Dollars and Sense

The safe was probably the safest place in this sorry little structure that was once a bank. It had long ago been looted and ransacked, security drawers collecting dust and debris on the floor under the darkening sky. Mika's form stood out from the mess, curled into a tight ball as she slept dreamlessly on the cracked and cold floor. Her long hair cascaded over her back like a cape, curling onto the floor as she drearily shifted from her mildly uncomfortable position.

She felt like someone had weighted her head. She dully wondered why her head felt like it was glued to the floor as she opened her eyes, blinking slowly at the wall in front of her. Where was she? Why was she on the floor? And, eww, was that a spider crawling in front of her face?

Mika jerked back, letting out a shrill noise as her hand snapped out to slap that hapless spider into mush. She slapped her hand over the crushed carcass a few more times before attempting to pull back, falling over a discarded drawer before landing on the floor in a sprawl. Her face looked confused and scared, eyes flitting around the dark room as she panted and rose slowly to her feet. The young woman hunched over a little as she hugged her own shoulders before hesitantly moving toward the door to look out at the world beyond the room.

"H-hello? I-is anyone h-here?" Mika sounded like she was going to cry, biting her lip as her boots crunched softly over the broken stone floor. "This isn't funny. It's not! Really! Come out and take me home right now!"

She called out, only hearing her own voice as she paused.

"Please?"

The girl, thing...whatever, sat up, gently, quietly. She could smell the very dust that hung heavily in the humid air; it smelled of concrete, paper, and another metallic smell that she was unable to identify. Perhaps copper, or nickel, either way it was strong. The smell seemed to be embedded in the walls, as if this building had held some of those metals for years on end. Maybe this used to be a storage building? She did not know. Not that it really mattered anyway.

Something shrill caught her immediate attention. The girl cringed at the sound, her ears rang as the sound died down. There was a sudden realization from her part that she was not being held in walls; the doors no longer existed in the building, their frames staring blankly at the destruction surrounding them. She stood, glancing quickly at her surroundings. The place certainly wasn't very clean; broken glass and shattered concrete littered the floor surrounding her. She grumbled slightly, wiping of the dirt from the soles of her animalistic feet.

The breeze picked up again, making her look up, and awe. There no longer was a roof to the place, and she had never seen a dusk sky, or any sky for that matter. Little speckles of light shone brightly above her, yet another distraction stopped her staring at the sky. Another sound; human this time, the sound of a woman, with obvious....fear?
"H-hello? I-is anyone h-here?" it said. "This isn't funny. It's not! Really! Come out and take me home right
now!" it continued. The girl wanted to investigate, but was unsure whether she had the permission to leave the room that contained her. There seemed to be no-one around her, and the walls were all broken anyway.
"Please?" once more. She stood, walking carefully across the desolate floor.

In the other room there was a woman, obviously. She was curious though: no white coat, no tray with needles, only quite battered civilian clothe. She seemed scared, a first.

The thing looked at the human. It seemed all of the building resources were used to make her long, thin, and slightly muscular. She wore nothing to hide herself, standing confidently, staring at the human. Yet she was not fully human; anywhere from elbow down and knee down had tough gray-black tough skin, a spike like apparatus coming out of each heel and elbow, toes dragon-like adorned with straight, sharp black claws. She only had three fingers and what could be used as a thumb, each with more straight claws. She swished a plated tail, with a long heavy knife-like spike on the end. Her hair was blond, shoulder length, straight until you reached the ends, which were slightly wavy. It looked like no-one had cut it for a while.

"Home?"

Mika paused before stepping into the room proper, blinking as she glanced at the darkening walls out of vague curiousity. There was a light somewhere? That meant there was someone here, right? She turned around, only to see another wall and no light to be seen. The girl was shaking, scared, and that fear only intensified as she lifted her hand to press against the wall (is it see-through?) and she slowly realized that it was her that the light was coming from.

She was glowing like a nightlight, her skin almost shimmering with an eerie will-o-wisp light that broke through the shadows. Mika sobbed, hugging herself as she stepped out of the doorway into the room beyond. What was happening? Why was this happening? The young woman stopped, looking up slowly before catching sight of the figure of the clawed, tailed female that stood in the middle of the room. Her wide eyes glanced down at the woman's hands and feet, that swaying, heavy tail and finally that shadowed face set in a halo of blond hair.

"Oh God." That's all the brunette managed to say, sobbing again as she clenched her eyes shut and tried to crawl into herself. "P-please d-don't eat me! Please! I don't know what's going on. I don't know. I'm glowing and everything's gross and you have sharp fingers. I don't want to die!"

Mika finally burst into tears, sniffing loudly as she started to slump toward her knees in the dirt and rubble. Her own hair draped over her face as the last of the sunlight died. The girl's glowing seemed to intensify, casting the room in yellow light broken by jagged black shadows.

She was glowing. Positively giving off enough light to be able to read a book. She looked scared, the girl thought she couldn't possibly be human. Humans are not scared. They are emotionless, and their typical attire is a white coat with rubber gloves. No, it was impossible she was human, humans do not glow. Ever.

