>>"Stupid doggy bit my pretty tail! Grrrr, I'll get back at it, you'll see! I'll bring down the wrath of raccoon revenge upon it!"

"Whoa there." Maya glanced up at the coon girl "No need for violence."

Fortunately for the puppy (who was oblivious to the threat of revenge hanging above her head), the newcomer drew Rachel's attention. Once she zoomed down from the roof, Angua started barking again, hoping her playmate would return. She was disappointed when the coon sniffed around Elizabeth instead.

"Welcome to the school" Maya smiled at her "I'm Maya, and this one here is Angua, hellhound-in-training."

Angua seemed intrigued by the bird. When it spoke, puppy ears and tail flew into the air with attention. Something feathery that made speaking noises, the pup definitely had to check that out.

"Don't be afraid of her, she doesn't hurt anyone." Maya added, glancing at the coon girl "... sometimes she plays rough, but she's not. Um. Violent."

One can't really be angry at a puppy for chasing a raccoon. Not really.

Rachel stared at the bird, the mirrored lens of her goggles reflecting the sunlight.

"Chocolate WHERE?"

Rachel instantly began to dash around in circles, sniffing rapidly.

sniffsniffsniffsniffsniffsniffsniffsniffsniffsniffsniffsniff

"Heeeeeeey, I don't smell any chocolate! Stupid liar bird! HRMPH!"

Rachel chittered annoyingly, sticking her nose into the air. She wasn't about to admit she'd been tricked by a silly parrot! No sirree, not this 'coon! It was then that Elizabeth asked who they were.

"I'm Rachel!"

chikachikachikachikachikachikachikachika

Elizabeth couldn’t hold back a small laugh at Angua’s reaction to Nico. It was so cute, like, well, a puppy. Rachel’s reaction was just as humorous. It appeared that not only had Rachel received the appearance and abilities of a raccoon as a result of her obvious mutation, but she had also received bits of a raccoon’s mind. Either that or the girl was just very hyper, had ADHD, and was more gullible than a rock. They both seemed like good possibilities. But Rachel seemed very friendly and quite a likable person so Liz felt like she could easily be around her. Maya and Angua seemed likewise.

Maya’s comment about Angua surprised her. “Awww, who’d be scared of her? She’s just a happy puppy who I’m betting would want to play,” Liz said in reference to Angua, a smile growing even more as she looked at the dog. Ah, she really did like animals. And the dog wasn’t feeling any sort of negative emotions at the moment either that Liz could tell. Nico, on the other hand, was feeling a lot of curiosity. He flapped off her shoulder and landed on the ground a foot or so to the side of Angua. His head cocked to the side as he scrutinized her.

Liz stood up, uncoiling some of the cord in order to give Nico some room to do his thing (whatever that was). That left her doing nothing, in an awkward fashion. She watched Rachel’s antics and glanced at Maya periodically, completely uncertain on what to do. Maybe I should just walk away now. All’s going well here and nobody’s hurt or anything. But Nico was busy doing something and Liz generally liked being courteous, even if it was an animal she was being nice too. Animals have feelings too, you know.

"You have no idea." Maya grinned. When the bird flapped down to Angua's level, the mirrorwalker made sure she was holding the leash securely, so that she could stop the puppy in time if she decided to chew on the parrot.

Angua stared at the bird for a moment; it looked much bigger to her now. Next she put her chin on the ground with her tail in the air, asking Nico if he wanted to play. She barked too, a couple of times. She was momentarily distracted by the raccoon-like think scurrying around, but the bird won her attention over. Feathers and all.

"Um, do you think this is a good idea?" Maya asked Elizabeth as she watched the puppy bounce around the bird. Maya didn't want her to harm the parrot by accident - and she also didn't want that strong-looking beak to get into closer contact with soft puppy parts like a sniffing nose or a flapping ear.

The mirrorwalker glanced at the raccoon girl, still slightly puzzled by her behavior.

"Lookin' for something?..."

Rachel blinked down at the puppy, then up to Mirror. She saw the leash attached to the Dastardly Dog, and that Mirror was holding the other end tightly.

DING!

