Watching The Rain

[tiger]

Tiger watched the acid rain fall from her place in the ruins, hugging her knees to her chest. For some reason she loved to watch the sheets of rain fall to the ground and burn away the sand. Then again, being alone for so long might have something to do with it. She sighed internally, turning her gaze from the desert to the insides of her small home. 'There I go again, thinking like the others...' she thought to herself, frowning slightly.

All of the others in the group from her childhood had called her crazy, never wanting to admit that the freak with pointed ears could randomly hear the thoughts they'd rather keep private. She had the habit of hearing the worst thoughts the people around her had, like insults and complaints. It was quite irritating.

She sighed, laying down on the rock shelf where she was perched and turning her eyes back to the rain. Acid rain...one thing that never changed here.

[Lee Stone]

Justice walked slowy through the Ruined City, kicking aside rocks and rubble as she went. She'd followed her longtime friend Lune to the DetaB headquarters, only to find it to be incredibly boring, if safe enough.

Everything was so organized up there, with structure and rigid rules, displinary comittees, cafeterias, stores even! Stupid little boutiques and fast food restuarant and all kinds of things to trick its members into thinking everything was normal and okay. It suited some people, it suited Lune, but Justice couldn't stand that kind of self-deception for long.

After years of mistrusting people's motives she couldn't adjust well to everyone being so friendly to her. Sometimes it made her feel guilty that she wasn't interesting in being friendly back. And they were all so annoyingly patient with her! Like she was a caged animal that they just had to tame and wait a bit until she calmed down and got used to the easy way of life out in space.

So, in the middle of the 'night' Justice quietly borrowed a single-man ship and went back down to Earth for a little vacation, ending up in the Ruined City, at the edge of the wasteland, looking for something to do. Probably hoping to find some punk to beat up and help her release her tensions.

'I hope Lune doesn't worry about me too much. Even though I left a note, she's going to give me hell when I get back...the brat.' Justice thought fondly. 'Well, guess that's just something I'll have to deal with when it happens.'

[tiger]

Tiger jerked awake when fragments of thought started drifting though her mind.

'Worry about me too much......give me hell when I get back...the brat.....'

She sat up quickly, making sure not to make too much sound, while mentally berating herself for her stupidity. She hadn't meant to fall asleep out here, especially with how easy it was to see the shelf. Blockers could come by at any moment and attack her and she wouldn't even realise it.

Now that she was actually paying attention she could even hear the sound of rocks being kick and clattering down the small slope that led to her home. She glanced at the top of the slope once more before slowly inching towards the entrance to her small cave.

[Lee Stone]

Justice kicked another rock, entirely out of boredom, and watched it skid down a slope, creating a small rock slide. The bottom of the slope was much like the top: rocks, debris, crumbling homes and building abandoned for centuries. She was going to dismiss the area as uninteresting when she caught a glimpse of movement within some of the ruins. A flash of white appeared within a small cave, and then the face of a teenage girl. Justice stopped and stared a moment, trying to determine if she was a threat or not. She looked younger than Justice, but there was no suggestion that she was going to attack.
The girl was the first person she'd seen in this part of the city, so far out in the outskirts.
I wonder what she's doing this far out? Justice wondered. Maybe she just wants to be left alone.

[tiger]

Tiger had almost made it to the cave and glanced over toward the sounds again only to look straight into the eyes of another girl. Her own violet eyes widened slightly, caught between fear and surprise.

The girl was dressed similar to herself, with long brown braids holding her hair away from her face. If Tiger had to guess she'd say the girl was a few years older than herself. She was debating what to do now that the other girl had spotted her when she noticed something else to worry about.

Sheets of acid rain were starting to appear on the horizon, slowly making their way toward the spot she now rested. They would be upon the two of them in a few minutes. She glanced at her visitor again, then at the rain. As much as she would rather not have someone discover her whereabouts, she wasn't about to leave somebody out here to fend for themselves with acid rain so close. Sighing mentally, she quickly made sure her ears were adequately covered before hurrying over to the girl.

"Ummm..... I don't know if you noticed but there's a cloud of acid rain coming.... If you'd like you could take shelter with me in the cave there until its gone if you have nowhere to go.... I don't want anybody caught out here when it falls..." she said awkwardly, cursing her bad social skills.

[Lee Stone]

Justice glanced towards the wasteland at the edge of the city and saw that the rain was indeed heading towards them rather quickly. She cursed softly to herself when she saw it. She shouldn't have strayed so close to the edge fo the city.
'Oh well, nothing to be done about it now, She thought, 'Might as well take that girl up on the shelter, I'd rather not have my skin melt off.'

Justice nodded at the girl and skidded carefully down the slope, joining her in the cave. "Thank you," Justice held her hand out to the younger girl, "I'm Justice," She said.

