Rabbit wasn’t sure what time it was when she finally found a convenience store that didn’t immediately try to call the cops or lock her out the minute they saw her. Seriously, they acted like they’d never seen blood before. They did know where they lived, right? The store glimmered like a beacon on the next corner, fluorescent signs and decals on the front surface seeming to darken the lights coming from inside. It seemed empty as she approached, not yet receiving the trickle of strays who had to be up earlier than decent people. That was good; fewer people to balk at the sight of her.

Rabbit’s eyes met her face in the reflection of the glass door as she reached for the handle, and she flinched as if in pain. She had caught glimpses of herself in the reflective windows of the city all the time she’d been wandering around, and each time felt like she was meeting eyes with a totally naked stranger, the way she could know who it was meant to be without recognizing it. Rabbit had absolutely no idea how people could be so attached to looking at that bizarre, disturbing face staring back at them with such regularity. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, pushing the door open and stepping into the store. 

“Welcome to 24-7,” the clerk yawned, not looking up from the questionable cartoon program she was watching on a small screen behind the counter. The audio played somewhat quietly through the store’s PA system. A real surround-sound experience. Rabbit left the woman to her porn and turned to look for any clothes the store might be selling, finding them in a corner to the right of the entrance. It wasn’t a great selection, but it wasn’t covered in her blood yet, either. She grabbed a few things and stepped over to the counter, fishing a wad of cash out of her pocket. 

The clerk glanced at the bundle of blood-soaked bills as Rabbit placed them on the counter, then clicked her tongue before looking back at the screen. “Just take ‘em.” 

Fair enough. “Bathroom?” she asked, grabbing the money and stuffing it back in her pocket. The clerk pointed limply, not gracing Rabbit with her voice any further. 

The bathroom door didn’t really have a working lock; trying to lock the door instead pushed the door away from the frame, letting people peek inside despite also, somewhat ironically, wedging the door enough that it couldn’t be opened. So… in a way, it did have a working lock, just with a pretty big negative side effect. She left it unlocked.

Rabbit peeled the tattered, singed, bloodstained suit off herself, tossing the worthless garments at the trash bin she moved to block the door. She turned the faucet on, pulling out several paper towels and soaking them to wipe herself down with. The ash and coagulated blood clinging to her stained them dark brown and black, and it took nearly the full roll before she felt satisfied with how clean she was. 

The clothing was loose and breezy, a pleasant change from the tight stickiness she’d had to deal with that night. A white tank top, Cubs shirt, dark blue basketball shorts, crew socks, and hot pink flip flops. Rabbit thought it looked pretty nice, all things considered. They didn’t have any masks like the one she’d had before, but she did grab a black face mask and a hockey mask to go over it. Not quite the 360-degree coverage Rabbit was used to, but she supposed it would work. She let the hockey mask sit askew on the side of her head for now.

Rabbit stifled a yawn with the back of her hand as she stepped out of the bathroom, kicking the bin full of her old bloodstained suit to one side. There was some kind of commotion outside, and she glanced over to see a line of patrol cars roar past, sirens blaring. So they [i]did[/i] still respond to emergencies then. Good to know. Rabbit stopped in front of a shelf full of snack foods, considering grabbing something. She hadn’t eaten in… nearly fifteen hours, and it was starting to get a little uncomfortable. She picked up a snickers bar, opening the wrapper and raising it to her mouth with a glance at the clerk, who was predictably disinterested in her presence. 

Rabbit pulled the cloth mask down, her teeth hovering over the mid-tier candy bar in preparation to take a bite. A loud crash on the street distracted her before she could; she turned her head toward the store’s front windows in mild curiosity just in time to see a half-crushed control car go hurtling past. Huh. She shoved the candy bar into her mouth with three bites, then pulled her face mask back up and tossed the wrapper aside before vanishing with a [i]thp.[/i]

[hr]

Sirens blanketed the streets of Chicago, waking the city into chaos before the sun had fully begun to creep over the horizon. Cops on the street cower behind patrol car barricades, or the remains of such. Gangs were one thing, but there was no training to prepare them for what was filling the streets under the dusk-gray morning sky. 

A riot van swerved hard to avoid the oncoming charge of a brutish, horned lizard the same size it was. Common thugs jumped off the backs of pickup trucks, readying weapons the likes of which hadn’t yet been seen. Soldiers of metal dominating increasingly scarce bits of flesh march in disorganized formation what would normally be a busy street, some taking to the air with experimental jet packs, soaring clumsily over the heads of the police trying to maintain a defensive line - or exploding in midair when their flight suits proved less than stable. Twisted mutants crawled up to the surface of the city, pushing aside manhole covers or squeezing themselves out of rain gutters. A wild-eyed, savage-grinning young man strolled jauntily through the street, wisps of smoke rising off his skin, and standing in the middle of a crosswalk, having just sent a car hurtling through the air, a tall, four-armed woman with skin partially covered in black chitin rested a shotgun against her shoulder.

The city’s defenders wouldn’t be resting for a while yet.