#So yeahif anyone wanted to know what happened before Audrey was put under Angel's wing on helios. here it is

[percurrere]

Audrey’s regular meal of boiled skag meat wasn’t going over in her plan. She was simply sick of it that day. Everything happening, she barely wanted to leave the canyons, none of the bounty hunters or any of the other now crawling in the Dust for that Hyperion ass. She thought that sending the guy on his way would make them follow and leave but apparently not. They still were sniffing out every crevice for some group of idiots that dived into something they shouldn’t and Audrey didn’t want to make herself suffer because of them. Fuck it, she had to interact with someone, it’s been at least a week since being face to face with someone. 

She had gathered her courage to leave her guarded shed, taking her supply bag and a few things she could sell for cash. Weaving her wings into existence, she took the shorter way to the outpost she frequented, straight up and out of her hiding place. A walk into town felt different with more eyes watching her than normal, she had dissipated her wings at that point, nothing but some grey blotches on the skin of her back would be the only evidence. She had to wave it off, get rid of the paranoia, not like any of these people would try anything. If they were new, she had enough to bare her teeth and get people to learn. The normal interaction with a few food cart owners and bargaining let her have some decent food for a day or two. Some jerky with some flavor, packaged granola, a few crappy ration pack from various corporations as well. Unfortunately being a sucker for things that reminded her of home, she swiped up a can of pineapple to hoard and save for later. It even made her want to carry it in her hand on the way out of the town to the outskirts not thinking much about the ones that had watched. 

One look over her shoulder to the distant shacks and she brought her wings back out once again for the drift back down to her place. The some people came out of nowhere, obviously aware of the surprise and distraction with the small bit of nostalgia. Quickly finding herself surrounded by some bounty hunters and a few extra bandits for muscle, Audrey had to consider what would be her next action. Fighting seemed to be her best chance, screw anything peaceful.

The apparent leader stepped out from the circle, what they looked like wasn’t exactly important, what was glinting in their hand was. Hard to tell when it was that bright and the sickeningly slow approach was. 

“All of us here get how this can work out. Don’t make it difficult for us, girly.” 

There’s seven of them, wheres the weak link? Which way does she need to go to get out, stop them. Audrey’s response was putting her arms in a fighting stance while the threads wrap around her hands and fingers to give her claws.  Her own voice growled back. 

[I won’t, you leave now, I won’t rip off your arms and beat you with them.]  That got her a little chuckle.

“Please, let’s get on with this. I’ll let you have the first hit. I’m almost curious to see what a little abomination like you can muster.” The free hand waved while the girl already started to pounce, holding her hands so they would attach and claw into whatever they hit. 

Another had run up behind her to hook their arms under her own in the midst of that impulse attack, now making her think that she had taken some easy bait. Another two go for each arm, getting their share of bloodied faces from her scratching and thrashing around. Plenty of distractions happening around her, she hadn’t noticed the taser come into her peripheral and into her side. The pain soon followed making the woven strands around her arms to evaporate while brain attempted to keep up with the pain. 

“Be ready with the mask, we have a few seconds before someone gets impaled.”

That was what had make her stop moving, as well as giving her a nice reminder of what it was like to have the collar on and working. Right after came what was then her reminder to keep struggling as a face mask attached to a small tank was being pushed to her with something hissing out of it. Audrey’s head instinctively jerked away only to be pulled back by the hair into breathing in the crap that gave her almost immediate nausea. 

“No. No. Take a rest now. That’s it.” Their demeanor went from snarky to all business while she lost strength. “Get the tech-guy…” Audrey had heard almost every other phrase while weakly struggling to stay awake. “…she’s basically gone…” Fresh air had hit her lungs finally right when she was thrown over a shoulder and the last bits of consciousness slipped. “…Good work…” 

Making things seem like a nightmare wasn’t helping her while coming back to ever so slowly. The metal around her neck was back to being tight and lightly humming with the energy being contained it it. No. Dammit. That realization came with the feeling of being unable to move in the dark. It felt like she was wrapped up in a bed-sheet with another sack over her head. She then found herself to be in a box or crate of some sort when people started talking, a little muffled out. 

“It’s awake”

“I know. It’s easy to tell when it whimpers and worms around like that. Not like anything can be done, just gotta’ wait for the ship and then it’s payday.”

“Wont it do that thing where it tried to stab us with her mind?”

“Not unless she wants to be a human lightning rod.” A slap of a hand on metal startled her, maybe even on purpose. 

“That’s enough, boys. We have company.” A third voice came in even more distant with the sound a door creaking closed following. Two pairs of footsteps is what she thought was heard. Then a noise of a lock opening in front of her made her squirm away from what she would expect was hands to pull her out. That was what happened, a pair of hand grabbed her by the arms behind her back and hooked around her waist as well to drag her away from the defensive curl to be mustered.  

“Let me see it’s face. We don’t take kindly to being tricked. Besides I need to re-register the collar into our systems if you have the right rat.” A device beeped and clicked on at the same time, while the bag over her head was finally removed to a grey room and the same bandits that took her in the first place. Then she looked over to a man in one of those tacky Hyperion suits with a scanner of some sort in his hand. A goon’s hands held her head in place while the piece of tech was held up to her neck and chimed as a confirmation of sorts. “Damn, still have the original on her, I’m impressed.” Then it was moved a few inched away to send a line of light down her face to scan it as well. It made the same chime again and the fucker stood back up to wave forward his own back-up to push her back into the stupid crate. “Thanks for finding her, you’ll get paid soon. We have to leave but feel free to keep in contact if you find any other bounties.” The bars locked in front of her a buzz from the control panel on top indicated for the cage to go dark. “I’ll take this little brat home now.” The wheels attached roll forward and all she can manage is to keep quiet and wait for the hell soon to follow.