๏ Collection City ๏

[animalobsessed1]

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[animalobsessed1]

Description
In a world where prisons are old school and expensive, a new system has been devised to keep the citizens in line. Instead of paying for the criminals' housing facilities and food, the government can now make money off of them instead; by kidnapping their children and selling them.
A new culture has arisen out of this system, one where those who have the money can collect people, like others collect post stamps. The so-called “people collectors”, can buy other people and build their own little cities to play king in.
In this society, a child's fate is not decided by his own actions, but rather by those of their parents.

[animalobsessed1]

Table of Contents

Description
Section 1a: The Chase
Section 1b: A Few Years Earlier
Section 1c: Back to Present
Section 1d: Sunset
Section 2: At School
Section 3: Remo's Return
Section 4: After School
Section 5a: I'm not Lying
Section 5b: But is he?
Secrion 6: Hero
Section 7a: Annette
Section 7b: Fight
Section7c: How Much Longer?
Section8: Ask Athena
Section9: Rules
10: They're Looking for Someone
11a: Someone Like That
11b: The Fools
12: Tracker
13a: Interruption
13b: Threats
14: A Duty

[animalobsessed1]

Section 1a: The Chase
"You'll pay for that!" the thugs shouted as they chased after the boy.
The boy, who looked to be around thirteen years of age, coughed, stumbled, and caught himself again, continuing to race through the sandy streets at top speed. Beneath his wild black hair, his catlike yellow eyes were wide open in terror, yet the surrounding pedestrians looked on indifferently as the group of young men bore down on him. Suddenly, another of the thugs appeared in front of the boy, blocking his way.
Remo slid to a halt. Trying to suppress his rising panic, he glanced around as the older boy closed in on him. A ray of hope came to Remo in the form of a green garbage can that stood next to a wall. Quickly, he used it as a ladder to clamber swiftly over the wall. He jumped down on the other side and, knowing that this move would only buy him a very limited amount of time, looked around for a hiding place.
Again, people stared without much pity as they saw the scrawny boy scan the area for a safe place. He tried to crawl behind the counter of an ice cream booth, but the shop owner grabbed him by the collar and kicked him back onto the street without caring to listen to any explanation.
Remo scuttled away, but when he saw the bulky shadow of the first gangster leaping the wall, he knew he was running out of time. Remo darted into a narrow ally and almost screamed out loud in frustration when he saw that it was a dead end.
He turned around and peered back out onto the road. To his horror, the thugs had already flooded the road. There no longer was any way to escape. Remo cowered down in the alley, hoping that they wouldn't find him here.
After waiting for some time, he was on the verge of considering the possibility that he might finally have some luck in life. But just as that thought entered his mind, all his hopes were dashed when a silhouette stopped in front of the alley, turned it's evil glare upon him, and shouted to his comrades. As the older boys gathered, Remo got up, preparing for his final fight. He might not be able to hold on to life for much longer, but he was determined to at least put up a fight and maybe even take one of them down with him.
By now, about six or seven of the gangsters had gathered and were blocking his escape route. The two in front began to draw near. They did so very slowly, smirking at the knowledge that their victim was completely helpless and knowing they could take all the time in the world to kill him.
Remo launched himself at one of them, punching him in the stomach and then ducking past the other one, but that was as far as he got.
A third thug's hand landed on his shoulder and Remo lost his balance, stumbling into another one. This one used the opportunity to grab him by the throat and lift his feet off the ground. Gasping desperately for air, Remo felt all hope draining out of him, and with it, his will to fight.
So this is the end. This is how I die. He felt the urge to cough, but the man's grip was to tight to even allow him that. An abstract thought crossed his mind: Isn't it weird that I'm losing hope now, even though I thought I never had any to begin with? And with that, he resigned himself to the blackness that enveloped him.

[animalobsessed1]

