Beast: Chapter 2

Eve slowly opened her eyes to the dark and dusty interior of the place she currently called home. She smacked her lips, her muzzle twitching awkwardly as the taste of stale air and wood that drifted inside her mouth. Even after all these years, she never got used to that.

She uncurled herself, pulling her forelegs out from underneath her fuzzy neck as she stretched herself out with a pleased growl. Despite the late hour and lack of heating in her home, she was the furthest thing from cold. After all, this form was literally built for it.

‘Huskies really are the perfect dog. Elegant and comfortable. Too bad they're so big and noisy. I’d love to have one as a pet.’ She thought as she stood fully, shaking the dust out of her fur, before returning to normal.

Now a human once more, Eve stretched her arms up high, cracking her back in several places as she got rid of the residual kinks that always inevitably came from sleeping on the floor. She yawned, smacking her lips,before frowning slightly as a new taste filled her mouth. Iron.

Bringing a hand up to her face, Eve ran a finger along the skin near her mouth. Something came off, a dry, flaky substance that caused her face to itch, and the teen rolled her eyes at what she felt before making her way to the bathroom she knew was nearby.

It was pitch black around her and though she could see better than most in the dark, she still had to feel her way to the room. She shivered as her bare feet hit cold tile, before slowly creeping further inside.

Stripping off her coat and shirt, Eve stepped up to the sink, fumbling around the edge for a moment as she searched for something. Finding it, she rolled the striker of the lighter to produce a small flame, before holding it up to the candle sitting right beside the mirror.

Now able to actually see, the Changer looked at herself in the mirror and grimaced as she took in the large trail of blood leaking from the corner of her mouth.

“Dammit… not again.” She sighed, opening her mouth to check the damage. Having razor-sharp canine teeth was pretty cool when you needed to scare someone or open a bag of chips. It was not so cool when you had a habit of biting your tongue while you're sleeping, even in animal form. If it wasn't for her healing factor, Eve was sure she'd be missing chunks of the thing by now.

Luckily it was still fully attached. She must have bitten it pretty early in the night if it was fully healed now. That was good. One less problem to deal with.

Grabbing the bottle of water sitting on the edge of the sink, Eve poured it into a cupped hand before splashing it on her face, making sure that she was leaning over the sink as he did so. She scrubbed the blood off of her mouth and chin and the gunk out of her eyes.

She then moved into her hair, using a small tube of shampoo to lather it as best she could without wasting any water. She didn't have much left and she'd rather not take a dip in the Bay this time of year, no matter how much she liked to swim.

Being homeless in Brockton Bay was harder than most cities she had lived in, but no matter where you go, some things remained constant. Such as how easily you could break into an abandoned house if you knew what you were doing. Or if had powers that let you turn into creatures smaller than an ant.

It wasn't the most comfortable lifestyle, but it she had lived in worse conditions, and it was better than staying on the street where some assholes might try to rob her or worse… Humans really were the worst.

‘Well, maybe not all of them.’

Her mind went back to a certain dog-themed parahuman. It had been a few months since she and Bitch had met, and since then they had become well-acquainted with one another. Mostly out of necessity, but that was seeming the case less and less with each passing day.

It seemed that Eve wasn't the only one who gave a shit about the defenseless creatures of the world, and that was what originally drew them together. Though her general demeanor made her seem aloof and even hostile at times, Bitch cared just as deeply as she did about the abuse the dogs suffered under the Empire.

Sure, her tough exterior was hard to see through for most, but despite her hatred of humanity, Eve could tell the girl had a soft heart under her gruff personality. Just the way she treated her own dogs was proof enough of that. She wasn't like most of the people Eve had met.

Which made it even better that she also shared in Eve’s hatred of animal abusers, specifically the racist sort.

True to Eve’s words on their first meeting, it was far from the last time the two of them had crossed paths. In the last few months, they had met numerous times during Eve’s work to liberate the poor animals that the Empire had taken hostage. Bitch seemed to have the same knack for sniffing out the rings as Eve did, or she had some really good informants because practically half the time that Eve took on a ring, Bitch was already there or not far behind.

After so many encounters, they had realized that they could do better working together than apart and decided to team up. Well, Eve had realized it. Bitch took a little convincing. They had made an agreement to let each other know when the other found one of the rings, just in case they needed help.

Eve had never had a partner before, never wanted one really, but Bitch wasn't like most people she had met. Her personality didn't bother Eve in the slightest, and she cared about her animals just as much as Eve did. That alone made her better than most people the Changer had met.

They meshed well together. Bitch was simple in how she went about things, but she was far from dumb. Her strategies were more than just brute force and loud noise, and she was more than willing to let Eve handle things if she thought she'd do more harm than good, sometimes just hanging around to take care of the dogs afterwards.

