Emilein Varin Polock's Story

Just outside Canton, Ohio. 3 years ago

Camping trips were always a pain for Emilein. A late graduation trip her parents said as if to justify the fact that she hated camping with them. They sat outside their RV, an elderly man and slightly younger woman sitting around a campfire, talking to one another about things that she really wasn't listening to.

She rolled her eyes and sighed heavily and put her head in her hands in boredom. "Now why am I out here again other than a supposed "late graduation trip" She asked out loud, making the two look in her direction.

"It's good for you, baby girl. You need to get outside more." said her father with a slightly annoyed tone.

"That what you said when you forced me onto the cheer leading team."

"But you need to get out of yo-"

"I'm majoring in computer building, dad. I don't need sports."

He looked like he was about to say something, but stopped at the fact that she was right in a sense. Her mother at the other hand seethed. "You know you don't talk that way to your father."

"And you're not my real mother. So don't act like you've been able to discipline me all these years."

"Now hold on!"

Emilien stood up in annoyance. "No. Ever since I got into highschool, you two have been nothing but over bearing idiots who want nothing more than a perfect daughter that never happened. It's a wonder how I got any friends in four years of you talking for me."

Both of them looked stunned as she turned around and walked into the forest. As if they couldn't do anything to keep her in their sights.

Emilien walked for what seemed like a couple hours as dusk was starting to settle over the forest. Strangely enough, it wasn't getting any cooler. She started to feel warmer in fact, and itchy. She looked down at her arm, feeling what started to feel like a burning sensation. A small carpet of black fur started to blanket her arm as a sharp pain in her mouth and back smacked her in the face like a fright train. She feel to the ground, the agony of it becoming too much for her. Soon the world went dark.
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When she woke up again, the moon was over the treeline but it wasn't as dark as she remembered it. As a matter of fact, she could see perfectly fine, no flashlight needed. She hoised herself up from the ground into a sitting position. The ground felt a bit different as well. She looked down and nearly screamed. Claws and black fur covered her hands and arms, keeping them warm from the breeze she could feel blowing in the wind. she put her hands to her sides, feeling more fur. it was over her chest, now hoodieless and not in anyway cold. However, the fact there was a weight on her back. She looked back, large bat wings staring back at her.

Before she could even have her freak out, the snaps of sticks in the distance started to sound off. People's voices, people that where looking for her. She looked down at herself and then back to the distance. She wanted out of her life, and this was her chance.

She grabbed what little of her hoodie was left and ran.

Running into what would be her new life.

Present day, New York City

It was one thing to be in the mid west where one could fly unnoticed at night due to the darkness of it all, but day time in the east coast was another beast eniterly. Emilen had never been on the east coast before, but her mutation made a lot easier to get around from the most part, the problem was keeping herself hidden durring the day. Over the last couple days she had been in the city, Central park had been her haven due to the size. She could stay out of sight during the day and earn a bit of money at night from people thinking she was a street performer.

For someone like her, this was a dream. At least during the night.

At the moment, she stayed in one of the caged areas out of sight from the public. Every now and again, she did chase off the occational crazy hobo from her "den" as she counted the single bills she had earned from the night before. She sighed, looking out through her sunglasses to keep from blinding herself.

"I need to move soon. Too many crazies at this point." She muttered to herself as she started to back her things in a large duffle bag. The day had become a bit of a nusience to her, but the people were even more of a bother. She started to put on a large hoodie to hide her wings, and sweat pants in a effort to look like one of the joggers and a beany to hide her ears.

Soon she made her way through the paths, most of them being empty for the most part. The bat woman started looking at a map, various parks x'ed out with a marker. the next and last one was near a school of some kind. The thought of this made her shiver. "That was some hell." she said to herself as she made her way to the street in the direction of the park.

She knew that new yorkers often didn't look at one another on the street, something that just didn't happen back in her home town. There was some safety in that, but she knew there was only a matter of time until she was discovered by someone.