Finally, the not-human saw the other non-human, and she began to speak. Panic, fear, loss. The sharp fingered female frowned, confused at the words that the glowy one said; please don't eat her? Ew. She might have been hungry, but tended to try and avoid glowing food. Instinct. Then, the glowy one burst into tears. The tall one cringed at the noise; it was loud, painful and...and...heart breaking. This was absolute torture; stop, she must stop!

"Mreeeehhhh!! Stop it, stop stop stop!" she barked. "No, no more." There was a jab of something she had never felt before. The naked female pounced over to the source of light, feeling compassion for the other one. She gently wipes the tears from her face, looking uncomfortable at the sight of water falling from her eyes. The tall girl seemed not to mind the fact that she was naked, nor did she seem to mind that Mika was as bright as a night light. She made a face, wanting her to stop crying, she actually put a clawed hand on her face. It was large enough to cover it all, and partially wrap around half her head.

Sharp fingers. Sharp fingers!

Mika's first instinct was to jerk away from that hand, pull away and run as that stranger bounded toward her. But fear kept her feet still, freezing her in place as she watched the other female reach up to wipe off her face. She looked at those claws briefly, shuddering a little and biting her lip before those eyes were once more cast on Destiny. She released a little whimper, lips parting just enough to let that noise out before she slowly started to calm down.

"S-sorry. I'm scared." The girl sobbed again before leaning forward to hug Destiny tightly, burying her face in the other woman's neck before pulling away to hug her own shoulders. She looked up at Destiny, not exactly being short herself, before looking around the room in a daze as she tried to figure out where they were. Mika was silent, a hand coming up to her mouth before stopping as she looked down at the Tick shining out of her glowing wrist.

"What? What is this? T-that's not mine, is it?! What is it?" She repeated herself before starting to pick at the tender, red skin that was starting to scar around it. No, Mika did not like this thing at all. It was ugly and scarred her skin and didn't go with anything at all. As she tried to remove it the Tick seemed to protest, causing her arm to twitch and spasm until she finally stopped trying to remove it. The brunette looked back at Destiny, brows furrowed in worry as Mika's hand finally stopped trying to claw itself. "Do you have one? Please tell me you do, I don't want to be the only one with this thing."

The woman leaned in to hug her.

She simply stood there, being hugged, not really knowing how to respond. What was this? She had never gotten a hug before, but the embrace made her feel comfortable, safe even. She didn't really move during it, but waited for the woman to let go.

That felt so strange. The only thing that had ever touched the girl was a gloves hand to hold her up, or a cattle prod, to keep her down. There was something else in the back of her mind. It was a human, with the ususal white coat. He was sitting in a chair, with wheels, waggling a finger. She remembered him, and how she fet the same way that she did with the glowy woman in front of her; comfort, safety, family.

But more panicked noises brought her back down to earth in a flash. The woman cried about something on her wrist. The girl looked at it; her flesh was red and tender around the metallic object. She looked down at her own wrist; there was one too, but her skin was healed, toughened around it, as if it had been there for a long time. She thought, but the only memory she could recover was that of that man. What was his name? Atlas? Avicus?

"Do you...Atticus?" She worded, carefully pronouncing every syllable. The tick on her arm was the last this she could be worried about; she was curious why she felt like family to the woman in front of her.

"Do you know Atticus? He is...father. Atticus?" She took the woman's tick arm, putting it down, makign it second on the priority list.

Mika looked like she was going to cry again as her hand was lowered, looking at Destiny as she bit her quivering bottom lip before looking away with a little slouch of her shoulders. Hair covered her face briefly before one hand reached up to push it behind her ear before he shook her head no.

"I... Don't know anyone by that name, I'm sorry." She sniffled a little more, hugging her own chest before looking at Destiny. "I don't remember much at all, you see... I-I mean..."

She seemed to think on this, sniffing unconsciously as her brows furrowed and a look of concentration flitted over her face. The brunette stopped chewing on her lip as she shifted her weight from one leg to the other, shivering a little. No, she really didn't remember much at all. Her name, Mika... And the fact that where she had come from was much better than this place here. She vaguely remembered having friends that would play such a cruel joke as this, but this was far too real to be any sort of joke... Maybe?

It was hard to tell. The combination of her confusion, a headache and the lack of intelligence really didn't lend itself well to long-term thinking and problem solving.

"I remember my name, Mika... And I remember that I don't come from here... But that's about it. Do you... Know how to get home...?"

The girl had been looking hopefully for somekind of sign that she knew the name, but there was none. The brown haired woman sitting in front of her kept on sniffling and crying; she snarled to herself, wrinkling her nose at the salty, teary smell. There was a sort of memory from that smell, distant as it was...she thought...remembering that everytime she smelled that, someone was taken away to never come back...



The girl sat there in front of the one who called herself Mika. She blinked, and the memory faded as quickly as it came back. Her mind was back in the place where it should be, looking at the brunette. She spoke of home. Home? She looked around the place in Mika's glowing light (how usefull); the crumbling walls stood fairly strongly around them, the door frames proud and the shattered glass did not seem out of place.

