The Courtyard

The night air was damp from heavy rainfall early in the day but that hadn't disturbed the sounds of nature from calling in the forested land. At the edge of this forest lay a marvelous mansion perched atop a grassy cliff; below that cliff was a shimmering lake, cascading moonlight onto its waters. Shadows danced at the bases of lamp posts stationed around the front of the house. A particular shadow moved inconsistantly from one post to the other and suddenly stopped to a dead halt under one that was dimly lit.

The figure revealed to be a young male in his late teens, leaning against the pole awkwardly on his side as he took deep breaths. Pull yourself together 0019. You've been looking for this place all day and now you've finally found it. he commended. " Maybe I can just lay here a little longer before i knock on the door." Sleep was beginning to take over him.

Bonnie had finally managed to sneak herself out of the kitchen, finding the need to be outside. She knew she wasn't on the Isle of Skye any longer, but at least the surroundings weren't as domesticated as she feared, and that did much to put a smile on her face.

She was cautious of each creeping insect, each call from a night owl or cry from a nocturnal beast. It was fascinating. As she returned from her adventure she spotted the back of a person, with a strange uniform. At the sight of him she decided to hide behind a grove of trees afraid of the new figure, knowing of the stories of enemies that the other's had spoke of.

Finding her voice she shouted,
"Who are you and why are you here! Show yourself now!"
She tried her hardest to give her voice a threatening tone, knowing it might be difficult for the figure to find her within the trees.

The voice had startled him. His half-closed eyes suddenly flew open in terror and he quickly brought himself up to a crouching position only to lose his balance and fall backward causing him to bang the back of his head against the lamp post. Fortunately, the hit hadn't knocked him out but he was dizzy. He staggered up and faced the trees towards the source of the sound holding his head in pain. " Ay, that hurt." he grumbled.

The rustling he heard suggested that she was hiding. Aggravated, he drew out the claws on his free hand. " Well, you have the nerve to wake me up but you don't have the guts to come out and face me?"

Bonnie tried not to giggle at the poor boy's misfortune, but found that she could not contain the hilarity of it all. <i>Poor guy, he looks exhausted.</i>

His response to her shouting surprised her as she tried to motion behind a tree feeling as if her body is bubbling again. 001 having explained her powers to her, though getting too shook up could be dangerous; however, the moment she touched the trees park it splintered from the atoms in her touch.

She shouted again, "What are you talking about? You were the one stalking the mansion!" Her voice a bit shaky this time.

0019 noticed that the threatening voice had now grown timid. He scratched his head at her reply. " Stalking? No, I was just trying to avoid any traps or guard dogs if there were any in a place like this." He untensed himself and let his claws sink back into his skin. He took a precarious step towards his speaker, eyes focused on her location.

The Scot watched as he neared getting a bit more anxious as her touch split the atoms in the bark of another tree. A few breaths in and out did not cease the feeling, as she didn't trust the boy yet.

"Stay right there! Why are you here!."

She now voluntarily twisted and contorted the atoms in a nearby tree, hopefully enough to make the stranger back off until someone else arrived. If some one else arrived there was.

The air felt tense around him all of sudden. One of the trees in front of him looked like it was.....moving? Impossible it must be the wind. Whatever the case he obeyed the girl and stood still. " I'm just looking for a place to stay that's all. I just happened to stumble upon this mansion as I was passing through the woods." That wasn't true. He was led here but that sounded ridiculous. She wouldn't buy that story. When she didn't speak again he took another step forward.

The air felt a bit hotter once he stepped closer and she answered by taking a step back, before she snapped a branch off a tree and prepared herself to hit him. Such a strange excuse it was!

"Your lying aren't you? You just didn't <i>stumble</i> upon this place did you."

She swung the the branch down again scared a bit as she felt it connect with something.

"I told you to stay still." She sighed a bit wishing she had one of the other cyborg guns, but after she had nearly shot through a wall she had permitted herself from carrying it unless needed.

He ducked under the incoming branch and it hit a tree with full force. Looks like she is gonna put up a fight He was thankful that it was the tree instead of him. Another swing at him got him nervous. " Okay, okay. I'll admit. I was told to come here!" he yelped. He took one more step. Now he was facing his attacker who surprisingly was just a young girl almost his age. " Listen, I'm not gonna hurt you. I promise."

<i>Promise</i> . That was a mighty strong word to be spoken to the girl, as little as the 2 syllable word was.

His explanation made sense. After all, the same thing had happened to her. The Scot calmed down placing the branch down.

