Evermore

[Tarberetta]

Chapter 1, The road less traveled

Tarby tossed and turned in her bed, unable to sleep for the third night in a row. Finally giving up and slipping on shorts and a tank top, she walked out on the balcony of her apartment and looked up at the stars glittering in the moonlit sky. Situated in the highest building in Dark Austoria, the apartment rose above the constant fog that otherwise covered the zone. Sighing, her eyes gazed downward into the fog, before returning to stare at the sky. ‘Ecto,’ she thought as she fought back a tear, ‘where are you? I know you said you might be gone for awhile in the spirit world, but…..’ “Why goes everyone I fall in love with disappear?”, Tarby said aloud. “First Purrr and now…..”

“I hate love”, she scowled as the radio back inside caught her ear. ‘Hope that’s not too loud for Tarby Phoenix and Sharpshot’, she thought as she remembered her two “roommates”; Tarbys from another dimension, thanks to portal corp. She had taken them into her apartment in the meantime. Lyrics from the radio caught her ear again as she listened to her favorite group, Linkin Park, jam away.

“This is my December, these are my snow covered dreams….”

‘I have dreams,’ thought Tarby, ‘but they are washed white. The images get covered by the snowflakes of reality. That’s my world, washed white.’ She sighed again. “I need some exercise…”, she grumbled as she went inside to change into her outfit and put on her new trenchcoat. After getting dressed, Tarby went back out to her balcony and, stepping onto the railing, looked back into the apartment at her Beretta Sword. ‘I won’t need it’ she thought as she turned back and swan dove into the fog only to take flight a second later and zoom off deeper into the city.

As she flew along, she noticed the heroes out working the “night shift”. ‘Should have brought my sword after all’, she mused, ‘I could get some exercise fighting crime. Oh well, I’ll just head to one of the lower danger areas and practice my hand-to-hand fighting on some of the local gangers. That will help clear my mind. King’s Row sounds good.’ A single word stuck in her head the whole trip however. That word was “reality”. Even after she landed and was walking around trying to find a crime, ANY crime to stop.

That word just kept nagging her and nagging her and irritating her as she thought more and more about her “reality” and less about stopping crime. ‘What is reality?’ she reflected, getting very irritated. ‘Why does my reality suck so bad? Is it my destiny? To be alone forever? What kind of destiny is that?’, thought Tarby as she spotted a lone stone on the sidewalk and punted it as hard as she could, sending it flying into a nearby alley. Fuming, she continued on down the sidewalk.

“Dammit!”, came a voice from the alley, “Who the hell?!” A hellion, a Dammed, strode out of the alley, followed by a dozen lesser gang members. “You throw that rock lady? I’m gonna mess you up!” Tarby looked at the man and noticed the rapidly swelling bump on his forehead and realized that she must have hit the Hellion in the head when she punted that rock.

“No I didn’t throw it,” Tarby replied, chuckling. “I kicked it. Sucks that it hit you though. That must hurt like hell. Next time don’t go hiding in alleyways at night and you won’t have that problem.”

[Tarberetta]

“Why you….I’m gonna burn you down catbitch!” raged the Dammed as he unleashed a flurry of fire balls at Tarby. Sighing, she rolled out of the way.

‘Rookies’, she thought. “You know, tonight’s REALLY not the night to **** with me,” said Tarby as she glared at the fire-tossing boss.

“KILL HER!” raged the Hellion as his gang rushed Tarby. She reached back for her Beretta Sword and remembered, ‘Oh yea. I left it back at the apartment. Going to be one of those nights.’

She should have been watching as the boss unleashed a huge single fireball and flung it at Tarby. Distracted, the fireball hit her square in the chest and sent her flying backward 10 feet into the trunk of a nearby tree. Tarby blinked twice and looked down at the hole that was burnt into the front of her trenchcoat. ‘Damn I just got this’, she thought as she looked up just in time to roll dodge the fist of the first hellion that had just reached her. Throwing her now ruined trenchcoat aside, she gained her feet with just enough time to dodge another fist coming at her. Suddenly the gang members all ducked at once, just as another fireball came roaring over their heads and slamming into Tarby again, sending her flying backwards once more into a nearby wall. As she slid down the wall, the gang members piled after her, eager to add their own damage.