A plot of revenge sprung into the mind of the Radical Raccoon. Smiling widely with a mouth full of small sharp teeth, Rachel chittered and chirped (#5) at Angua, taunting her. The puppy seemed intrested in the stupid liar bird however. Rachel had to change that.

"Hiiiiiya!" Rachel said, and with an over-exaggerated fake kung-fu gesture, flicked the tip of the puppy's wagging tail hard. Chittering, Rachel then ran away quickly, just far enough so that the leashed puppy couldn't reach her.

Nico kept his head tilted to the side as he tried to figure out the thing in front of him. Wasn’t Elizabeth. Wasn’t cat, although reminded him of cat. Was weird. Then weird-thing crouched. Cat did that when about to attack. Nico’s feathers ruffled slightly, making himself appear slightly bigger. Then weird-thing make some loud noises. Nico didn’t like the loud noises. Opened his mouth to make own noises. “SQUAWK!” he said, exerting authority over weird-thing. Then weird-thing attacked but missed and moved around Nico. Nico was better than weird-thing. Can fly. Opened wings and flapped, flapped, flapped, up, up, up, to Elizabeth’s shoulder. Bad weird-thing. Bad. “Bad!” he shrieked at weird-thing. He knew what bad was. Elizabeth told him what bad was. But he was never bad.

Elizabeth laughed a bit at Nico’s antics. “No, I think they can handle themselves,” she told Maya with a smile. She had full confidence that Nico could take care of himself (when the situation didn’t require opposable thumbs) and he proved it quite a bit. As Nico kept his eyes glued to Angua, Liz reached up and stroked her parrot’s back. Nico was such a good bird. Beth’s eyes were then attracted to Rachel. The girl…was doing karate? The pose looked comical, like the girl did in general. But then she…attacked the dog!

Elizabeth’s mouth fell open. What nerve the girl had, hitting a dog not five feet in front of the owner! What had the dog done to the girl? Why was girl acting like that? Could it have been a side effect of her mutation? Did raccoons act like that? Either way, she sidestepped away from Rachel again, in case the girl tried attacking Nico. What was wrong with her? The look of disbelief was plainly obvious on Beth’s face.

The feathery sqawky thing flew up onto the strange girls shoulder, and Angua pounced to follow, resting a front pwa on Elizabeth's knee and wagging her tail. The bird didn't want to play.Why didn't it want to play? Birds never played. Angua was disappointed.

The bird said 'bad.' Angua barked. She didn't like 'bad'. It usually came with someone wanting to be alpha over her, and she was not ready to accept that yet. Not even from male/female Older Sibling.

>> "Hiyaaa!"

Her tail was slapped. Angua spun around and darted after the girl so fast she did a backflip when her leash ended and the harness yanked her back. She studd up, pulling on the leash as she dug her paws into the ground, barking like crazy.

Maya turned to glare at the coon.

"Hey! You really wanna play like that?" she asked before she reached down to take the leash off the puppy "Go fetch."

Rachel pointed and laughed at the puppy as the leash made it do a backflip.

"Heeheehee, stupid doggy caught on leash! Nyah nyah nyah-naaaa-naaaa!" However, her laughter ended sharply as Mirror took off the leash and Angua charged her, barking furiously.

"Ah...oh..."

EEEEEEEEEEEE!

Rachel chittered hysterically (#2), running wildly as the puppy nipped at the tip of tail. Over bushes, through the dirt, around other students, the wrath of the Dastardly Dog followed the Radical Raccoon everywhere she went.

Desperately, Rachel ran for a tree and leaped for a branch. The branch she grabbed was rather dead, and leafless. It also couldn't support her weight

SNAP

"EEEE!" Rachel flipped in midair and rolled on the ground. Quickly, she got up and brandished the stick like a sword. The puppy stopped barking and skidded to a halt.

"Back! Stay back!" Rachel hissed and waved the stick. Oddly, the puppy didn't back away. Instead, it started to wag its tail happily, its head moving side to side as it followed the stick being swung by the raccoon. Rachel blinked and looked at the stick, then at the dog.

