Shooting Star

Chapter 5

Jessica Underwood had a simple, pleasant, and accomplished life that was well deserved. At age 21, she was going to college with goals to be a veterinarian. The young woman had many friends, and was well respected by all of her peers. Strict but kind, Jessica was well suited for a powerful leadership position, and was president of an honor's society for disadvantaged students. Students wanted to be her, but many also wanted to be with her. However, Jessica's heart belonged to only one person: a student named Minako Zen, a Japanese exchange student who was studying abroad. Minako was blunt and straightforward, and maybe a little shy, but responsible and compassionate. Jessica had fallen for her at first glance, but there was a problem– while Jessica had been living as an out and proud pansexual since high school, she didn't know whether Minako was attracted to women. However, when she found out Minako was a lesbian, Jessica had plans to ask her out on a date.

That day was supposed to be a happy day. Jessica already had everything set. The location where she'd suggest it. The text that she had sent Minako telling her where to go. The prayers she had in her heart for her love to accept her feelings. That was the only true thing Jessica worried about. However, when she made it to the beach where she was meeting her, Jessica instead found Bonnie Umali with three other scientists from the Hyena Labs, capturing Minako. When the doctor spotted Jessica, Bonnie instructed the scientists to put Minako in the van while she went after her date; they weren't planning on capturing two people, but Jessica was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The pink haired woman flinched and tried to flee as fast as she could, but Bonnie caught up to her with a needle in hand. Jessica Underwood's simple life had ended right then and there.

Jessica only saw Minako again after they left the separate camps they were confined to; during the time they were apart, she was given a new name by the Hyena Lab scientists– "Kitten"– mainly because she began to grow claws, whiskers, cat ears, and a tail as a result of her Lock Drug, CATLock_54. Likewise, Minako was referred to as "Frost" because of the permafrost that remained on her skin; she was the wielder of SNOWLock_35. Frost noticed how different Jessica was compared to when they were students, both in appearance and personality: the normally strong-willed woman, after she was released from the camps, was now scared and brainwashed into devotion. All she thought about besides her desire to protect Frost was her strong, unyielding urge to satisfy the army with her missions, no matter what. It wasn't her fault; Kitten was one of many soldiers that turned out this way after training, and God only knows what traumas she witnessed during her captivity. Wolverine Army forces their soldiers to become this way. But miraculously, Frost never changed, only pretending to have been successfully brainwashed by the army so that she could stay with Jessica. Her time in the camps and the end result of the soldiers there gave her the idea of replicating the successful candidates' mannerisms to perfection, which earned her... loosely defined "freedom."

Minako deeply loved Jessica, and never blamed her for what happened to both of them, and she even accepted Jessica's feelings to make her feel better about how they were captured. She truly was a kind girl, all the way to the end.

One day, General Wolverine struck Kitten after failing a mission for the first time, nearly killing her in the process. Frost walked in on it, and tried to save her. She used her Lock Drug's powers against Gregory, an offense impossible to come back from. Kitten woke up after a few minutes, and saw the love of her life being beheaded by Gregory with his axe while she stood upright. Maybe she was too delirious, but Jessica saw Minako's soul leave her body, the spirit seemingly horrified at the state of her own corpse, before the cat woman passed out again.

Frost was too weak to stop him, but her death saved Kitten's life. Gregory forgot all about Kitten's offense, focusing instead on finding a new candidate for SNOWLock_35 and coping with the fact that he had brutally murdered one of his best soldiers in a fit of rage. And even with this acknowledgement of his lapse of judgment, Gregory treated it as if he lost a valuable asset rather than a human being; he even stated that she deserved it. A new candidate has yet to be discovered for the Lock Drug, and its code number continues to rise to this day.