As nerve-wracking as the walk was going, it gave Emilein time to sight-see somewhat. Many shops and the seemingly endless stream of people in this city. The thought of flying through without a problem or care in the world seemed so out of her reach though. Too many people would probably run in fear or even worse; try and shoot her down. And trying to out maneuver people with guns looked a lot harder than over woodlands and prairies.

She pulled out her map again, looking down at it and looking up at the street. Moving to near the shops, she lifted the map over her face, hoping to hide in plain sight. However, something started to pull on her leg, not something should would have expected in a place like this. Snapping her head downwards, she saw a little girl wrapping her arms around her leg and shaking in fear. She looked around, looking for an adult of some kind that was looking for the shaking child. After a few minutes, she saw none; just the constant stream of people that she had been seeing.

She bent down, trying to calm the child from her fears.

"Are you lost? Where your mum?"

"Idunno..."

"Are you from here?"

The little girl nodded and looked around like someone was trying to get her.

"Is someone after you?"

"Bad men."

Emilein nodded, looking around herself as she hoisted the girl up in her arms. "Come on. We'll find some police men to take care of you. Ok?" She said trying to coo the young one in the sence of safety. Although the loudness of the city was deafening by her standards, she could hear people nearby clear as day. Some complaining about work as they walked, other playing spot the tourist. Something she used to play back home, but with less venom in her voice.

She felt the fear of the girl in her arms starting to amp up as if something was behind them. Glancing back, she noticed two men dressed in black clothing. Although it raised her flag, most of the people here wore dark clothing a lot. But walking with a purpose and towards her was something that she would notice.

Emilein walked faster herself, petting her head of this girl who quaked in fear. "Do you like bats?" Emilein asked as she turned into an allyway. The girl shrugged as she saw the men charge after them. "We're about to go for a ride then."

She risked exposing herself, but the safety of this kid was more important than her own well-being at this point. Turning around, her wings tore themselves free from the hoodie, causing the men to scream in absolute terror out of the allyway as she climbed up the wall and fire escape on the roof. She was making quick pace with a four year old kid and a large duffle bag in tow, but the importance of either was something she didn't care about at this point.

She jumped down the building once again, letting her wings parachute her down onto street level. People screamed and panicked, yelling that a monster was going to eat the kid she was carrying. "We're almost there. Just a little longer." she said as she started shoving people out of the way.

The police station was just within a wing flap away of being homefree, but the amount of people made it seem like an eternity. Cops were already pouring out with their hands on their guns. Stopping short of the station, she put the kid down and knelt beside her. "You're safe now. ok? Just cling to one of them and tell them what happened. I have to go." The kid nodded, holding toward one of the police officers as she bolted down the street, causing a lot more panic than she would have wanted.

As she ran, it seemed like the people where starting to get younger and younger, a majority around her age or younger. "University!? No one shuts up here!" she groaned to herself as she darted into the nearest building that she could get into. However, that building looked more like a hall full of kids that, to her, she wanted to throttle with her bare hands in the past. Right now, wandering the halls with fur and folded wings was going to prove to be a difficult thing to deal with from the looks of gawking students.

((double post...))

If it wasn't for the fact that she was an over sized bat woman, Emilein could have hidden in plain sight among collage students. Most stayed far out of her way, wearing faces of either confusion, fear and even disgust among them. Very few of them looking at her with a look of curiousity. It was quieter than it was in the city, but any voices she could hear where usually one of the many "make a run for it" look and the sound of camera phones going off as well were starting to become a bit of an annoyance.

She had heard something about a lecture nearby, and by the flow of people that she had started to see, in her mind, it wouldn't hurt to see what the whole thing was about. She smiled to herself as that thought of a computer science lecture going on as she was supposted to major in computer science in the aim to build her own machines as a job instead of a hobby. Not only that, she could get out of the hall and get into a cool room for a while to lay low until the crowd outside started to thin out.

