"No! Molli! I have to go back, I have to save my sister!" she cried.

The anima ignored her wails as he carried the small feline, getting further and further away from not just her sister but the bad anima that had her. She eventually gave up and sobbed into the shoulder of the canine that saved her.

In the dead of night, a pink tabby shot up in bed after muttering and thrashing in her sleep. She breathed heavy as if she had been running or struggling with her throat burning as if she had been screaming. It took several seconds for her to calm her breathing as she stared into the blackness of her room. 

'Not there...not there.' she repeated in her head. 

The blankets on her bed was perfect proof, it was a dream and she was safe. Her blankets were soft and comforting, with large pillows encompassing her like a nest...though some had been pushed away or clear off the bed. Even with this familiar and safe place, tears still formed in her eyes as the nightmare was still fresh in her mind

"Come on Amity, you can't keep letting this happen." she mumbled, rubbing one of her eyes to force the tears to stop.

The feline reached over to her side table with her one free hand to grab her phone from on its pink platform. It lit up upon separation from the charger, showing a mostly empty lockscreen with soft colors and curly numbers for the time.

2:24 am

"Dangit..." Amity said, dropping her hand to her lap. "Not again."

This was not abnormal for her to be woken from a nightmare but she did wish it would be closer to her actual alarm. She threw the sheets off and got out of bed, just as expected her feet met a discarded pillow on the floor. Amity kicked it aside and continued through the dark, phone in hand, toward the doorway.

'Another night, another nightmare' she thought tiredly. 'With no end in sight this time.'

Usually the nightmares continue on to the end where she is saved, but as of late they had been ending before then. Sometimes closer to the end and sometimes she's stuck seeing her sister's scared face from when they were captured.

She shook her head to erase that memory, not wanting to be reminded how unfair things had turned out. Instead the pink feline turned to the couch in her living room, the blanket she'd grabbed the night before still lay in a messy heap on the pale couch. Amity plopped down and covered herself up with it immediately. The soft embrace is much more comforting than her bed at this point in time.

Just like the night before Amity grabbed the remote from the nearby coffee table and switched on the TV. As expected a commercial popped up about some kind of car insurance the moment the screen lit up.

"Come on live TV, work your boring magic." she yawned.

She settled down into a laying position watching as the commercial played through and eventually returned to some sitcom. Usually things like this would be the last thing she'd watch as the humor tended to be forced and boring, but being bored to tears in the moment is a blessing she wanted.

…The Next Day…

She didn't even remember falling asleep or waking up for that matter, but soon Amity found herself in one of those taxi app cars. The buildings and cars zoomed by in a blurr as they drove through town toward her work. Amity rubbed her temple and sat patiently to mentally prepare herself for a day she wish had been optional.

Thankfully when they arrived she had managed to wake up enough to put on a smile. "Thank you so much." she said to the driver.

"No problem, miss. Have a good day." he said, amused by the mood shift.

"You too." Amity replied, waving as he drove away.

Behind her, blocking out the early spring sun was the large looming building that belonged to none other than GPAT. With a white body and yellow accents that accentuated the sharp corners and almost shield-like shape of the building. This building housed not only offices, but bunks for the different special forces that make up the organization.

Vehicles, weaponry, and more were also stored on sight but elsewhere, away from the lower ranks such as herself. She looked out at the woodland encompassing the building and walkway. Revealing the mark of the very edge of town.

'Hence why the ride was so expensive.' she thought, annoyed.

Amity headed up the steps to the main door to the building, putting her sudden complaints aside as she was about to head into work at such a respected organization. One that has saved so many lives and continues to do so every day.

'...just too tired to be enthusiastic at this point.' she thought.

Amity grabbed her temple, her head hurting from the multiple nights of little to no sleep, and opened the door. The bright fluorescent light of the main entrance hall hurt her eyes but thankfully not nearly as much as the sun outside did. A single thought could be heard while all others were just a buzz in the background like the electricity running through the lights.

There, annoying, but not too big a deal.

"Hiya Amity!" the perky voice of those thought's owner sounded from ahead. "Welcome back!"