"Doggy like stick?" Rachel asked, waving the stick again. Angua barked and jumped into the air. A slow smirk crept up on the 'coon girl's face.

"GO FETCH!" Rachel shouted and threw the stick as far as she could in the opposite direction. Angua bolted after it, barking loudly. Rachel snickered and scampered back to Mirror and Elizabeth.

ARF ARF!

Rachel stopped, halfway to Mirror and Liz, when she turned around to see Angua staring up at her, tail wagging, stick dropped at the raccoon's feet paws.

ARF!

Rachled sighed and threw the stick again, trying to scamper back to her destination. This process happened twice more on her way over to the other two girls. Finally, after the 5th throw, Rachel zipped up next to Mirror and glared.

"Why you let doggy go! He started it! He pee-peed over my trees! MY TREES! MINE! Then he attacked me, stole my bandanna, and bit my tail!" Rachel held up her fluffy ringed tail, petting it obsessively. "I only flick puppy tail back to get even! HRMPH!" Rachel let out an annoyed chitter and stamped her little feet paws, waiting for what she hoped was an apology. Little did she see the puppy running back to her from behind, the stick in mouth.

And then the dog went after Rachel, or at least tried to. Then Maya glared and removed the restraining device from Angua, uttering a single command. The dog became a blur as it ran to the raccoon girl. Liz just watched the whole scene, a small chortle building up in her. As the two furred creatures ran off, Liz moved closer to Maya. “I wonder what that girl has against animals,” she remarked, thinking how Rachel had called Nico stupid and had called Angua the same thing during a taunt.

Elizabeth stood there, watching the events unfold over the lawn. It was quite entertaining. Rachel was just about the only person she’d ever known who could keep up and stay ahead of a hyperactive puppy. She watched the girl run from the dog, fail at climbing a tree, and then distract the dog by playing fetch while she ran back to the other two girls. Wow, Rachel was…words failed Elizabeth at the time. Words failed Nico too, but he expressed his feelings toward Rachel by flapping his wings a few times and squawking in a slightly threatening manner.

Liz looked away for a moment in order to concentrate enough to launch a small spike of calmness at her bird. Nico’s feathers flattened as his mood changed. Satisfied with her handiwork, Liz tuned into Rachel’s explanation. So…the puppy marked Rachel’s territory, assaulted her and then mugged her, then attacked her again? Still, the pup didn’t deserve physical abuse. Puppies didn’t know any better! Besides, raccoons and dogs were sworn enemies, it was only natural that Angua would do those things.

“Maybe if you played with Angua she wouldn’t do anything to you again?” Liz suggested, ever the peacemaker.

By the time the chase ended Maya was laughing so hard she had to sit down to catch her breath. Shaking with laughter she wiped the tears away from her eyes when Rachel arrived back to them, Angua in tow.

>>"Why you let doggy go! He started it! He pee-peed over my trees! MY TREES! MINE! Then he attacked me, stole my bandanna, and bit my tail!"

"Your trees, huh?" she grinned, still panting from the laugh "Ya're tellin' me you peed over the trees too? Because I wouldn' be so proud of that..."

Angua arrived back, and seeing her packmate on the ground she pounced on Maya, busy licking her face and sniffing and making happy puppy noises. Maya laughed again, scratcing her ears and her sides, then picked up the stick and threw it. While Angua was away, she had a chance to get back to her feet.

"'tis all right I think she just wants to play with you, not hurt you." she agreed with Elizabeth, looking at the raccoon girl "And the trees are not yours, they are everyone's. Well, everyone's inside the Mansion, that is."

Rachel chirped annoyingly.

"I marked them first, so they're MY trees! You can use them, BUT NO MARKING!"

Rachel waggled a finger at Mirror, but then was suddenly pounced from behind by Angu, carrying the stick back.

"EEEE!"

Rachel went down, and chased the puppy in rapid circles around Liz and Mirror, 'coon-barking. After ten cycles, Rachel stopped and quickly turned around the other way. Angua, who was still running in a circle, collided straight into the crouching 'coon girl, and was picked up with four paws and vaulted into Mirror's arms.