Emillein skooted herself into the lecture hall, crouching in the back as she raised her tail to balance herself as she tried to keep herself hidden in the back where the highest of the seats were until the coast was clear. The coolness of the room felt like a well needed breeze of air, dropping her duffle bag beside her as she sat below the sight line of the very back seats. The thumbs of her wings could be seen over the seats like little decorations on the back of the chair as she took her breather. Her eyes closed, only listening to those remaining in the lecture hall as she now knew that she had missed it. At the very least, she could hear what the speaker answer some questions from those who remained in the hall.

When their lecturer called for a ten minute open forum, Leila didn't take the chance to ask her questions. The number of people within the lecture hall made her uncomfortable. The ten minutes passed by fairly quickly, most folks just clarifying bits of jargon he'd used and a few follow-up questions regarding them. She wanted to ask much more in-depth question, such as sporadic appearance of mutant abilities or if it could be developed at some point beyond the womb (by natural and not radioactivity or chemicals). However Lei's questions were much too specific and most would question her motives.

Much like the green-haired girl that her seatmate was now patronizing. Her brown eyes remained focused at the task at hand, neatly folding the slide show copies into a precise rectangle, but she had on ear on the conversation. Ah, being superhuman had its uses. Despite the general noise from the lecture hall, she could still pick out their voices fairly well. Finally though, she finished packing up. She stopped paying attention in the middle of the green-haired teenagers speech, having lost interest. Pushing her chair back, she stood up placing her tablet into her bag when something lightly bumped into her.

Although -- she frowned as she looked towards whoever'd bumped into her -- it was hardly lightly for the girl. Behind her was the man who'd she'd sat beside. However, Leila had a rather less positive opinion of him now that he'd heard him speak.

A small smile decorated her face as Lei responded to his query. "No, I just have both feet firmly planted on the ground." The subtle jab at his overconfident aura and patronizing words probably wouldn't go unnoticed, but she inclined her head to indicate that that particular line of conversation was over. A polite smile still remained pasted on her face though.

"It's fine." The young girl with the green hair had piqued her interest; just why was the charismatic man so interested in her. Leila's eyes followed after the girl, taking into account the general surroundings. She turned back to Jayce, whose smirk was irritating her. "I guess we'd better follow after; I think Mr. Neurus would be a lot more considering of our questions if we approached him as a small group."

Waiting with the rest, she watched as the rather young and awkward-looking scientist talk to the last of the current round of questions. When he finally said goodbye, he turned towards their group. "I hope you don't mind us borrowing your time for a bit, Mr. Neurus. I've got a number of questions and so do these two." She did her best to smile and make him feel at ease because quite frankly, the man looked ready to run. "I'm Leila Tan, by the way." She turned around as she heard a chair scrape against the floor, her eyes briefly meeting a certain black-haired girl at the back. Leila gave a small smile as greeting and inclined her head as a gesture to join if she wanted to, then turned back to her current conversation group.

The scraping of the chair made Emilien jump somewhat and her wings spread slightly out to the sides. The sound of anything with a sharp ring or something else like as bad of dog whistles often cause her pain, like the sound of this chair. She turned to see what was going on, being able to hear perfectly from where she was and was only really there was listen, not speak.

She noticed someone down in the front, someone who had noticed her. She looked to her left and then to her right, confused. 'she probably thinks I look still look human. I blow my cover in front of these people, the cops may come shooting.' she thought to herself as she waved back to her in a 'no thank you' manner and sank back down out of sight.

The bat could feel herself getting nervous, listening for the foot steps of the others when they would finish and start walking up. For the moment though, this hall was cooler on her fur and out of the sun. Something that, sleeping in New York parks and carrying a duffle bag large enough that it should be a camping haul with everything to make a mini-apartment outside with the expection of internet access, but even then she has had problems in the past with people. And they did seem nice. The shock of green hair on one of them made her think of someone who she had seen at conventions. Maybe some hair dye that never came out.

She looked around again, making sure that no one wasn't around. She soon crouched on all fours, pushing her duffle bag across the floor and around the corners of rows and trying to be as quiet as possible and as quick as possible. The curve of her wings could be seen over the seats and the flash of her tail could be seen behind her as she moved from row to row.