Tarby shook her head as she recovered from the latest fireball. ‘Thank god I have my outfit on under this, else I’d be naked by now’, she thought. Spotting the mob coming at her, she roared and, bracing herself on the wall she just bounced off of, launched herself at the mob. Hitting the lead ganger dead on like a cannonball, Tarby sent the man flying backwards into the crowd, knocking another 3 off their feet. “OK…now I’m MAD!”, she screamed at the gangers. Undeterred, the rest continued their rush at her. Inside Tarby though, something snapped.

She launched a roundhouse kick at the first ganger to reach her, sending him spinning to the ground. Following up to the rest with a quick back kick to one , a hard left hook to another and ducking under a punch, delivering a vicious uppercut to a third. Of the 2 gangers that remained, the both pulled knives and charged the enraged feline. Tarby launched another kick at the nearest one and knocked him clean out, but that gave time for the last ganger to plunge his knife completely into the felines side. Roaring, Tarby swing an elbow at the man who just stabbed her and, connecting, felt the man’s nose break.

That left the boss, and while Tarby was distracted yet again, he smashed yet another fireball into her chest and sent her flying again. As she slid backwards, the asphalt caught the knife stuck in her side and ripped it out, tearing a 6 inch gash along the way.

As Tarby got up from his latest barrage, the boss Hellion noticed the growing bloodstain on the side of her uniform. Laughing at the feline, the boss said “What’s the matter kitty? You get cut?”, as he summoned up another fireball. Even more enraged, Tarby began to slowly walk towards the gloating Hellion, oblivious to the trail of blood she was leaving behind her.

The boss wasn’t so lucky this time around, as he launched the fireball at the bleeding feline, Tarby batted it away. Startled, the Hellion quickly summoned up another fireball and flung it Tarby, with the same result. Panicking as the feline came within a few feet, he glanced about for an exit. He never got the chance.

As he looked forward back to where Tarby was walking toward him, she darted forward and grabbed the Hellion by the face and lifted him into the air. The man tried desperately to break Tarby’s grip, flailing and kicking his feet. He only had a few seconds, as she roared again and slammed him into the sidewalk head-first.

[Tarberetta]

The confrontation over, Tarby came back to her senses and tried gather her thoughts. The wound on her side was still bleeding slightly as her regeneration continued working to seal and heal the damage. Something was different though as she felt fire rage throughout her body. Staggering over to where the knife lay in the street, she kneeled down and picked it up, smelling the blade. Her feline senses caught the sweet odor of something. ‘Poison’ she thought, ‘just what I need’ as she felt dizzy. ‘Damn Hellions’ she fumed. However, as the fire in her body grew even fiercer, alarms rang in her head. The poison should have been neutralized by now. She tried to get back to her feet, but couldn't muster the energy and dropped back down on one knee. Her body burned like nothing she ever felt before, and she felt her conscious slipping away. As in instinct she reached down and activated her emergency medical teleport device, then fell face first on the street and blacked out.

As Tarby teleported out a figure stepped out of the shadows and surveyed the scene. Pulling out a small device, the man activated it. “Report” came back a voice.

“Mission successful.”, the man spoke into the device with a gravel-like voice.

“The virus was introduced?”

“Yessir, in a most startling fashion.”

“And the feline herself?” quizzed the voice in the device.

“She was awake long enough to investigate the knife and activate her medical teleport device before she passed out.”

“Damn, I was hoping the virus would incapacate her before she could teleport out, but in the end it doesn’t matter anyway. Return home agent, and good work”

“Yessir,” said the man as he slid the device back into his coat and slipped away into the shadows. Unbeknownst to the shadowy agent, the watcher was also the watched. A second man watched the first slip away and made note of everything he had seen and heard before he also slipped away into the darkness.

Meanwhile, Tarby arrived at hospital in one of the rescue aid tubes. The machines did their work, but something was wrong. Tarby never awoke. The machine sent out an alarm and brought doctors running. One of the doctors pressed a button and the alarm silenced. ”Hey lady!” yelled one of the doctors as he rapped on the machine's front plexiglass, “you ok in there? Hey, wake up. Hello?”

