ArchivedLogs:Fox and the Hound I - Cold Open

Fox and the Hound I - Cold Open
Dramatis Personae Tatters, Lily, Arcenn
In Absentia	2013-06-10 The Francis girls take a road trip to somewhere predictable and cliched.
Location Nowhere, USA
"Jill." "Yeah." "It’s looking bad back there." Jill shook her head. "We’re not done yet." "They need us." "They don’t need anything I can do. I can’t punch all that crap away." Jill turned her head to meet the checkered eyes staring at her accusingly over a newspaper. "This is important." "It’s sketchy." "I know, that’s part of the deal. I’m getting creeped on, that needs dealing with." Light rain pattered through a weak cluster of trees nearby. Besides the sisters, the only other traveler at the bus stop was a tired looking businessman with his sunglasses atop his head and his eyes glued to a phone. "You know." Lily’s face was impassive as she gave the newspaper a rustle and dropped her eyes to the page. "Maybe it’s good that we’re out of the city for a bit. It’s safer out here." "Sis?" "Yeah?" "Shut up." Forty minutes later the bus came. Two and a half hours after that the bus exploded. . . . "THERE WAS NO REASON TO DO THAT." "Oh, I’m sorry, were you using that?" Sparks crackled as the man ground his teeth together, cracking his neck and giving Jill a wide eyed look. "Using that to get somewhere?" "YES. ALSO THERE ARE PEOPLE LIKE -- LILY ARE THEY ALRIGHT?" "...maybe!" The response sounded very small next to Jill’s booming voice and the persistent, metallic whine slowly circling the gas station. Small, and distracted: she was trying to turn her sweatshirt into a bandage for the bleeding bus driver, while the businessman, pale and stressed, talked quickly into his phone as he stood nearby. There was no sign of movement from the gas station itself. Worry churned in the pit of Jill’s stomach -- apparently that feeling wasn’t broken. She looked back at the man. "WHAT IS EVEN YOUR DEAL?" "I’m the first of many. You’re fucked, Tatterhood. You’re alone, in Bumfuck Widwest. You’re alone, and we are coming for you." The man stood up straight and cracked his back, shaking his hands out as the whining grew nearer. "OH MY GOD YOU’RE A FRIGGING RANDOM ENCOUNTER." "And you’re just a dead little girl." With a ear-splitting shriek a vertical metal disk skipped across the hood of the ruined bus, exploding towards Jill in a rain of sparks and metal and noise. Without thinking, she turns and punches it.