Elizabeth laughed. Maya had a good point here. About the peeing on the trees thing. But then again, Rachel may not be the kind of person who got embarrassed over those kinds of things. She did look to be part raccoon. Another laugh broke loose as Rachel ignored the last thing Maya said and admitted to marking the trees. Liz really didn’t want to think about what “marking” consisted of.

She smiled when Angua returned from yet another toss and tackled Rachel, which soon turned into an impromptu game of tag. Elizabeth was nervous about being in the middle of the game, but she declined stepping out of it, for fear that she’d accidentally step on the dog, or worse, get ran over by the girl. She stood there with an “I can’t completely believe this is actually happening” look on her face. Nico shrieked and cawed a bit as he flapped off Beth’s shoulder, flying in tight circles six feet above her head.

Then the dog somehow started flying through the air at Maya. Liz’s eyes widened. This raccoon girl was unreal! The way she treated animals! The possessor was glad Nico was completely out of reach of the girl. She didn’t want him snagged then thrown all over the lawn like a badminton birdie. Nuh-uh. Liz moved away from the raccoon mutant for the third time. The hybrid was beginning to creep her out a little and made Liz worry about her parrot’s safety.

"Whadda... umpfh." Maya caught the dog and went down in a tumble of arms, feet, doggy paws and fur. Angua wiggled and barked, but was too surprised to actuallly free herself. Maya twisted around till she managed to sit up with her arms wrapped around the puppy.

"All right, that's it!" she declared, scratching Angua behind the ear to calm her down "No tossing puppies! Rachel, ya either play nice or..."

Or what?

"... ya'd better play nice. I'm tryin' to train this pup here not torture her. An' if ya wanna pee all over the mansion grounds, be my guest, but I can tell ya not everyone will be thrilled about it." she wrinkled her nose.

She watched the coon girl for a long moment, hen glanced at the girl with the parrot for support. She looked like the more reasonable one.

"Let's try the makin' friends thing, okay?" she suggested "So, Rachel here is obvious, but what about you? What's your speciality?"

Rachel chittered. She would have given herself a 9.5/10 for the puppy vault. It was right on target, perfect velocity, but the reaction wasn't the best. She hadn't meant to hurt the puppy...just push it up through the air into it's owners arms. No harm done right?

She crouched and scampered over to Maya, who was sitting down with her puppy. Leaning in, her nose almost touching Anguas, Rachel glared...then skritched Angua between the ears, her sharp 'coon nails making for wonderful skritchings. Her mirrored goggles reflected the joyful puppy eyes right back to their target.

"Hrmph. Fine, we make friends. Dastardly Dog will learn to respect the raccoon, yes yes!"

Elizabeth silently watched the exchange, as Maya weakly threatened Rachel to treat her dog better. She noticed how Maya was scratching the dog, possibly in attempts to make Angua feel better. Let’s see if I can do anything about that. While Rachel and Maya weren’t looking at her, Liz took the chance to send a little trickle of happiness to the dog. Not much, since the dog seemed to get very happy very easily, but enough to make sure that she was okay.

She returned attention to Maya and Rachel. At that moment, Rachel was scratching Angua’s head, offering friendship to the pup, albeit a one-sided friendship with all the work on Angua’s side. Liz smiled at the way Rachel seemed to work. Her mutation seemed to have blessed her with all the characteristics of a raccoon, including the ever-scheming and conniving little prankster parts. It would be…interesting, to say the least, to have Rachel around the mansion.

And then Maya suggested making friends, and after remarking on how Rachel was obvious, asked her specialty. Does she mean my power? Or like a skill or something? Since she was at a mutant school and the only thing obvious about Rachel was her mutation, Liz decided that Maya was asking about the former. She winced inwardly. “I’m an animal empath,” she informed the girl. That sounded much better than saying “I can sense and control the thoughts of animals”. She also happened to neglect mentioning her other ability. But that would sound a bit weird, what with her having a pet and all. She didn’t know how Maya or Rachel would react to that so it was better left unsaid.

“What about you?” she asked, directing her question to Maya. It would’ve been rather humorous if her power had something to do with animals, as her own powers and Rachel’s seemed to.