EXPERIMENT X

@ rust and stardust

Taking this as an advantage, Jasmin flew after the redhead, knife raised, ready to jam into his chest. She was quick on her feet, soaring on adrenaline as blood soaked her sleeve, weighing her left arm down.

She jammed it toward his chest, a clean blow if he didn't block it in time. "You will /never/ hurt a fuckin' woman again, you fuckin' bastard!" Something beyond crazed touched her eyes, and the way she set her teeth was sinister.

--

"So, he your boyfriend?" The male tried again, causing a groan of disdain.

"Don't fuck with her. Your sexism makes me want to let her go so she can slap you silly." The girl had a voice, and a pleasant one, like wind chimes.

@ k1ssmysass

The man heard her coming and spun around in time to take the blow to his upper arm instead of his chest. He tore the knife from her hands and shoved her down, then motioned to the others and kept walking, hand clutching his bloodied shoulder.

The man tried to ask the same question about Damion again, but was met with a groan from his companion, and a warning against his sexism, something she hadn't expected. Part of her wanted to laugh, but it seemed inappropriate, so she merely shook her head.

@ rust and stardust

Jasmin took the fall like any soldier - graciously, and kicking dust up in her wake. She grabbed at his foot, all thoughts but "kill" abandoned. She swept her leg up in a sweep, attempting to pull his legs out from under him.

What he had in brawn, she had in brains.

--

"You okay?" The girl with the air-tight grip on the gun against her back murmured.

@ k1ssmysass

The man yanked his foot from her grasp, launching a kick in the general direction of her head and actually beginning to jog off. She'd proved to be too much trouble for him to finish off, and another group of stragglers seemed to be on its way to get her.

-

"I'm fine." Aspen mumbled, though she was sure the question had been asked as a habit and not because the woman was truly concerned: a formality.

@ rust and stardust

"I will rip your fuckin' throat out with my teeth next time-" She cawed, hacking up blood from her earlier fall. She'd bitten her mouth on her way down. Blood drenched her sleeve, seeping into the crevices of her palm and wedging solidly underneath her stubbed fingernails.

She stood, ears pricking toward the advancing footsteps, her body screaming ache and her face the color of the clouds.

Sliding off her hoodie, leaving herself in a pale gray tank top, she retrieved her knife, examining the gash on her arm. She couldn't see much past all the blood.

She seemed faraway, half oblivious to the approaching group.

"Jackson, get her up. I'll get a medic." Lydia was never good around blood, her voice a scratchy hiss.

"No-" Jasmin puffed, "I can - lemme' walk."

--

"They won't hurt your partner much. Just enough to stun him so he won't come after you," The foxy, feline girl drawled, keeping her voice low.

"...Ignore him. He's an asswipe, totally. Nobody likes him but himself, but that seems to be enough for him." A ghost of a smile passed her lips.

@ k1ssmysass

Jackson rushed in, seemingly putting his previous hesitations aside as he threw an arm around her waist and guided one of her own over his shoulders. "'I'll get a medic,' alright. Lydia's not the best around open wounds." He joked, hoping to keep her mind off of the gash down her arm. "Can you make it back, just in case?"

The brunette turned her face halfway toward the other girl, eyes narrowed slightly. "Why are you being nice to me? And why the attack in the first place? We weren't across the line." Her irritation was evident.

@ rust and stardust

"I don' wanna get blood on you-" Jasmin chirped objection, blinking fog from the edges of her vision. "I can make it." After a few beats of silence, she whispered, tongue feeling fuzzy, "Gosh, why're you so beautiful?"

She was out of it.

---

"You'll have that explained later. As a woman soldier, I feel the need to bond." She rolled her eyes.

@ k1ssmysass

"Good genes." The man said sarcastically, declining her request to walk alone for fear of getting blood on him on that basis. "Good. Hang in there." He could see why she'd gotten into trouble; she didn't have a filter.

-

"What do you mean, I'll have that explained later? We weren't on your land," The girl snapped again, dark eyes ablaze. Damion was getting 'stunned' back there, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

@ rust and stardust

"Are you wearing jeans?" She looked down for confirmation, a shy, tame smile touching her lips. "I wanna get drunk after my arm is fixed. Do you wanna get drunk?"

Blood smeared down the sleeve of his shirt.

---

"Look - they won't really hurt your boyfriend, all right?" She hissed back.

@ k1ssmysass

"What? Yeah. Yeah, you're gonna get drunk. On pain medication." She'd be out for the rest of the night, which was a shame, because in her delirium, she was actually sort of amusing.

-

"What about me?" They weren't exactly on a Sunday evening stroll, and she wanted answers.

@ rust and stardust

"Us." She forced emphasis. "Us! I have a flask in my bag. C'mon." Alcohol WAS a natural pain reliever, and it'd take her mind off the pain.

Lydia has taken her bag, although she'd find it in the medical building later on.

--

"We're not horrible people like those skeezes that neighbor us that sell off their women. We wont hurt you without reason." She was back to being stiff and cold again.

@ k1ssmysass

She'd just been attacked, and she wanted to toast and get drunk. Part of him wondered how she'd made it this far in the war.

-

"Then could you kindly remove your gun from my back?" She said tightly; she was outnumbered, even without the three that had attacked Damion.

@ rust and stardust

Jasmin fell silent. Even completely whacked out, she could take a social queue. Lydia met them at the gate, watching with round eyes.

So much blood.

---

"I was considering it, but now you've pissed me off." She huffed.

@ k1ssmysass

The man guided her through the gate and into the care of the medics. Once they'd taken her away, he ran a hand through his hair and went to stand by Lydia.

"Huh. Well, reconsider it." The gun was probably leaving a barrel-shaped impression on her skin.

@ rust and stardust

Jasmin allowed herself to be toted away, large eyes set on something faraway.

"She sure as shit put up a good fight. I like her! She's funny. An' she hasn't made fun of mah' accent." Lydia admitted.

--

"I'll think about it," Boy, was she a bundle of emotions.

@ k1ssmysass

"Because that's hard to do," The man murmured flatly. Making fun of Lydia's accent was almost effortless to those who hadn't already gotten used to the drawl.

They were coming up on a base, and her heart dropped. Would Jackson be able to get her out of this mess? Was it even worth a try?

Lydia whacked at his arm playfully.

A few hours passed.

---

"Keep your mouth shut." The cat-woman said fondly, removing the stiff barrel from her back.

@ k1ssmysass

The man returned a few hours later because he'd been summoned; apparently, the girl was awake and functioning somewhat normally, and was, unsurprisingly, looking for him.

-

Aspen said nothing, but arched her back a little and stretched it, rubbing the spot the gun had been pressed to. A building grew bigger and bigger until they were through the door, and she looked back only to get a glimpse of where she was.

@ rust and stardust

Jasmin reclined in a cot, barefoot and pale, joints spasming and aching with the heat of the fight.

"This is me makin' up gettin' your clothes bloody." She took a swig from an abstractly printed flask, dark amber liquid coating her throat. She offered it stiffly with her left hand -and impractically, her uninjured one.

Her right arm was swathed in bandages like a newborn child.

---

"I'll get you situated with someone for the night. Maybe they'll even work out a shower for you. Supervised, of course." She kept a hand steady on her shoulder.

@ k1ssmysass

The man took a sip from the flask and returned it to her, eyeing her warily. The liquid burned going down; and left him wanting more of that burn. "How are you feeling?"

-

Aspen glanced back at her, eyes narrowed. "I want to speak to your officer." They couldn't bring her in without any explanation, without any kind of interaction with their superior. It was unheard of.