“Let me see”, spoke an elder Doctor as the medical staff parted to let the man walk up to the glass. Adjusting his glasses, he looked over the feline. “Get her out of there” he commanded to the other staff. One of the doctors stepped forward and pressed a button on the machine, causing the front plexiglass to slide away. Tarby’s limp body fell out of the tube as the support force fields disengaged and was carefully caught by the staff.

“Take her to intensive care, quickly!” said the elder doctor as the staff loaded Tarby on a gurney and quickly wheeled her away. A flash of metal caught the eye of the doctor as he turned away. Turning back he saw the knife that Tarby had gotten stabbed with. As he went to retrieve the knife, a nurse interrupted him.

"Doctor, we need you in intensive care!" said the frantic nurse.
Turning to glance at the nurse, then back to the knife, the doctor said "I know. Have someone isolate this knife in the meantime and have it send to the lab. Treat it CAREFULLY." Then the elder doctor raced off after Tarby.
"Yes Doctor" replied the nurse. "Orderly! Come gather this knife and send it to the lab....carefully. Have them inspect and mark it and the results for Dr. Jacobs."

[Tarberetta]

Once in intensive care, an army of nurses and doctors raced to cut away Tarby's outfit and hook her up to IV's and machines to monitor her vitals. As Dr. Jacobs watched the scene, another nurse handed him a tablet. It read:
Name: Tarby PhoenixClaw
Hero Name: Tarberetta
Security/Power Level: 50
Origin: Scientific
Notable Powers: Extreme Regeneration, Flight, Superspeed, Ste...

Dr. Jacobs eyes widened slightly as his mind registered "Extreme Regeneration". 'Regenerator', he thought, 'and at such a high level! Why's she not awake yet?' Looking back at Tarby laying on the bed, he took in the data the varied machines were reading. Normal heartbeat, normal body temperature, normal breathing. One machine caught his eye, the one charting Tarby's mental activity. The machine was recording elevated mental activity. ‘Strange...if shes unconscious, why does she have elevated brainwaves?’

As Dr. Jacobs pondered that question....deep inside Tarby's mind, she awoke. Blinking, she sat up and looked around. She was in a field of flowers, and there was a slight breeze. "Something's not right" she said under her breath, "and where the hell am I?"

"Nevermore", came a voice behind her. Spinning around, she spied a large black bird in a tree. The bird had eerie red eyes and just stared right back at Tarby. When her eyes met with the birds, it shrieked "NEVERMORE" with such a thunderous boom that it blew away most of the flowers around her and knocked her backwards. Her ears ringing, she jumped to her feet and was startled to see that the bird, and the tree it was in....was gone. Puzzled she looked around again. More flowers.

She heard the sound of rustling feathers behind her and spun around again to find the tree, and the same bird again. "NEVERMORE" the bird shreked once more blowing Tarby backwards a good 30 feet in air and slamming to a stop against something VERY immobile. Ears ringing again and very dizzy, she turned to see what she flew into. Vision focusing, the blurs converged to a large….tombstone? Tarby’s eyes widened as she read the inscription:

Tarberetta
A hero lost,
and soon forgotten.

Along with the day’s date.

Suddenly Tarby heard a large “CRACK” as her weight shifted slightly to the left. Glancing down, she seen the ground under her left foot had cracked and recessed slightly. Unfortunately for Tarby, she never got the reflexes many other cat hybrids got, because before she could jump away the ground underfoot broke into pieces and she fell though. Trying to summon forth the energy to fly, her heart raced as she realized that her power of flight was gone. Continuing to fall, she screamed in horror as the small hole of light closed up above her. As the darkness covered her eyes, she heard a whisper in her ears....

"Forevermore......"

Tarby screamed louder, but there was noone to hear.

Back in the hospital, Dr. Jacobs watched as the machine charting Tarby’s brain rates continued to show elevated activity. A loud noise came from the heart monitor as it informed the doctor that the hybrid’s heart rate had also risen above normal. He looked down at the hero and said aloud, “Just what exactly is going on with you kitty?”