles rose from the water while she cursed under it knowing to keep quiet. Her eyes would now follow the movement of the creaking metal. Whatever was mad enough to risk it was on that landing. She swam closer and touched one of the bolts that held the landing to the tower.

They were moving around so they were still... in existence. She growled but not loud enough to leave the water. Metal creaked and screamed inside and she in turn did the same covering her ears again as she sank under the water, it was duller under the water; the shrill. The metal sang and shrieked but then it was over when it was on the other landing higher up. There was a pause and she surfaced again only to shrink into the water again when he moved. This time the metal’s cry had her ears do the same. Then came that bong again as his body smashed into the side of the tower. “Well that sounded unusual.” She muttered before slapping her hand over her mouth.

She was debating exactly what to do, go up there and help the sucker out or hide, or go up and shove it o-f-f. Her mind was not working fast at the moment, she didn’t want to hurt someone like her just trying to find a safe place to hide. And so she decided to hide; maybe they would go away. She moved to collect the glow stick but as she was about to dive to get it she heard him. She was that someone and who ever it was didn’t exactly sound pleased so she moved around the tank instead of through the middle and over the light, this would at least keep her less likely to be seen.

She was looking up to the figure as they walked down and down into the tank. At the first landing she shied under the landing that was just before the water. He paused and she shrank back again trying to stay still but also not sink at the same time. He was moving again and so she had to as well. She tried to keep out of his sight though that was becoming very, very difficult. Then he called out and she had to let go of the landing that she managed to get a hold on with her talons so that she could cover her ears. The words he spoke were not like a Division agent and so she slunk out of hiding though just enough so that he didn’t see all of her. “The same thing? How do you know what I am looking for... I could be looking for clean water and fresh meat to eat.” She couldn’t say that without laughing.

“What are you sorry for it isn’t like you know I was down here? Strange Human you are.” Again she had to laugh at the Irony of that statement. “Frank?” she questioned her tone changed entirely as though he struck a sour spot but she fell silent this time coming out of her hiding spot entirely. No it couldn’t be Franklin. Climbing out of the water she pulled a sheet from the bag and wrapped it around her much like one would a towel covering her body entirely. “If you need water I have canteens filled I can give you one.” The cloth was pulled over her head so that it hid her face as well or much of it in any case.

[Franklin]

Frank was glad to hear another voice. He was worried there would be a stand-off, and he couldn’t very well sleep in the same room with someone that lurked in the water unseen. It was almost a relief when he saw movement, and the woman came out from under the landing. The blue light danced along her calves, but most of her was cast in a silhouette, and somehow, that made him more curious. Frank had to sit down, and try to look around the tower, rather than attempting to penetrate the water’s gloom. Her words might have concerned him, if her laughter didn’t seem so genuine. Cautiously, he allowed his senses to reach out to her, in an effort to get a sense of and for her. He found that what he sensed made him a little confused. Frank smiled, though he doubted she could see it. “I have some beef jerky, and about a dozen of something called a Slim Jim that claims to be beef jerky.” He chuckled, “Not exactly fresh meat, but I’ll share anyway.” Seeming loud to his own ears, in the echoing water tank, he lowered his voice. “Eesh. Sorry.”

He shook his head; she called him a strange human. Did that mean that she wasn’t? Not necessarily, but neither did she seem entirely human to his Powers. It was strange. Frank smiled when she laughed again, and thought that maybe sharing this tower wouldn’t be so bad after all. A little mockery was better than a punch in the nose any day. He was watching when she climbed out of the water, and saw a number of curves and lines, and made him swallow and look away. Frank saw her wrap herself up out of the corner of his eye, and looked down again once she was done. She offered him water, which was a start. “That’d be great. Is it clean? I have treatment pellets if it isn’t. I can give you a couple if you need them.” He frowned slightly, and considered what he should do. In essence, this was her water now, and he didn’t want to bully someone that didn’t deserve it. “After that climb, I could use the drink.” Frank paused, “Would you like to share a fire? I was thinking I could make one safely on one of the landings. We could warm up a can of beans.”