Section 1b: A Few Years Earlier
There was a knock at the door, but nobody moved to open it. The young family huddled together in the furthest corner of the flat. The children stared, wide eyed, at their parents. They weren't old enough to really know what was going on, but they could tell that it wasn't good.
“This is all your fault.” The young mother hissed at the young father.
“This is not the time to be blaming anyone.” The young man replied anxiously, looking around. “Quick, we can hide the children in the bedroom.”
But before he had a chance to make his words a reality, the door was kicked in and two uniformed men entered.
“We've already warned you, but you didn't stop selling those drugs. I really didn't want to have to do this, but now it's time for your punishment.” Said one of the men. The look of pity in his eyes was in contrast with his words, but his companion's evil smirk fitted it perfectly.
“No! No, please!” Screamed the young woman and threw herself in front of her three children.
The second uniformed man grinned coldly. “It seems there really is no better way to punish a parent, than to take one of their children away...” And with those words he moved forward to grab one of the children, but the woman stood in the way. He grabbed her by the arm and hurled her against the wall. Her head hit the wall and she collapsed into a whimpering pile, blood dripping from the side of her head.
The first man looked away, ashamed, but the second one seemed totally oblivious that this was something he should be feeling guilty about. The young father stood in a corner, shaking. His catlike, yellow eyes darted from his wife, to his children, to the violent man in the uniform. Then they settled on the first man. He could see that fighting would be pointless, but he couldn't just give up either.
“P-please...” He whispered.
The first man felt extremely uncomfortable under the young father's pleading gaze. He glanced at his shoes to avoid eye contact, and mumbled “Well, it is true that you received plenty of warnings... I wish I could help but-...”
But he was interrupted by his companion's hearty laugh as he grabbed the oldest of the children, a six year old boy with scruffy black hair and the same catlike eyes as his father. But when the man wanted to grab another of the children, his colleague gasped.
“Stop it, Spike! We only came here to take one child! You don't need to go destroying an entire family!”
“But Jack, nobody said that we couldn't take more... If we're already here, we might as well take all of them.” The violent man turned around and questioningly cocked his head to one side, all traces of hostility gone as he addressed his superior.
The young father and the other man were both dumbstruck by this nonchalant reply. The peace-seeking officer took some time to search for an excuse that would satisfy his companion. At last, he came up with one.
“If we leave the other children here, we can continue using them to threaten the parents in the future...” It actually sounded quite reasonable, but in truth, the man simply wanted to cause as little damage to the innocent children as possible. It was his job, but that didn't mean that he had to enjoy it. In the end, he was simply too soft.
Spike seemed to accept the answer and nodded in agreement. Then, he turned around and stalked towards the door, dragging the wailing child with him.
“Well then, we have no more reason to stay here, so let's go.” He opened the door and stepped out with the boy. This was the unceremonious farewell that the parents had with the boy, and while it wasn't the last time they would see their eldest son, it certainly was the last time for the boy to see his parents.
Giving one last apologetic look to the two parents, Jack followed Spike out of the flat.

[satuurnity]

Cool.

[animalobsessed1]

Thanks, and I think your siggy is really cute.

[animalobsessed1]

Section 1c: Back to Present

Just as Remo closed his eyes to welcome death, he suddenly felt the thug's grip loosen. Surprised, he opened his eyes just in time to see the smile as the man threw him back into the alley. The boy's back and head hit the wall. Even though he saw the first thug coming closer and lifting a leg to kick him, Remo was too stunned to move out of the way and took the blow right in the stomach. Remo heard the laughter as he doubled over and began to vomit, and one voice rose above the others.
“That's what you get for trying to punch me, you scum!” Shouted the one who had kicked him.
“Scum? Me? Aren't you talking about yourself?” Remo managed remark in between his pitiful retching. He no longer cared about very much and he just wanted them to hurry up and kill him already.
The thugs paused for a moment. Then, the one in front bent down and looked him in the face. Almost delicately, he reached out his hand and held up the boy's chin, forcing Remo to meet his gaze. Remo was now also close enough to see the code that was burned into the skin on the thug's neck.
“You've got quite a big mouth for someone so small, don't you think?” He whispered.
Still dazed, Remo ignored the words and tried to focus his eyes on the combination of letters and numbers. He wasn't very good at reading, so it took him a while to figure out what the first ones meant. 312S4-
The thug stood back up before Remo had a chance to finish reading it. Not that it mattered. Such a code wasn't anything special, in fact, Remo wasn't even sure when he had last seen someone without a code burnt or tattooed into the side of their neck. Remo himself had one too, but that didn't mean he knew what it meant. He just wanted something to distract him from the pain.
“Does that attitude of yours mean that you're not ready to die yet?” asked the thug teasingly and stepped back to make some room for the others.
“I wish you would just die!” Remo spat back at them while warily watching the hand of the closest thug get ready to slap him in the face.
“Now that's a wish that will come true soon enough.”
At the sound of this new voice, all the thugs stopped, surprise written clearly all over their faces. Remo too, looked up in surprise. There was a drawn out silence, during which the thugs tried desperately to locate the source of the voice. Then Remo saw a shadow jump from the roof and land right in front of his feet, and after a soft slicing sound, the closest thug fell to the ground. The thug gagged, his wide-open eyes now looking just as terrified as those of the boy who had been his victim. He coughed one last time, and the life disappeared from his eyes.
Remo looked up and discovered that two others had also fallen in the meantime. The remaining thugs looked on in horror as the shadow slaughtered them one by one. It seemed they were so terrified that they were frozen on the spot and couldn't even run away. Well- except for one, but that one didn't live very long either. As soon as he turned around and took his first step to run away, the shadow whisked past the others and the thug let out a howl of pain before falling to the floor a few seconds later, just like the others had. Then, the “shadow” returned to the alley and killed the remaining three thugs that were still frozen in place. Actually, now that all of those thugs were no longer blocking the view, Remo's savior looked a lot less like a shadow and a lot more like just a completely normal person.