Sitting at the one front desk in the hall was a golden retriever and just as expected he was friendly with a very upbeat attitude. A stereotype for sure but Amity has yet to meet one who strayed from such stereotyping. 

This particular golden retriever has worked at GPAT for as long as Amity could recall, he had been there at least since before she began working there. He would greet her every time she would come into work and like his demeanor his thoughts seemed to be consistantly full of sunshine as well. Even when she tried to not listen to them, their hum in the background was pleasant to have even on bad days.

Amity smiled at him, trying to mirror his enthusiasm. "Hi Georgie, how are you?"

'Please let this be convincing.' she thought.

"Eh, can't complain. How about you?" he asked, tone shifting to more concern. "You've been called in a lot this week."

"Just fine, I'm happy to be useful." Amity answered happily.

Georgie gave Amity a look, obviously skeptical. "That's a good way to see it...I guess."

'Shoot. Shoot. Shoot.' Amity thought.

She could've sworn that she had nailed down a happy morning anima act. It usually worked, so how come Georgie wasn't buying it this time?

"No other way to see it, in my opinion." she replied. "I like what I do."

Before he could respond, Amity finished signing herself in, trying to avoid his well placed concern and possible lecture. "Speaking of, I don't have time to chit chat, so I'm gonna have to catch you later!"

The golden retriever frowned as Amity rushed through signing in and walked quickly past the desk toward the doors. All the while wearing her phony smile and trying to avoid him asking any further.

"Alright..." he sighed, giving up. "Have a nice day then."

"Thanks, you too!" she replied without turning around.

"And don't overwork yourself."

His words touched a nerve as the pink feline stiffened, she slowed down but did not stop. Wondering if she should respond or not. 'Was that a thought or did he say that out loud?' She wondered.

Stopping just beside the doors that lead further into the building, Amity peered over her shoulder at him. Georgie had his back turned to her and was slouched as he worked on something on his computer. Unlike when Amity had entered the building he seemed much more glum now but also didn't seem to have said anything.

'I'll do better.' Amity thought. 'I won't let anybody else worry about me today.'

Amity took a deep breath and did her best to not just channel a happy mood but a more normal mood. Being overly happy was a dead giveaway, so when she opened the door to offices she kept a more relaxed smile.

A smile that wavered as the buzz in the background immediately turned into a loud crowd of noise that assaulted her head. She grabbed her head, cursing herself for forgetting how the GPAT building operated with some strange material that blocked the psychic powers of civilians or potential enemies.

Amity reached into her purse for headphones. 'I need music...I need to drown these out.' she thought desperately.

As a precaution Amity always carried headphones around to listen to music, as the noise directly in her ears would drown out unwanted thoughts. Especially on bad days such as today, however her fur began stand up in horror as her hands grabbed mints and not the wireless casing that was her earbuds. Reminding her of a great mistake she had made.

'They're still on the charger back home.'

Her ears flattened and she felt like crying, the noise...well noise to her was deafening and stressful, but she knew she couldn't just turn around and go home to get them. 

She shook her head, instead grabbing one of the fuzzy keychains she had stuck to her pastel bag. The faux fur was nice on her fingers as she manually pushed the outside thoughts away and began walking again, barely able to calm herself down.

"Goodmorning Amity!" someone greeted as they passed her on their way to a staircase.

'Unaware. Good.'

"Goodmorning." Amity responded with a forced smile.

'Still loud though.'

The intersection was a large room that opened up with a lot of desks for non soldiers to work comfortably. However it wasn't just desk jockeys here but also soldiers who would be passing through for one reason or another. They worked together to keep the place running and to make sure there was always plenty of support within the base as well as out in the field.

Amity looked around, greeting those who spoke to her with a smile. Thankfully this time around, nobody could see or sense anything was amiss.

'Good.'

With her mind more at ease knowing she was doing much better staying composed she headed to the stairs and wove through the desks. Heading for a familiar face, granted this would lead to another callout on her tired state but that didn't matter. After all, they were both working AND she didn't have the authority to send Ami ty home no matter how concerned she was.

Amity smiled, her triumph ending up half baked as her head throbbed with pain again.

"Scarlett!" she announced.

'Ow.' the pink cat winced at her own voice. 'Why so loud?'