[Cassidy]

She winced again when he spoke, “I—I’m used to hunting, and thank you do try to keep your voice down it hurts my ears.” She could hear everything his heart beat, the rate it beat at and the way he swallowed, she could even smell his sweat on the air she tried to cover her nose but thought herself rude in that moment and changed her mind while attempting to dress without him seeing too much. “A fire might be best suited for outside under the roof... I don’t think smoked Human or... myself would be on either of our to do lists.” She turned her back to him and held the sheet with her teeth while she pulled on pants and then a bra. In the shimmer of the light from below he would be able to make out that there was something different about her skin. As she had to drop the sheet to pull back on her sweater and then her leather jacket. Breathing in deeply she smelled it and it wasn’t hers, blood. Turning quickly she drew the hood up and pulled on her gloves while she collected one of the canteens of water and the torch light.

Climbing the stairs, as it was a ladder at an angle “You are bleeding, I can smell it. Let me see.” She demanded though when she shined the light on him a moment she dropped both the light and the canteen. Taking a step back she stepped right off the landing and landed on the one below with a loud ‘bong’ that echoed throughout the metal place they were in. She lay there unmoving some what curled onto her side but that was for a brief moment once he was up so was she and moving back and away from the stairs to the edge of the landing as though threatening to return to the water.

[Franklin]

Hunting? Frank was trying to figure out what she meant by that. It could mean she hunted game, like bunnies and deer, or it could mean she hunted people. This wasn’t the best place to find out first hand. He smiled to himself, maybe she was a Siren; everything else existed, and why couldn’t there be seductive monster in a water tower in a broken world. Seductive? He snorted very softly, listening to her voice, and he looked up. “I figured air flow would carry it out of the hatch, like a teepee, but if you don’t think so, I’m fine with up there. I’d just like a little warmth.” Frank couldn’t help but laugh, “Smoked Human. Maybe that’s what Slim Jim’s are? Poor Jim.” He really did do his best not to look while she was getting dressed, but there was something about her voice, and the way she moved, he couldn’t put his finger on it. It was that, or he’d seen enough curves and lines to want to see more. Was that? Did she sparkle? Interesting. Frank sat back as she moved to come up the ladder, and then got to his feet to greet her.

“It’s nothing. Couple of scratches, and I might have come close to losing a fingernail or three.” Frank smiled as she approached, wincing slightly from the torchlight, his eyes having adjusted to the gloom. He lifted his hands to show her, actually a little touched by her sudden, if demanding, concern. When she dropped the light and the canteen, he reacted instinctively, knowing that the torch, at least, was difficult to come by. He caught them with his mind, which left him unready for her to take a step back – right off the landing. She fell like a stone, and Frank couldn’t get a quick enough grip on her, though he tried. She felt his grip, briefly, but he sorely miscalculated her weight, and down she went. BONG! He cringed, Jesus, how many times had she heard that because of him? Frank quickly dropped the light and the canteen near his pack, and then reached out for her, lifting her up again. “Take it easy, I have you.” He was about to say she weighed a ton, but he didn’t want her to take offense. Frank set her down, and quickly sat cross-legged beside her, reaching out to keep her from rolling off. “Are you alright? Just relax, try not to move.”

[Cassidy]

That grip the feeling of that force around her had her shaking in memory. He lifted her up and sat her beside him. Victor told her that Frank was dead, he told her that when they caught her when they hurt her and experimented on her. She instead of sitting beside him shifted away from him, “I am fine.” she muttered though her voice was clearly shaken. She tried to get as far away from him as she could. She was safe her body kept telling her through part of her told her that this was a reconditioned Frank that he was there to catch her. “A—are there... are they outside waiting for me. W-waiting for you to bring my body to them?” She began shaking not from the cold. Bowing her head she bit on her lower lip while she shook. Hugging her knees to her chest she closed her eyes, Frank had let her go, Frank was stronger than all the men in the division when it came to that ‘animal’ instinct.

“They got you... I am sorry Frank...” she whispered shaking violently. “But I won’t be caught.” Her eyes opened and she moved to punch him.

[Franklin]

“Well, no, you can’t be fine after a fall like that.” Frank could hear that she was still shaken by the fall. “Look, you’re fine. I tried to catch you, but you surprised me.” He blinked as she softly went on. “Are who outside waiting for you?” Frank frowned, now he was nervous. Her speech reminded him of his own experiences, and for a moment, he could almost believe she was a fugitive from The Division as well. Last he checked though, they didn’t sparkle in the light. “Your what? No!” It was times like this he wished he kept the guns he took off the a$$holes that chased him. Frank felt her shaking, and he began to shift back, to stand up and maybe decide he should check the perimeter. “Look, I really don’t know what you’re going on a--”

He cried out in surprise, but his own instincts took over. Instincts that allowed him to deflect bullets and other projectiles; her fist slammed into something temporarily hard, and there was a crackling sound along with a flash of gold. The force of the blow still pushed Frank back, and he raised his hand towards her. “What the hell, Lady! Stop it!” He raised his voice, on purpose, and held up his hand. “I’m not looking for trouble, but I have plenty to share.” He frowned slightly, his eyes narrowing. His brow furrowed as his eyes rose to hers, trying to find them, to recognize them. The heel of his other hand pressed briefly to his temple, and softly he said, “Please, don’t make me hurt you.”