[tiger]

Kyra watched the other girl look towards the rain, trying to ignore the thoughts that ran through her head as she did. 'Nothing to be done... shelter, I'd rather not... skin melt off...'

After her vistor nodded she showed her to the cave, not skidding at all on the way down from years of practice. She glanced over at the girl as she introduced herself, noticing that she stuck out her hand. So that she wouldn't be rude by not taking it, she started to rummage through some stuff and pretend she hadn't seen her offer her hand. "No problem... I'm Tiger. Nice to meet you."

[Lee Stone]

Justice quirked a smile when Tiger pretended not to see her hand. Either the girl was, like Jutsice, anti-social and preferred to be alone, or she was just very timid. Not one to guess at things like that, Justice decided to be staightforward about it. "Don't worry, I won't intrude long. As soon as this damned rain lets up I'll be out of your hair."

Well, it was as a good an icebreaker as any, Justice figured. Lune had always tried to make people more comfortable by being friendly and compassionate, Justice usually ended up making them angry or annoyed enough to lash out at her and forget about being uncomfortable. She didn't really care much about speaking to the girl, she was perfectly content to watch the rain in silence, but she'd rather not feel like she was treading on eggshells until she was able to leave.

[tiger]

Tiger blinked, looking at her. "Your not intruding if I was the one who asked if you'd like to stay in my cave until the rain clears. If I do end up making you feel uncomfortable though I'm sorry... I just haven't had any visitors for years," she said, smiling lightly. She didn't notice though that her ears had been uncovered again when she moved, showing the points of them clearly.

((I'm leaving for two weeks starting tomorrow morning so if I don't get a chance to reply for a while thats why. Sorry!))

[Lee Stone]

"Years, you say." Justice pondered aloud, "Must get pretty lonely out here. Jesus, even I see people more often that that. Although usually not by choice." Justice glanced at Tiger casually and noticed that her long white hair had fallen over her shoulders and uncovered unusual pointed ears. Justice blinked at them. 'A mutation, I see...' she thought to herself, Maybe that's why she avoids people? Some aren't very nice to those who look different, even if it something as miniscule as pointed ears.'

[tiger]

Tiger shrugged, shifting through some assorted dishes on a stone shelf, looking for a couple mugs for the two of them so she wouldn't seem completely uncourteous. "You get used to it after the first few months I suppose... I hardly notice anymore until the random stranger wanders by my cave."

'... mutation... see... why... avoid... people... very... look different... miniscule... pointed ears.' A small flash of confusion crossed her face as random thoughts floated from the girl beside her. Then suddenly her eyes widened and her hand shot up to her ears, though she tried to make it seem inconspicous. She swore silently, brushing her hair to cover her ears again and silently sighing. No doubt the girl would make some comment about how disturbing or strange she looked with such odd looking ears. She suddenly became very quiet, ashamed that she had put her visitor through the trouble of having to see her ears. She was always causing trouble for people...

[Lee Stone]

Justice noticed how Tiger qickly covered up her ears when she realized they were uncovered. There was no doubt in her mind that her mutation had given her some rouble over the years. Not all psychics understood that in a fewgeneration, mutations would be the norm, especially if they stayed on Earth.

Justice decided not to comment on Tiger's behaviour and instead looked back outside to the rain. Shecould smell the acidity in it and it made her nose curl. "He, is it just me," She wondered, "Or does it look like it's slowing down out there?"

[tiger]

Tiger felt a small bit of relief that her guest hadn't said anything about her ears, finally finding a couple mugs and even a few oranges as well. She glanced over at the rain when Justice asked her about it, watching for a moment before nodding.

"It will slow down for a few minutes, probably about ten, then start pouring. It usually does that this time of month," she said, placing the two mugs and a jug of clear water on a small table like rock, then setting a plate with the oranges beside it, "It slowing down like this means the rain is about half way over. I'm guessing it will be completely clear again in another twenty minutes."

She sat down on one of two small rocks that served as chairs, glancing over at Justice. 'I wonder where she came from...' she thought, not sure whether it would be rude to ask.

[Lee Stone]

"You sound like you spend a lot of time down here, Tiger." Justice remarked. " She paused as she pondered what to say. Something about being around someone quieter than her made her want to talk endlessly. At least now she knew why people always wanted to talk to her.
Justice gratefully accepted the orange Tiger offered her and began to meticulously peel it so that the whole skin came off in one piece. The whole process would take more than ten minutes and succeed in driving anyone watching into near madness. Lune always got so annoyed when Justice took her time with things. I hope Lune doesn't mind that I left her on DetaB all alone she thought. Then again, she does have that Vice guy to hang out with. Ah well, I'll give her some time to get nice and worried before I go back. Justice choked back a giggle by stuffing a piece of orange into her mouth, even though it was still only half-peeled. Naturally, the orange responded by squirting citrus juice into her eye.
"Ah! Dammit!" She cursed, and then quickly tried to cover her embarrassment by starting up the conversation again. "So Tiger...what kind of powers do you have?"