"This...this is home." she said, without really thinking. She began struggling for words. "You and me, we have been...put here. This is home now. I remember...Atticus..." her own green eyes looked into Mika's brown ones, the light making her naked body shine. "...But nothing...else...." there was a pause. "He called me Destiny." She finally said, leaving the last sentence on an awkward note.

"I don't want this to be my home!" She bit her lip, looking down before tugging away from Destiny as she wiped off her face with the back of her hands. "B-but... I guess we're stuck here, right?"

She reached up, arranging her hair halfheartedly as she looked at anything but Destiny. The girl sniffed occasionally, trying to ignore her own glowing and the creeping shadows that lurked around the two of them in that silent room. It was like a dead place, and Mika didn't like it at all. A dead city, no people to move in it's streets or shop in it's stores... It was like a giant graveyard for people long gone.

"You're named Destiny?" It was a pretty name, and the girl tried to reach out mentally for what she was called to respond to the female in front of her. She picked at her Tick absentmindedly, drawing some sort of strange comfort in her nails digging into the skin around that metal.

"I'm..." Remember, remember. Why was it so hard? Everything was fuzzy, everything gone. Her mind was like the city, another dead thing. "M-my name is Mika... I think..."

Destiny made a face. As if she had eaten a spoonful of Vicks.
The woman's whining made her worry; she did not want to lose someone else. She watched her tie up her hair, half-heartedly, and ran a hand through her own. It was still damp, straight until you got to the ends, which curled lazily.
A distant howl in the now dark city caught her immediate attention; it was far away, and there were many of them. They ran awkwardly; tiny feet making them stumble in the night. She could almost hear them blink.
The woman was now picking at the skin around her tick and Destiny could hear it clear as a bell; there was a soft, moist kind of ripping sound, as her nails caught small pieces of half healed skin. She wrinkled her nose at the sound, and gave off a low snarl.

Mika. "Mika..." she tried, letting the word hang in mid air, just past her lips. It was simple, and easy to remember. "Mika." she said again.
She stood up quickly, there would be no point in them staying in this building. They had to get on the move. Find real shelter, food, water. Although Destiny knew nothing before she woke up, her instincts told her they needed to get going, needed the basic essentials. She looked down at her new partner...and something clicked! How useful! Even though she had excellent night vision, nothing beat a source of light!

"Mika! We..." she paused, fowning, searching for words. "...we need food. We need drink. We have to go. You....can walk first. Then we will be able to see, yes?"

Mika slowly nodded to Destiny, her eyes darting around the small and wrecked lobby they were now standing in. Sometime, long ago, people would have stood in line to meet up with tellers. Withdraw their money and then leave to go about their daily life. To the glowing woman it seemed as if they were still there, specters floating through the dust and the debris as they go about their usual routines as if nothing had ever happened at all. It bothered her, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up. The sound of those dogs in the distance only seemed to cement this feeling of dread.

"Y-Yeah. I can go in front. W-we... We should find some place, I don't know... Like a church or something. They help people out, right?" She didn't sound too sure of herself, starting to step almost daintily over the rotten husk of what had once been a counter before moving toward where the door had once been. Her glow continued on, making her jump at every new shadow that seemed to leer toward her. "It's like... Like walking through a graveyard!"

She paused in front of the shamble of metal and broken glass that had once been the door, fidgeting a little as she hesitated before finally pushing her way through (carefully, she didn't want to get cut) onto the pavement on the other side. Mika glanced up and down the street, biting her lip lightly before looking back at Destiny with more than a little worry.

"Where are all the people? Why aren't there any cars, or clubs, or lights or anything?" Her brows furrowed briefly before she looked up and down the street one more time before finally picking a direction and walking. A little shiver caused her to hunch over briefly before the brunette stood upright once more. This was a bad neighborhood! She didn't need to get caught here, something bad might happen.

Destiny remained silent, not answering the questions that the woman asked.

Church? What's that? Graveyard? I don't know what that is.

The shadows played along the broken glass that littered the floor, sending sharp spots of light flying across the room. As distracting as these should be, she ignored them, fidgetting behind the woman. There was a sort of urgent growl, pressing Mika onwards.
At every jump of fear, Destiny flinched slightly, feeling a pang of terror shooting through her limbs. And there were plenty of those. She swished her tail, annoyed at the feeling; there is no immediate danger that would cause them any harm, and she didn't understand why her partner felt so scared.

As soon as the woman passed the door, she pounced through herself mere moments after. This place....she had never seen any place like it. Not that she remembered anywhere, but...there were buildings upon building, each taller then the next. There were no lights, not that she needed any, but...there is supposed to be people?

Frustrated at the hesitation, the tall one stomps in front of Mika, wrapping a prehensile tail around her wrist, getting her to MOVE. She walks in the direction the glowing one had picked, peering at her surroundings with a sharp eye, searching for a place to stay.
There isn't much really, and certainly not a soul to join them.

Or was there?

[continued on The Terrible Adventures of Cat-Dog]