[Cassidy]

“I am fine” she growled again some where. “Surprised you, if they sent you after me I would think they would have told you what you were up against.” She yelped as bones cracked and snapped back into place with the force of the blow and the ‘wall’ of hard air that she struck. She growled again as she moved to her feet. The raised tones of his voice caused her hands to clasp over her ears though the leather between them did not help and so she pealed off one glove then the other dropping them so that she could clutch her ears. “I am trouble, they made me, created me then f***ed me over.” She displayed the long curved Talons at the end of her scaly hands for him. “I am trouble, Tell me now did they send you after me.”

She moved towards him her eyes were dark under the hood unseen though she could clearly see his, those blue eyes that had looked to her with understanding the very first time they met she cried out “My name is Cassidy.” She shivered though she moved at him again. “No...” she stopped herself. “No...” whispering shaking her head she leapt from the landing hoping to land in the water that would at least make it more difficult for him to get her if he was after her. If not she would fight or attempt to, at least TKs couldn’t rag doll her effectively anymore.

[Franklin]

“No one sent me!” Frank repeated loudly enough for it to echo. He scowled, “I still don’t know what I’m up against.” She yelped, and his eyes were pained. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, but he didn’t want to be hurt either, and if he’d broken her hand – she wasn’t throwing a pillow at his face. That might well have killed him. “They? What the hell? Do you mean Ragnarok? The Division?” Frank’s eyebrow shot up at her claws, “Dammit, woman, have you been listening? No one sent me. You think I climbed up here for giggles. If they knew we were here they’d surround the joint, and lay siege until we passed out, or simply ambush us on the climb down or in the woods. Christ! Don’t you think I’d be bouncing you around the place like a rubber ball if I was sent for you?” Frank shook his head, and pressed his other hand to his forehead. “I don’t even know who you are.” He paused, “Right?” He sounded less certain, “I don’t know…who…I…you…”

He began to lose focus, but when she moved towards him, he used his heels to skitter back against the wall, and raised his hand again. “You stay back.” Frank warned her. He didn’t need the gesture, but it helped if you pointed something at someone with authority sometimes. “Cassidy, well, you’ll forgive me if I don’t shake your – hand.” He winced, and pressed both hands to his temples. “You stay back. I don’t wanna…I said I would…I said don’t look back…Cassidy…don’t…” She suddenly felt his grip as she jumped clear of the landing, stronger than before immobilizing her. She floated in mid-air. Frank’s blue eyes flashed with anger, and his nose began to bleed, rivets popped in the metal sheeting, making one section hang cock-eyed. “Are you f*ckin’ with me? Are you in my head?” He pulled her closer, her feet not on the landing, and with a gesture, threw her hood back. Frank’s bright eyes found hers and he held her almost nose to nose with him. He wiped the blood away on his upper lip, and she could feel the pressure building. “Oh my God, I know you…I know you.”

Just as suddenly, she was released, back onto her feet. He winced, and reached for his backpack, looking for the Naprosin he’d lifted awhile back. “You looked back, not supposed to look back.” His voice was soft and pained, “My head…goddamned conditioning…” He muttered to himself as if she wasn’t there, and with a sigh of relief, found the bottle and popped three of the pills. He found his own canteen, which had a previous life as a large Poland Spring™ bottle, and drank down the pills with the last of his own water. “Tell me…tell me something…I know you…I do…hard to remember.”

[Cassidy]

He was shouting and that caused her ears to hurt more “Yes the Baldur Division.” She clasped her hand to her ears again trying to dull the pain the sound but each word caused a thrum. “Lower your…” he shouted and she made a sound of her discomfort clawing at her cheek in her urgency to blot out the sound as a hum was growing in her ears. He said those words and they stung. She shivered again remembering the conference room his promise and then the limo she shivered more violently as flashes of inside the club came. “You do know me or knew me... once.”