[tiger]

Tiger nodded at Justice's comment, glancing over at her. "I've been here for years. I can't remember how many though... I lost count," she replied, peeling her orange quietly. She'd found this place shortly after leaving the others... So a few years at least should have passed by now.

'Lune... Mind... DetaB all alone... Vice...' Ignoring the thoughts that were invading her mind, she blinked as her guest accidently got citrus in her eye and cursed. Tiger hadn't been around people long enough to pick up their slang and bad language, so the term puzzled her slightly.

"I'm not really sure... I've never actually gotten the chance to find out with being by myself out here..." she replied to Justice's quiestion, effectively distracted from trying to figure out the meaning of the odd word, "I can heal I think... And for some reason whenever I pick a weapon up I know how to use it somehow. I also... hear voices randomly. Its telepathy I suppose, though I can't control it..." She was blushing slightly at the end of her sentence, a bit embarrassed at the fact she couldn't control her powers and that she knew so little about them.

[Lee Stone]

"Better than mine, I suppose," Justice said absently. "I take other people's powers away. Doesn't really leave you as the most liked person in the world. I'm told being cut off from your powers is like having no arms or soemthing. I wouldn't know, I can't cut myself off, and I've never met anyone else who could do it. I guess I was lucky my friend Lune came along. I was too confrontational when I was younger and eventually someone would have come by and beat the crap outta me." She chuckled a bit as she remembered the first time she'd met Lune.

Lune had startled her, coming up from behind and Justice had cut her off instantly. Lune had stared at her for a full five minutes before she smiled and asked her to join her little group. Her offer had probably saved her life.

[tiger]

"Really? I haven't been cut off yet by you... Maybe its because I haven't gotten close enough or something..." Tiger said, blinking and tilting her head, "But why would others try to beat you up? I don't see anything wrong with you... You don't have pointed ears or look odd, so why would they hurt you?" She was obviously confused at this point, being more than a little naive.

[Lee Stone]

Justice grinned at Tiger, "I cut people off only when I want to." She explained. "And as for getting myself beaten up well...I suppose if I looked different someone would have made me miserable, but mostly I got beaten up because I picked fights. That and that cutting off a person's powers tends to make them very, very angry."

She stopped a moment and studied the girl across from her. "Did people pick on you because of your ears, Tiger? That's not very fair. No one can help how they look. Some people speculate that in a few decades we psychics will all look so different from normal humans, the Blockers would know who to shoot just by looking for someone with green skin or something."

Justice sighed deeply. What kind of place were they living in, where a group of people whose only hope of survival was to rely on each other, and instead they were destroying themselves from within. Psychics were breaking off as their own race; one might expect them to be more unified than their human brethren in light of their situation. Instead they were still hurting and killing each other needlessly, as humans had for millenia. "I guess we can never truly get rid of our humanity." She said sadly.

[tiger]

Tiger giggled slightly, then blinked, trying to figure out what the sound was. She gave up after a moment, focusing on what Justice was saying.

She shrugged when Justice brought up part of her past, trying to hide the fear in her eyes that came from talking about it. "The Others were powerful psychics... And they didn't appreciate having a mistake like me around. I was an accident. They were very kind to keep me around for as long as they did. The Others tried to cure me many times, but they were unsucessful. I eventually came to be an annoyance to the Others. So they got rid of me. Most of the Others were afraid or disgusted by me. I deserved it though. They rightfully punished me for disgracing them," she replied mechanically, repeating the 'truths' she'd been told her whole life.

Tiger thought briefly about the Others. The Others had taken care of her long after her parents had died. They'd attempted to cure her, and had provided her with far more than she deserved. If it hadn't been for them, she probably wouldn't have survived this long...

[Lee Stone]

"Cure you of what, exactly?" Justice snorted. "There's nothing wrong with you, Tiger. At least, nothing more than the rest of us. No one is the same anymore. Everyone has different abilities, a lot different than before the Earth got blow to shit. Just because some jerks tried to tell you that you were some kind of freak doesn't make it true."

Justice was angry now. The 'Others' she spoke of were no better than the Blockers if they tried to tell a psychic that only certain kinds of powers were acceptable, that minor mutations made her an outcast among outcasts. 'I'd like to have a talk with these 'Others'. I wonder how they'd enjoy being crippled and cut off from their powers while I use their heads as punching bags.'

There was a reason Justice had been given her name. Injustices like what had happened to Tiger put her into a fury. Since her parents had died she'd had a strong desire to see justice done to anyone who'd hurt people needlessly. For most of her life the Blockers had been her main target, but she'd recently discovered that even psychics were capable of hurting each other the way the Blockers did.