"If you had just said that in the first place," she laughed a bit, "now this makes sense the claws and everything your a cyborg. But who told you to come here?"

She feared for the male's sake if either 002, 004, or 0014 came surely they wouldn't be so easy going on the young man as she was. At the thought of that, she raised the branch again.

He grabbed the branch from her hand as she raised it again. " Could you try not to hit me again? I've taken enough beatings already back at the lab. I was told to come here by some woman I met in the experimentation room. I could tell she was one of us but she was trying to be a nurse in disguise. She gave me the address to this house and left. I ended up escaping and came here as soon as i could but..." he flopped down to his knees. " I'm out of energy. I'm going to pass out if I don't get a chance to rest." He winced at the whining tone he gave her. Sooner or later my accent is going to come out too. How embarrasing.

It was impossible for the young Scot to remain stern with the male as she reached an arm to him to pull him up.

"I'm sorry for your troubles," her own Scottish accent shown brightly, and shown even more as she cursed herself in her mother tongue.

She waited for the male to accept her help as she hoped he wasn't too heavy, after all he was a pretty small guy compared to the others she was used to.

"Hold on ok I'll help you over to the house, then 006 could make something for you too eat. I won't say it'll be an easy greeting though," she giggled a bit at the recollection of her <i>welcoming</i>.

0019 accepted the girl's hand and slowly got back onto his feet. " Thanks. I'm sorry if I scared you at all. I get a little jumpy when I'm tired and woken up all of a sudden. You don't have to help me, I think I can hold out a little longer." He looked at the mansion with a worried expression on his face. " I hope there's some friendly faces in there."

Somewhere nearby, on the dark, thin streak of road which wound like a serpent through the forest, sat a lonely-looking blue 2006 Jetta. About four hours ago it had, being out of gas, sputtered to a depressing stop. Its headlights still on, it now sat picking up dust in the grass by the road.
But in fact the car was not as lonely as it seemed. For if one looked close enough one could see the form of a young woman, completely passed out sleeping and chest down on the car’s hood. Her face was spattered with little blots of motor oil and dirt, as were her skinny jeans and black floral print blouse. A delicate gold chain with a small, unidentifiable (due to the lack of light) precious stone hung from her neck and rested gently on the metal. Just as her oil-stained appearance implied, she had been trying to fix her car and ultimately failed.
So now, as night’s veil grew heavier and heavier around her, she slept, unknowing that anyone (or anything, for that matter) was nearby. Then there was a soft melody rising and falling in the distance.
As the sound grew closer it became clear that it was not a melody but the shrill blaring of police sirens. Their harsh, urgent notes rang clear, and suddenly the girl lying on her car jumped to alertness. Her fatigue immediately started to wear off. She thought for a moment as she listened to the sirens about the black-and-white military uniform she wore beneath her clothes; about the jet black scarf, boots and gloves hidden safely under the back seat. She sat up and leapt behind the forest-side of the car.
She gazed in suspicion at the blinding blue and white lights as they approached and quickly flashed by. Then, as quickly as they had appeared, the lights were suddenly unseen in the shade of the forest; the sirens changing pitch as they receded into the distance.
The more the girl thought about it, the more suspicious of the police cars she became. Why were they blowing down some dusty old back road? And why were their sirens on so early? Knowing only one way to find out, the girl slipped off her shoes, threw them into the back seat of the car, put on the pair of shiny black military boots hidden there, used the car remote to lock the doors and tucked it and the keys into her pocket. She gazed up into the char-black canopy of trees over her head. Stepping out into the road, she said to herself,
“And here we go.”
The jets in her feet sent her careening into the air ahead of a bright burst of energy, shooting over the trees in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, a gigantic mansion came into view, and she gasped. Her hazelnut-colored hair shone in the moonlight. She saw people in the windows.

The young male's eyes shifted from the little Scot to the night sky. A bright light was hovering above the trees. " Well, i didn't know that planes flew so low down here. That's pretty dangerous considering that there's mountains around. Unless...." his claws slipped out from his knuckles again. " We've got company."

There was a bright flash of light in the mansion's courtyard, like a reflection off metal. The girl flinched. Someone had seen her.
She cursed under her breath and faced down to the woods again. Twisting her hips around, she let loose another burst of jet power, now skimming low over the trees to hide herself. Well, she thought to herself, maybe if I happen to turn up, they won't connect me- since I am reasonably normal- with the jet lights. All I need is some gasoline, then I'm good to go. I mean, what kind of people actually believe in cyborgs, anyway? With that she released the jets and tumbled into the bushes just at the courtyard's edge.