He pressed her against the wall again like the very first day they met and she gasped. She had not expected it. “Let me go...” she growled though her eyes were intent upon him; he was in pain. Like before when conditioning was breaking he spoke gibberish. She had managed to get free of his grip and ran but as she leapt it was tight again coiled around her and holding her. The sounds around her caused to cry out. She couldn’t cover her ears; she couldn’t blot out the sounds. “Stop it! Please you are hurting me!” Her cry only added to the noise, the pain, her ears began bleeding to the sounds as a blood vessel took the pounding rather than the drum itself. “I can’t F*ck with you. I don’t have Victor’s gift.”

She was drawn close to him but then the hood was thrown back she pleaded. “No please…” but it was too late he was looking at her. Her eyes fluttered from the pressure that was around her. “y—yes.” He let her go and she collapsed scrambling away as far as she could get again not attempting to jump off anymore. She didn’t want to feel that hand around her. “I did not look back… I didn’t I couldn’t see anymore. They hunted me down... you helped me escape, I helped you break your conditioning that time… I promised to never forget you... I never did.”

She pulled the hood back up. “But you forgot me.”

[Franklin]

“No.” Franklin insisted, “I do know you, but – my memory – it’s been messed with so often, like a video tape you record on over and over. Things get fuzzy, hard to remember. It comes back.” He reached into his pack for a towel, and dabbed at his bloodied nose, wiping blood from his upper lip. “I know you…just…just give me a minute. No more punching.” He heard her words, had already released her, but something else struck a chord.

The panel that had been previously cock-eyed broke lose and fell into the water with a splash, the landing they were on shook, vibrating as if someone were hitting hit with a hammer over and over. “Victor.” Frank had to close his eyes, “That bastard.” He winced again, and saw the memory of his Father being shot by a sniper’s bullet, and falling over on top of him. “I had to – had to get marks – tattoos, so he can’t make me forget my Father again. Father…” He shook his head, and remembered how she didn’t want him to look at her. She was as far away as she could be without jumping off again. Frank winced again as she continued speaking, and slouched against the wall. He beat at the side of his head twice, his eyes shut tight, the platform landing shaking on its moorings. “Cassidy…Cassidy…please…I – said -- I said I would take care if you…”

“Oh God…” Frank seemed to pass out, his body went limp, his eyes were closed, and his features seemed to relax. For several moments, he was like that, and then suddenly he sat up, rolling up to his feet, his blue eyes bright, and his posture almost feral. “You have to run, they’ll be coming…I’ll get you to the rooftops.” His moved over to her, as if she were going to scoop her up, and then blinked and swayed, dropping to his bottom right near her. “Jesus…I think…Did they get you? Did you get away?”

[Cassidy]

She was listening to him from where she sat sniffing she shook her head slowly. “I told you it... was getting harder for them to condition me, that Victor’s hold was breaking, he thought there were triggers... that I put them around me. It was what they were doing to me.” she bit her lip. “I told you I had no home, I didn’t, I was born in a lab. We had instructors that were written as being our parents, there was no parental love, there was discipline and training. We as a unit took our first life when I was nine.” Looking towards her hand she shivered again coiling and flexing her fingers. She watched as the panel covered the glow stick and sighed. She was feeling dizzy, woozy from the over use of her sense of hearing. Swaying she pressed her hands to the grate of the platform and slipped her talons through it so that she could steady herself while she shivered.

Barely able to make out that he was smacking the side of his head or that he called her name. “You did, you helped me get away.” She turned slightly to look at him when he mentioned those two words his body then failed and she became slightly concerned, blinking at him she didn’t want to attempt moving, her ears still held that shrill in them that constant hum that was drowning out words. She tilted her head to one side as the pain was greater in that side. When he quickly moved she jumped and clung to the grate so as to not shift off. He spoke and it sounded more like it does when one is under water and listening to the conversation above. She frowned at his words. When he dropped she moved slightly tugging on the sleeves of her sweater so that it covered her hands.

“I got away for months many months, then they got me, I fought, I ran a bloody TK was waiting for me sent me through a drywall and into an unfinished pool. They had me then.” She touched her shoulder that was hidden and then the right side of her face. “I... couldn’t do anything... he had me, I had no powers from the last Gene therapy. Not even my Postcog remained. He wanted me to be an Asset again. There was pain so much pain. I was married, I had a life. Now I am this!?” She looked at her scaled hands feeling the tears roll down her cheeks. “They can’t condition me, my brain isn’t human enough anymore.”