[animalobsessed1]

Section 1d: Sunset

Mesmerized, Jaiden watched as the last thug fell to the ground and bled out. A satisfied smile crept into his face as he surveyed his work. He wondered what he should do with the bodies. Was it okay to just leave them here? Technically he could, because even if somebody found them, there wasn't anybody who could do anything about it, much less anyone who would dare avenge them. He knew that he was totally safe, but that didn't exactly make him feel all that great. Maybe I should dump them at the marketplace and see what the people there would have to say about it. They'd probably even be happy to be rid of these troublemakers. He bent down to pick up one of the carcasses, but stopped when he heard a whimper coming from the very back of the alley. Huh? Did I forget someone? Drawing his knife again, Jaiden turned around, but instead of a muscly opponent, he saw a cowering pile of skin and bones leaning against the wall.
“Oh” The sound escaped his lips before he had time to think about it. The thing stared at him with catlike yellow eyes that were just as terrified as those of the thugs had been, right before they died. But these eyes also held a hint of something else: adoration. Weird, I never even touched it and it's already looking at me like that.Jaiden smiled at his own stupidity and put his knife back into it's pocket. Ah, right! I totally forgot, but there was this scrawny orphan here too... He decided to leave the bodies alone for the time being and casually ambled over to the kid.
He knelt down in front of it and the smell of vomit rose into his nose. How disgusting. He thought, but smiled at it anyway, reaching out a hand to help it up.
Remo flinched when the older boy's hand moved towards him. At this, the older boy once again withdrew his hand and simply knelt in front of Remo, regarding him like a toddler who'd found some kind of new and fascinating insect. A smile was spread across the strange boy's face, but it was unlike anything Remo had seen before. It wasn't fake like that of a shop owner wanting to sell his wares, not forced like that of someone telling him it would be all right, and most importantly, it wasn't cruel or vengeful like the smiles of the thugs and gangsters who had always threatened him and his sister, and eventually ended up killing her. In fact, this strange boy's smile was so sincere and innocent, like he didn't even realize what he'd just done, that Remo couldn't help but smile back a little.
At this, Jaiden's face lit up even more.
“Oh look! He can smile, he can smile!” He shouted, clapping his hands. When the boy winced again at the sound of the clapping, he quickly regained his self control and quieted down again. Even though Jaiden had paid special attention to saying “he” instead of “it”, that was apparently not enough to make this frightened creature comfortable. “Sorry,” He said.
Remo opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. Instead, he fell into a coughing fit.
“Are you all right?” Asked the older boy, concern now clouding that sincere smile of his.
Remo was desperate for the smile to stay where it was; it was simply such a beautiful sight after all he had been through. So he pulled himself together and nodded. Again, he tried to talk, and this time, it worked.
“Why-” He stopped, coughed, and continued “Why di- did you s- saveme?” He stuttered.
The older boy tilted his head to the side.
“Save you?” He questioned, sounding honestly confused.
“You said my wish would come true, and then you really made it true...”
Jaiden's eyes opened wide in realization as he remembered. “I guess I did.” His brow creased in thought. Actually, I just said that because I thought it sounded cool... I didn't think anyone would actually remember that. How embarrassing!
“By the way,” He said. “who are you?”
“Remo,” Remo replied. Who're you? He wanted to ask, but instead he collapsed and fell to the side.
Jaiden caught him. “Careful there.” He said softly and placed Remo's head on his lap.

Two boys sat together in a dark alley, surrounded by the bodies of seven dead men, and enjoyed the peace and quiet that came with the setting of the sun.

[animalobsessed1]

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