Not to mention, just talking to the girl was a refreshing change of pace. She said what was on her mind and had little-to-no regard for others opinions on the matter. Eve both respected, and envied her for that.

Rinsing the last of the shampoo in the sink, Eve shook her hair free of most of its water before checking her appearance in the mirror to see if she had missed anything.

She looked less dirty than she had a few minutes ago, but that was about the only positive she could see. The same beastly face that she had had for the last six years stared back at her in the mirror, and she slowly brought a hand up to run it along her emerald green skin.

She had been like this for so long she could barely remember how she looked before. Any attempt to invoke such memories resulted in a tan blob for a face with straight brown sheets for hair. She couldn't even remember what color her eyes were.

Maybe that was for the best though. Nobody with deformed features liked to be reminded that they were normal once. It just caused more harm than good.

Though it wasn't like she really fit in when she was ‘normal’ anyway. If she had, she wouldn't look like this now.

Eve shook off the unpleasant memories as she redressed and stepped out of the bathroom. That was years ago, dwelling on the past wouldn't do anything but distract her from more important things. Like stopping the disgusting practices that had kept her in this city in the first place.

Last night, Bitch had texted her about another dog fighting ring she had found. Like all messages from the girl, it was concise and almost cold, a location and a time to meet, but Eve knew that she didn't mean anything by it. She actually appreciated the efficiency.

They were due to meet in a little over an hour near a seedy bar near the Boardwalk. Apparently the fights were happening in the basement, and the only reason that the cops hadn't raided them is because that entire neighborhood was in the Empire’s pocket. Police, store owners, everyone was connected one way or another. It was disgusting.

Glancing down at her stolen phone, Eve re-read the text from Bitch, detailing where the ring was. It was a few miles away but she could cross that distance quickly, especially with how dark it was outside. She had plenty of time to stake out the location and make a plan of attack before her partner showed up.

Eve paused in place as her sensitive ears suddenly perked up at a noise just outside. It sounded like… talking. Crouching down she slowly crept over to the nearby window, straining her ears as the sound came into focus.

It was definitely talking. Someone was outside of her home right now. Multiple someones.

“...-old you this place was perfect! Nobody's come around here for years man! It's the perfect place to set up the lab!”

Lab? The word set off alarm bells in Eve’s head, and a deep frown crossed her face as she reached the window. The glass was long gone and was a thick board covering the actual window frame from the outside, but Eve was just barely able to see through the cracks and take a look at the people down below.

She was met with three dirty-looking people standing just in front of her home’s boarded up front door. They looked just as homeless as she was, but her keen eye could make out track marks on two of their arms and the constant figure shaking of the other, and could tell they hadn't managed nearly as well as she had.

So far during her relatively short stint in the Bay, Eve had somehow managed to avoid the Merchants despite technically running in the same circles as them. It seemed that today, her luck had run out. Judging by their conversation, these people were looking for a place to set up shop, and they had chosen her home to do it.

“I've been staying here too long… Should have known I was gonna be bothered eventually.” She muttered to herself as she stepped away from the door. Loud bangs came from down below as someone began trying to break away the boards keeping the entrance sealed. She had maybe five minutes before they were inside.

It was a good thing she packed lightly. In less than a minute, she gathered her meager belongings and shoved them into her small backpack, slinging it over her shoulder and securing it in place.

The cracking of wood and a cheer of success down below let her know that she was out of time. They had managed to get inside faster than she thought they would. Guess these guys weren't completely drugged out of their mind. It was time to go before they saw her and made this a bigger issue than it needed to be.

With a mental flex, the teen was standing on all fours and significantly smaller than before. Now a small green field mouse, Eve found it trivial to locate a hole in the boarded up window big enough to fit her tiny head through.

Slipping through, she was suddenly falling through the air towards the front porch down below. She quickly rectified that by shifting again, taking the form of a small sparrow and flapping off into the night.

As she flew, Eve felt a pang of sadness run through her. She couldn't go back to that house now that the Merchant's had broken in. Kicking them out would draw too much attention to herself and even if it didn't, they had already broken in the front door. That would be noticed.

‘So now I've got to find a new place to stay.’ She sighed mentally as she rose above the nearby buildings on tiny wings, ‘That won't be easy. This time of year, all of the good buildings will already be taken. I was lucky enough to find that one in the first place…’

The only silver lining to this situation was that they probably wouldn't last long there. Those labs had a habit of going up spectacularly within a month due to the Merchant’s… everything. Maybe she'd be lucky and they'd get caught in the blast.

Slightly buoyed by the idea of the druggies being caught up in a little science experiment gone-wrong, Eve began to fly a bit faster, heading towards the bar that Bitch had indicated.

She couldn't dwell on her lost home for too long; she had important work to do.