[Franklin]

“Yes, yes. We were in the limo.” Frank said slowly, trying to get his thoughts in order, which was more of a task than one might think. He had been Twelve when the division got a hold of him, and the conditioning had started then. He had seen his Father killed, and lucky for them, a Childs mind is capable of amazing acrobatics to block out the terrible, the burdensome, horrors that an adult mind can barely handle, let alone the mind of a Child. So, they built on that, once they even made him believe he’d found his Father’s killer, a rogue Teke that the Division had wanted eliminated. Frank had to deal with the fact that he’d never be able to make up for some of what he had done, even if he had been made to do it. There were times when it had been easier not to fight the conditioning; the last straw had been his Father, again – it always came back to that moment. “My – my home was shot in the chest. My Father. He was home. I remember, I told you I never had one. That wasn’t true. Dad was home.” Franklin’s voice was strained, as he swallowed a lump in his throat. That one memory, as terrible as it was, was often the key to unlocking the rest. “I said I…I said I would take care of you.”

He nodded, “Good, that’s good. I’m sorry I wasn’t more help. I’m sorry they caught you. I fought them.” Frank looked at his hands now, “Killed them.” His eyes rose to hers, “With my thoughts, my mind.” Frank knocked his head against the steel-covered wall, not making a bong, but producing enough sound to make it clear he wasn’t doing so softly. “I should have killed more. I held them off for as long as I could. They – I remembered – and I lost control.” Frank noticed her covering up, and eyed the shadows of her hood. “Why are you hiding? I’ve already seen you.” He found one of her sleeve-covered hands, and slid his hand along it. He closed his eyes, and let his fingertips touch her palm. “I remember that kiss now, that goodbye. I was ready to die. I thought I would be killed, I think a part of me wanted to be.”

“Was he blonde?” Frank remembered that bastard clearly; Haydon. They’d never gotten along, not when he was a Division Agent, and certainly not when he broke mission or conditioning. “Oh, Cassidy, I wish I had known.” He shook his head. They would never have put him on her case, they’d have been worried she would help him break ranks again. “Common sense, Sweetheart. People with powers forget how much of a weapon that an be.” Frank spoke the words like he was repeating them, or quoting them from someone else. “Victor. If ever someone needed killing, that smarmy sonovabitch does.” He murmured the word, “Married? I – oh God – I let that man jump.” His hand closed about hers, and he squeezed her hand as a sharp pain shot through his mind. His eyes squeezed shut, and he held his breath through it. Frank gasped as the pain passed, “Still human. Always human. It’s the monsters that chase us.”

[Cassidy]

“You told me that my home was here,” she touched her chest and bit on her lip bowing her head again. “When I told you that I didn’t have one, and while I was running that was where it was.” He repeated those words. “You did take care of me, you did what you had to do and I got away. They didn’t catch me that day, they caught me months down the line, I got comfortable. It wasn’t your fault. I didn’t want to leave you. You couldn’t kill all of them even if you tried, just as I can’t kill all of them.” she bowed her head again that question had her grumble. “You haven’t seen me in the light.” She spoke while his hand addressed hers, she did not know that his eyes were closed when he touched her palm with his finger tips. Her palm was much like the plate scales of a dragon’s belly and hands. She drew a ragged breath when he spoke of their kiss then sniffled soundly. “Yes-yes he was blonde.”

She chewed on her lip “Known, Victor told me... that you... would not be coming to my rescue ever again, that you met your end in the hotel room I was in... when I first entered it I smelled blood old blood but I could smell it. Not fresh enough then to say it was yours.” She took a deep breath looking at their hands, she carefully took hers from his and pressed a talon tip to his hand. “Victor is dead, I tore his throat out. Twisted grabbed... there was so much pain, every move... Muscles burned my bones felt as though they were splintering and fitting back together.” She stared out into nothing. Once his hand closed about hers she felt the pressure of his and tried to remind herself that she was stronger than he was when she squeezed him back. “Nathaniel was better off dead than what the Division had planned for him. He isn’t the man I married but he was the one that first tried to teach me what love was... is.”

She closed her eyes as she began shaking again. “I married a Lycan named Richard, I—he...” shaking her head, shivering more she pulled her hand away from him she moved “I am not human. I don’t even smell human, Vampires have tried to kill me.”