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Dec 26, 2009, 8:11am

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Topic: Second Chances (Read 131 times)

CoffeeKraken
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Second Chances
« Thread Started on Jul 11, 2007, 7:42pm »

Jennifer Calhoun
For a long time Jennifer didn't understand why her mother kept her around. It was obvious she was more in her mother's way than anything else. Then she found the government checks and began to understand. It wasn't long before she was stealing her mother's cocaine stash to sell for money of her own. Whenever she was caught, she was beaten soundly, either by her mother or by one of her mother's boyfriends. Eventually, she found herself on the streets where life wasn't any kinder, but at least she felt like she was living on her own terms. She criss-crossed the US, sometimes by stealing cars, sometimes by hitching rides, sometimes by having enough money for a train or bus ticket. She sold stolen goods, drugs, her body, anything that would give her enough money to move on to the next place. Always one step in front of trouble or the law, she always did what her mother taught her best: look out for number one first and fuck everyone else. In the morning of May 22, 2002, she thanked the truck driver for giving her a ride and hopped out of the cab to greet the sunrise and the sea air of Independence Port.

Hallowbane
Even other Nictus hesitated at the one known as Hallowbane. Self-serving, arrogant and, unfortunately for others, fiercely efficient at eliminating rivals or enemies, it scoffed at the ideas like mercy and forgiveness. It took what it required to benefit itself and hunted down Peacebringers with glee. While doing just that, it narrowly escaped being plunged into the hellish maw of a Rikti portal. As the attack began, it found itself trapped under the rubble of a building with the very Peacebringer that it sought to destroy. Wracked with pain its host body slowly died under the heavy concrete. The Peacebringer spoke to Hallowbane patiently for days, or perhaps it was only hours. Eventually, they both emerged, unbound, and the city lay in ruins around them.

Chance Calhoun
Nothing in her life had prepared Jennifer for an alien invasion. It was the stuff of movies, childhood nightmares and internet conspiracy theories. Before, she had always managed to scrounge or steal what she needed. But now there was nothing left and she was not the only one who picked through the rubble looking for anything of use. There was no food, no water, no way to travel or escape except to keep crawling over and through ruins, hoping nothing collapsed at the wrong moment. The worst thing was the fighting. No one seemed to care about civilians and God only knew what happened to the ones caught by the Rikti. The lucky ones died, she supposed. It wasn't long before she was hungry, aching and terrified into exhaustion. It could have been days, or it could have been hours.

It knew that its time on the planet without a host was short. The Peacebringer had said so and what little it cared to know about being unbound confirmed it. All humans it approached shunned it, all except for one.

She sat hunched over three cans of green beans. She hated green beans, but beggars couldn't be choosers, she decided. And she was going to be damned if a bit of swamp gas was going to scare her away from a decent meal.

By dawn, the pair had worked up an arrangement. They would refer to themselves as female and they would never use the name Hallowbane.

-----

"And you do... what, precisely..?" the haggard Hero Corps recruiter asked.

"Well, I'm not sure really," the woman paused, running her hand through her bright red hair. "I'm not exactly a Peacebringer, but let's just say I'm working towards a similar mindset."

"Riiight... What's the name you'll be going by, ma'am?" he asked, trying to avoid looking into the tar pit pools she had for eyes.

"Chance," said the woman, "Chance Calhoun."

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