The raven at the desk before her looked up in surprise, the movement fast and jerky. As if she'd been deep in thought over whatever she was working on.

"Amity?" she said, surprised. "You're already here?"

Amity looked down at the file that Scarlett had been engrossed in, but couldn't catch a clear view of it as the raven casually covered it with another paper that was in her hand. The pink feline smiled shyly, embarrassed at her curiosity being caught.

"I thought you'd just woken up." Scarlett said, ignoring it.

"N...nope! Just takes me a while to wake up," she responded. "Soo, what'd you call me for anyway?"

Scarlett made a face but didn’t pry. "Alright..." she said as she got up. "I'll tell you on the way, come on."

She got up from her desk, gesturing for Amity to follow her. Without question Amity did, allowing her friend to continue with an explanation uninterrupted. "You remember how I said on the phone that we captured some criminals, right?"

"Mhm." Amity nodded. "But I'm confused why GPAT is dealing with some run of the mill thugs? Don't you guys deal with...like universal threats or something?"

"You already know the answer to that one." the raven replied. "Anyway, these aren't normal thugs as we believe they are working with the Syndicate."

"For real?!" she exclaimed. "Those guys are bad news."

Scarlett nodded. "Some civilians mentioned a few figures with them that match the anima that GPAT knows is in the Syndicate. We've been after them for quite a while now."

"But how do you know they're working together? Sightings don't really mean much." Amity said, a little skeptical.

"That's what the interrogation is for." she sighed, the raven having less patience than usual.

Amity blinked in surprise at such a snippy response, here she was the tired one and her friend is the one with a short fuse. She looked at the raven, wanting to ask what was wrong or...maybe Amity could look into her thoughts?

'A quick glance won't hurt.' she thought.

'I'm not mad, please get out of my head Ami.'

Amity found her face growing warm as she immediately pulled her focus out of Scarlett's thoughts, embarrassed at her predictability. She looked at Scarlett to gleam her expression but the raven was facing forward and quickly outpacing her. This made the pink feline unable to read her expression and to feel awful about the intrusion.

"I'm sorry." she mumbled as she followed.

Scarlett either ignored it or didn't hear it as she continued their conversation from before. "The interrogation oughta give us insights if they are with the Syndicate or not. However criminals lie, so we need you to make sure what we get is the truth."

She tapped the screen of the ipad in her arms and slowed down enough to hand it to Amity. "This is who you'll be reading the mind of."

On the screen was what looked like a file of an anima, zoomed in on a mug shot of a sandy brown canine. Barely peeking into the screen off to the side was the name, birthdate, and other information on the shady looking anima in question. Amity zoomed out a bit and moved the focus to his crimes. Wondering if they could give more insight into being able to tell if he was even capable of helping such evil anima.

The feline pursed her lips as the crimes he had been caught for ranged from petty theft -not really that bad- to attempt of murder. Making it more likely he would be willing to be in cahoots with the Syndicate.

Scarlett swiped the screen in the middle of her review and up came a picture of that same canine with a raven and a wolf. Both wearing colors that the Syndicate had been associated with along with the symbol, the raven wore camo cargo pants much like you would see a soldier wearing but then his jacket and gloves looked much more out of place. Sleeveless jacket that hung like a cape and fingerless gloves that reached over halfway up his arms.

'Talk about an emo teen.' Amity thought, making a face.

The wolf was dressed more discreetly with ripped jeans and a red shirt, however he had the symbol as an earring. WHich was mostly concealed by fur, making it almost invisible unless you focused on it hard enough.

"That raven in particular, we've got pictures of him." Scarlett explained. "And that's all I can say on the matter, we just need you to find out why he is here....since we can always figure out the why when he's captured."

"Hm...That explains why he doesn't seem to care about flashing that symbol so openly." she replied, it was obscured but large on his back. "I'll do my best."

It was at that point that the two had arrived at the interrogation room, Scarlett held the door open to Allow Amity entrance before following her inside. A large glass window was on the wall of the mostly blank room with the same tiled flooring as the rest of the building and a cream wall that could be seen in an office building. On the other side of the window was the actual interrogation room, a dull cube of gray with no windows.