Company...are they talking about me??
The Italian teen ran a hand through his short, messy brunette locks. He wouldn't be surprised if they found him, he was never good at sneaking around. He wasn't bad at it, just...not good. The boy slowly took a step to his right, he trying to get closer to the voices, only being able to catch a few words from his current location. Inching closer to the window of the mansion, the brown-eyed teen didn't bother to pay attention to the ground he was walking on. Tripping over a small mound of something, the Italian slammed into the side of the building.
Breathing heavily, he didn't wait for the figures in the mansion to do or say something. Stumbling over flat terrain, he desperately tried to escape managing to cover a few feet before collapsing against the back of a nearby tree.

Even with her normal ears the girl could hear that something was amiss. There are too many people here, she thought. She heard scratching noises nearby, as if someone was tearing the bark off a tree or something. She froze.
Then, very suddenly, and completely blowing her cover, there came the muffled bass-less sound of a cell phone ringtone...
I'm an emo kid, nonconforming as can be.
You'd be nonconforming too if you looked just like me...

...in her pocket. Bad timing.

The teen heard music playing nearby. This time, he carefully made his way to the foreign noise. He was still panting, but not as heavily as before.
"Who's there?!"
He was either really brave or really stupid. He had already alerted the people inside the mansion, so no harm done, right? Seeing another figure by the courtyard, he made sure to keep out of sight for the moment.

The girl cursed again, decided to stay in her cozy little bush and hastily grabbed for her phone. Click.
"Hey," She whispered angrily. Then her tone suddenly sounded... nervous. "Orlin! Oh... No, of course I didn't set your caller ID to the Emo Kid Song... ha ha... why would I do... Oh... Well I'm stuck out in the middle of nowhere'sville next to some creepy freaking mansion... Car's out of gas. Well... Can you tell P. to call me back? Later?... Thank you. ...Alright buddy... bye." By now her whispers had gained volume a bit.
Click.
But now someone was closer to her. Slowly, cautiously, she peered up from the bush, not thinking about whether someone could see her or not. Should she say something?

Damn, I can barely hear anything...there's probably two or more of them, it sounds like they're talking to each other about something.
"Who's there?! Show yourself, now!"
He was about to add a threat, but what could he do? He could barely walk around without tripping on his own feet and he hadn't a clue as to what was going on. He swiftly moved around, making sure that he quickly reached a tree to cover his presence, getting closer and closer until he saw the figure clearly, but it was still too dark to make out any clear details.

The girl finally decided to try out her plan. Without further ado she, probably too quickly, popped out of the bushes.
Smiling with what looked like an awkward mix of nervousness and determination, she stumbled over her words.
"Umm... Hi! Do you live here? Because my car is broken down on the road somewhere and I need some gas... to put in it... and um..." She paused awkwardly. "Yeah. Do you have any things of gasoline lying around here?"
The now-identifiable opal around her neck glittered in the moonlight. She still didn't remember she was wearing her cyborg-military boots over her jeans. It didn't look quite right. But it didn't matter, she couldn't even see the supposed guy who had been speaking to her. He was just a silhouette in the darkness.

Not ready to show himself yet, he stood still.
"Gasoline? I wouldn't know...so are you just passing by?"
Feeling more confident, he decided to show himself, getting a better view of the figure that turned out to be a lone girl. She didn't seem like a threat... He ran a hand through his hair again, often doing this when he was nervous or didn't know what to say.

The girl got a little more nervous. Actually, a lot more nervous.
"You wouldn't know?" She asked cautiously, putting in a great effort to make her voice sound confident. Although this guy looked like just a teenager, who was to say he could be trusted? "Yeah, I am passing through... well, I was. I was on the way to visit one of my friends." She took a step backward. "Well... if you don't know if there's gas here, I'll just go ask inside..." Her foot caught on a branch.
She was flung to the ground, and unfortunately another branch clipped the switch at the base of her skull. Her replacement ears were suddenly gone, and her hybrid-bat ears came into view on her head.
"Crap!" She muttered. But it was too late. She knew cyborg wouldn't be the teen's first thought. She was a freak with animal ears. Scared out of her wits, she stumbled up and prepared to run.

Startled by what had just happened and unsure of what to do, the Italian ran after her. With his athletic body he caught up to her quickly and tackled her to the ground, the two rolling over a bit before coming to a stop at the base of a small hill.
"W-What's going on!? What are...what's going on?" He repeated, pinning the timid girl to the ground. Looking at her strange ears and hesitantly reaching out touch one of them with his left hand.